A lack of good quality care services is having a huge impact on families. Unco-ordinated, unreliable or poor quality care is stressful, puts families under increased pressure and can make them ill with worry; that’s on top of the profound effect it has on the person receiving the care.

Carers UK research shows that many people have given up work to care because they cannot always rely on services, in turn causing long-term financial insecurity.

Great care transforms lives. It helps people have a good quality of life and enables their families to stay in work and maintain a life outside of their caring role. Knowing that mum or dad is being well cared for really matters.

We need your help to improve the quality of care services in England. Carers UK is working with the health and care regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), to gather your experiences of poor quality care.

While the CQC doesn’t settle individual complaints, they will take the information you give, which can be anonymous, and deliver it to their inspection teams. This helps them decide when, where and what to inspect, and enables immediate action to be taken on serious matters.

From recent work carried out by Carers UK and CQC, 69 per cent of the feedback provided by carers was used in CQC inspections; in one in five cases, more urgent action was taken, for example an inspection was brought forward.

Please help us improve care quality. Tell us about your care experiences at www.cqc.org.uk/share-your-experience-finder or find out more at www.carersuk.org/cqc.

Helena Herklots, Chief executive, Carers UK.