CQC registration for domiciliary care agencies
Any agency that gives personal care to people in their own homes in England has to register with CQC before the first visit, with a registered manager in post. We prepare your applications, policies, business plan and interview from £1,495, and stay with you until CQC makes its decision.
If you give personal care at home, you need to register
Personal care is a regulated activity when it is given to people who cannot manage it for themselves because of old age, illness or disability, in the place where they are living. Providing it without registration is an offence under section 10 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008, so registration comes before your first client.
In law, personal care means physical help with eating or drinking, toileting, washing or bathing, dressing, oral care, or care of skin, hair and nails. It also covers prompting and supervising those tasks for someone who is unable to make that decision for themselves.
Read the legal definition (Regulated Activities Regulations 2014, Schedule 1)Live-in care
Registered the same way. If your carers live in and give personal care, you register for personal care from your office, exactly as you would for visiting care.
Nurses visiting homes
If registered nurses will carry out clinical treatment in people’s homes, you may also need treatment of disease, disorder or injury. We confirm the right activities on the free scoping call.
Needs CQC registration
- Help with washing, bathing or showering
- Help with dressing and undressing
- Help with toileting and continence
- Help with eating and drinking
- Oral care, and care of skin, hair and nails
- Prompting with supervision for someone who cannot decide for themselves
Not regulated on its own
- Companionship and sitting services with no personal care
- Cleaning, shopping and meal preparation with no personal care
- Introductory agencies with no ongoing role in directing the care
- Carers employed directly by the person or their family
Everything CQC asks a domiciliary care agency for
Written for your service, not a template pack. Stage 1 gets your application in. Stage 2 carries you through assessment and the interview.
Your application pack
Required from every provider
- Statement of Purpose
- Safeguarding policy and procedure
- Medicines management policy, including transporting medication
- Infection prevention and control policy
- Recruitment policy
- Complaints policy
- Consent policy and procedure
- Equality, diversity and human rights policy
- Governance and quality assurance policies
Extra for home care agencies
- Business plan and financial forecast
- Service user guide
- Staff training plan
- Positive behaviour support and restraint policies, where you support autistic people or people with a learning disability
- Provider and registered manager forms, plus the additional form for personal care, completed with you
Assessment, interview and follow-up
- Additional documents CQC may ask for during assessment, prepared and kept ready
- Registered manager interview question and answer pack
- Two-hour mock interview with written feedback
- Follow-up with CQC on your behalf until a decision is made
- Appeal support if your application is challenged
Where home care applications go wrong
The points CQC checks closely in a domiciliary care application, and what we make sure is in place before you submit.
Your office location
CQC registers the office your care is run from. Before you apply you need the lease and your landlord’s consent to run a CQC-registered service from it.
A registered manager ready for interview
The registered manager applies alongside the provider and is interviewed by CQC. Their DBS certificate must be less than 12 months old, or CQC returns the application.
A business plan that adds up
Home care agencies send a business plan and financial forecast. The staffing, hours and charges in it need to match the rest of your application.
Medicines in people’s homes
Your medicines policy has to cover how carers support people with medicines at home, including how medication is transported.
Learning disability and autism
If you will support autistic people or people with a learning disability, CQC also expects positive behaviour support and restraint policies, and a model that follows Right support, right care, right culture.
No financial viability statement
Domiciliary care agencies do not send CQC a financial viability statement. We make sure your application reflects that correctly.
Five steps from first call to certificate
Our part is fast. CQC’s assessment sets the overall timescale, and we stay with you through it.
Onboarding
We collect your provider, registered manager, service model and office details, and give you a checklist of the items only you can get.
Stage 1 pack
Your policies and application forms, written for your service, once your requirements are met.
Submission
We check everything and support the provider and registered manager applications through the CQC portal.
Stage 2 support
Requested documents, the interview pack, a two-hour mock interview and follow-up with CQC.
Decision
You receive your certificate of registration and can start taking clients.
One package, paid in two halves
Our fee covers both stages. The regulator’s fee and your set-up costs are separate, so budget for them too.
CQC registration package
Or pay in full and take 10% off.
Also budget for
Paid to others, not to us. CQC itself charges no application fee.
- CQC annual fee, charged once you are registered and based on the size of your service
- Public and employer’s liability insurance
- DBS checks for your registered manager and care staff
- ICO data protection fee
- Office rent and set-up
If CQC rejects or returns your application before it reaches an inspector, we fix it and resubmit at no extra cost, as many times as it takes. Subject to our terms and conditions.
Buy single documents instead
Domiciliary care policy set
The full set of home care policies, if you are writing the application yourself.
Business plan with financials
A two-year monthly forecast, market analysis and marketing plan.
Registered manager interview prep
Question and answer pack and a mock interview on its own.
Keep your policies current
CuraFlow Policies keeps your full library up to date with law and CQC changes once you are registered.
Domiciliary care registration questions
Do I need CQC registration to run a home care agency?
How long does CQC registration take for a domiciliary care agency?
How much does it cost to register a home care agency?
Do I need to hire care staff before I apply?
Can one person be the nominated individual and the registered manager?
What happens if CQC sends my application back?
Guides for domiciliary care providers
The words you will meet in your application
Ready to register your domiciliary care agency?
No obligation. We confirm the regulated activities you need, what you still have to get, and a realistic timeline.