Statutory notification: A statutory notification is a formal report a registered provider is legally required to send CQC when certain events happen, such as a death, serious injury, allegation of abuse, or an event that stops the service running safely.
Notifications are separate from safeguarding referrals to the local authority and from reports to other bodies. Making one does not discharge the others, and providers regularly get caught assuming that telling the local authority was enough.
They are also separate from the duty of candour, which is about being open with the person affected. The same incident can trigger a notification, a safeguarding referral and the duty of candour at the same time, and each has its own timescale.
Late or missing notifications are treated seriously, partly on their own terms and partly because a pattern of them suggests the governance systems under Regulation 17 are not working.