CQC Domiciliary Care Registration: Requirements and Checklist

A domiciliary care agency that carries on a regulated activity in England must be registered before delivering that activity. For many homecare agencies, the central regulated activity is Personal care, but the correct scope depends on what the service will actually do.

Registration is an assessment of a real, ready-to-operate service. Your legal provider, office location, leadership, workforce plan, policies and financial assumptions must fit together and show how care will be safe, reliable and person-centred in people's own homes.

1. Define the homecare service and regulated activities

Personal care includes defined assistance for people who cannot provide it for themselves because of age, illness or disability, delivered where they are living. Housing support, shopping or social support alone do not automatically amount to Personal care.

• Describe exactly which personal-care tasks staff will provide and to whom.
• Identify the age ranges, needs and service-user groups the agency can safely support.
• Check whether clinical services would require an additional activity such as Treatment of disease, disorder or injury.
• Make the application, statement of purpose, business plan and service-user guide use the same scope.

Start your CQC registration preparation with a clear plan →

2. Check the provider, office and registered manager requirements

• Confirm the individual, partnership or organisation that will legally carry on the service.
• Secure a suitable physical location from which care will be organised or managed.
• Hold valid evidence of legal occupancy and permission for the intended business use.
• Appoint a nominated individual if required for an organisational provider.
• Appoint a proposed registered manager with relevant management and homecare experience.
• Put governance, on-call, supervision and escalation arrangements in place before applying.

Read the CQC office and legal-occupancy requirements for home care agencies →

3. CQC registration documents checklist for domiciliary care

CQC's current service-specific guidance asks homecare agencies applying for Personal care only to submit extra evidence in addition to the documents required from every new provider.

• Business plan and financial forecast.
• Evidence of legal occupancy.
• Service-user guides suitable for the people the agency intends to support.
• Staff training plan linked to roles and service-user needs.
• The additional information form for providers of Personal care.
• Additional specialist evidence where supporting autistic people or people with a learning disability.

4. Show that visits can be delivered safely and reliably

• Model travel time, call duration, double-handed visits, evenings and weekends in staffing and finance plans.
• Explain assessment, care planning, consent, risk assessment and review processes.
• Set out medicines, safeguarding, missed-call, late-call and emergency procedures.
• Demonstrate safer recruitment, induction, competency, supervision and spot-check systems.
• Explain how electronic and paper records will remain confidential in offices and people's homes.
• Define audits, feedback, complaints and incident-learning arrangements.

5. Quality-check and submit only when ready

1. 1Download the latest provider, manager and additional personal-care forms.
2. 2Compare every legal name, activity, location, client group and leader across the pack.
3. 3Confirm the office, staff and systems are ready to begin providing the proposed service.
4. 4Practise explaining how the operating model will work on an ordinary day and during disruption.
5. 5Submit the complete provider and manager pack using CQC's current instructions.
6. 6Keep the exact submitted versions and respond promptly to assessment requests.