Guide
CQC registration checklist: which policies a new domiciliary care agency sends
Search for “CQC policies for domiciliary care” and you’ll find large policy packs for sale. CQC’s own list for a new home care application is much shorter, and it splits documents into three groups: ones everyone sends, extra ones for home care, and ones you keep ready in case CQC asks.
This checklist follows CQC’s supporting documents guidance as it stood when we checked it on 30 October 2026. CQC changes these pages from time to time, so the page itself is the version to rely on.
Group 1: documents every provider sends
CQC’s all-providers list says all provider applicants send:
- [ ] Complaints policy
- [ ] Consent policy and procedure
- [ ] Equality, diversity and human rights policy
- [ ] Governance and quality assurance policies
- [ ] Infection prevention and control policy
- [ ] Medicines management and prescribing policy
- [ ] Public and employer liability insurance quote or certificate
- [ ] Recruitment policy
- [ ] Safeguarding policy and procedure
- [ ] Statement of purpose
- [ ] Building control final certificate (only if a location needs building regulations approval)
The same page says a home care (domiciliary care) agency does not send a financial viability statement.
Group 2: extra documents for home care
CQC’s home care page adds:
- [ ] Business plan and financial forecast
- [ ] Evidence of legal occupancy
- [ ] Service user guides
- [ ] Staff training plan
- [ ] The additional form for personal care providers (from CQC’s provider forms page)
If you plan to be a specialist service for autistic people and people with a learning disability, the same page adds:
- [ ] Positive behaviour support policy
- [ ] Restraint policy
- [ ] The additional form for providers of services for autistic people and people with a learning disability
If you also plan to provide supported living or another service type, CQC says to send all the documents for each service and cover everything you’re applying for in your documents.
Group 3: keep ready, but don’t send
This is the group many applicants miss. CQC’s home care page lists documents its inspectors “may need” and says: “Do not send these documents with your application. Keep them ready in case we request them. If you cannot provide them when asked, your application may be delayed.”
- [ ] Duty of candour policy
- [ ] Freedom to speak up / whistleblowing / confidential reporting policy
- [ ] List of risk assessments
- [ ] Person centred care planning policy
- [ ] Reportable incidents policy
- [ ] Risk management policy
- [ ] Sample care contract
- [ ] Sample care plan
- [ ] Staffing structure and rotas
CQC adds that it may request other documents if they’re relevant to your application.
What every document has to show
CQC’s guidance on what each document must include sets the same basics for all of them. Each document carries:
- [ ] your business name
- [ ] the name of the person responsible for the policy
- [ ] the date it was created
- [ ] the date it will be reviewed
And each one is, in CQC’s words: complete and relevant; free of personal information about service users or members of the public; up to date in its references to legislation or guidance, “with working links”; consistent with your other policies; and accessible to staff, people using the service and their representatives.
On templates, the same page says: “If you choose to use a third-party template, make sure it suits your service type. For example, a template for residential care will not work for home care applicants.”
Home care points inside each policy
CQC has a separate page for each document. A few points on them are specific to care in people’s homes:
| Document | What CQC’s page adds for home care or new agencies |
|---|---|
| Medicines management | How you’ll agree medicine storage with people in their homes; your approach to STOMP and STAMP where applicable |
| Infection prevention and control | Assessing infection risks in domestic environments; cleaning and waste in home settings |
| Safeguarding | Named safeguarding lead with out-of-hours contacts; your local authority safeguarding team in the area you serve |
| Complaints | A named complaints contact; how complaints about the registered manager are handled |
| Governance | An organisational structure chart that reflects your business |
| Service user guides | Charges, and how you monitor calls so they happen on time |
| Staff training plan | How you’ll meet the Care Certificate standards; training provider for each topic; refresher timings |
| Evidence of legal occupancy | Title register, tenancy or licence for your office, plus written landlord or lender permission if you don’t fully own it |
Things CQC says will get an application sent back
- Missing or incorrect forms or documents. CQC says it will reject the application, and a corrected one “will count as a new application and will not keep its place in the queue” (source).
- Applying before you’re ready. CQC’s homecare guidance asks you to apply once your DBS checks, premises and staff recruitment are in place, and to send everything at the same time (source).
- Confidential personal information about people who’ll use the service or your staff in the application. CQC’s new provider guidance says it will return any form that includes it.
- Not having legal occupancy evidence. CQC says that without it, “we will not be able to approve your application” (source).
Policies are only half of it
CQC’s example applications show the difference between having policies and knowing them. CQC refused an applicant who “could not tell us about their content or how they applied to the agency”, and registered one who had adapted bought policies and could explain them in detail.
FAQ
How many policies does a new home care agency send CQC? On CQC’s lists as of 30 October 2026: ten policies and documents for every provider (plus a building control certificate if needed), four extra documents and a form for home care, and two more policies and a form for specialist learning disability and autism services. Then nine to keep ready.
Do I send a statement of purpose? Yes, CQC lists it for every provider, and checks it is complete at its first step (source).
Do I send a business continuity plan? It isn’t on CQC’s home care lists as of 30 October 2026, though CQC says it may ask for other relevant documents.
Is the list the same for supported living? CQC’s supported living page lists the same extra documents and the same keep-ready list.
Where OrCore fits
The OrCore policy pack interview asks fixed questions about how your agency will run, then builds draft policies from your answers for you to check, edit and sign off. Start the policy pack interview.
About us. OrCore Compliance is independent of CQC. We are not part of CQC and CQC has not endorsed us. We’re also new, so we don’t have a track record or success figures to show you yet, and we won’t invent any. We use AI to help draft and check our master policy templates. Your answers fill them in, and you confirm every policy matches how your service really works before you use it. The interview on our site uses fixed questions and fixed answers written by the OrCore team. No AI reads or replies to what you type there.
This article gives general information from CQC and UK law, with a link for each point. It isn’t advice about your own service: CQC makes every registration decision, and for advice on your situation speak to your own specialist. OrCore offers registration support only, with no guarantee of outcome.