Guide
CQC said to strengthen your policies? What to check before you resubmit
You sent your application, and CQC’s email came back saying your policies and procedures are not where they need to be. It’s a common place to land, and CQC’s own guidance explains a lot about why it happens and what it looks for second time round.
This article covers where in the process this usually happens, what CQC says it checks in your documents, and a list of CQC’s own requirements you can read your email against. It’s general information, linked to CQC’s pages throughout. Your own email from CQC is the thing to follow first.
Rejected or refused? Check which one you have
These are two different outcomes, and they lead to different next steps.
Rejected (or returned) at the initial checks. CQC’s homecare guidance describes two steps of initial checks. Step 1 checks your forms and statement of purpose are complete and that all required documents were sent. Step 2 is a supporting documents review, checking documents are “complete”, “accurate”, “relevant to the service you are applying to provide” and “in line with our supporting documents requirements”. If they don’t meet these, CQC says it will reject your application and email you to explain why.
CQC’s how to apply page says you can correct and resend, “but this will count as a new application and will not keep its place in the queue”. CQC described the reasons for this approach when it changed the homecare process in 2025: a large number of applications were arriving with incomplete information.
Refused after assessment. If your application reached assessment and CQC proposes to refuse it, CQC’s outcome page says it sends a notice of proposal setting out its reasons. You have 28 calendar days to make representations, and you can appeal a final decision to the First-tier Tribunal. That route is different from a resubmission, and this article doesn’t cover it.
Most “strengthen your policies” emails relate to the first route: a rejection at the documents review.
What CQC says every document has to include
CQC’s supporting documents page lists the basics for every document:
- your business name
- the name of the person responsible for the policy
- the date it was created
- the date it will be reviewed
It also says every document has to be complete and relevant, contain no personal information about service users or members of the public, have “up to date references to legislation or guidance, with working links”, be consistent with your other policies, and be accessible to staff, the people using your service and their representatives.
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.”
These are quick to check, and easy to miss in a large pack. A broken link or a missing review date is the kind of thing a documents review picks up.
What CQC lists, policy by policy
CQC publishes a “what to include” page for each document. If your email names a particular policy, that page is the one to compare it against. Some points from those pages that home care packs often don’t cover:
Complaints. A named person with contact details for complaints, how long each stage takes, and how complaints about the registered manager are handled, including where the registered manager and nominated individual are the same person (source).
Safeguarding. The name, role and contact details of your safeguarding lead, including out-of-hours contacts; a clear process or flow chart; how allegations against managers are investigated impartially; your approach to restraint; and contact details for the local authority safeguarding team, which CQC says “must be in the same geographic region you are providing services in” (source).
Medicines. Levels of medicines support you offer; covert, PRN and controlled drugs; errors and omissions; staff competence; records. For home care, also how you’ll agree medicine storage with people in their homes, and your approach to STOMP and STAMP where applicable (source).
Infection prevention and control. For care in people’s homes, how you assess infection risks in domestic environments, how staff apply control measures there, and cleaning and waste in home settings (source).
Governance. An organisational structure chart that “accurately reflects your business and roles”, details of your audits, and how you’ll seek and act on feedback (source).
Recruitment. Each stage of recruitment, the checks at each stage, references, employment history checks, and your approach to sponsoring and employing overseas workers (source).
Consent. How you’ll apply the five principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, who assesses capacity and when, and how and when you’ll involve Powers of Attorney and legally appointed deputies (source).
Service user guides. What you do and don’t provide, how you charge, how you monitor calls so they happen on time, complaints, safeguarding and contract terms (source).
If you plan to be a specialist service for autistic people and people with a learning disability, each of these CQC pages also asks you to show how you’ve made the policy accessible to them.
Why “relevant to your service” matters so much
CQC publishes two example homecare applications. In the one CQC refused, the provider had bought policies online “but could not tell us about their content or how they applied to the agency”. In the one CQC registered, the applicant had bought policies, “reviewed and adapted these to the service and written others himself”, and could explain in detail how they applied.
So the question CQC is asking is not only “is there a policy?” but “is this policy about your agency?”. Generic names, service types you won’t provide, or procedures that don’t match your statement of purpose all work against that.
A list to read against your CQC email
Before resending, these are the points CQC itself names on its pages:
- Does your email say rejected (resend as a new application) or is it a notice of proposal (representations within CQC’s stated time)?
- Does every document carry the business name, responsible person, created date and review date?
- Are all links to legislation and guidance current and working?
- Is there any personal information about people or staff in any document?
- Do the policies match each other and your statement of purpose?
- For each policy named in the email, have you compared it with CQC’s “what to include” page for that document?
- Does anything describe a service type you won’t provide, such as residential care?
- Are the documents correctly labelled, as CQC’s final checks list asks?
FAQ
Does CQC tell you exactly what is wrong? CQC says it will email you “to explain why” when it rejects at the initial checks (source). How much detail it gives will vary.
Do I keep my place in the queue? No. CQC says a corrected application counts as a new one and does not keep its place (source).
Can I just use a different template pack? CQC’s guidance allows third-party templates but says they have to suit your service type (source), and its refused example shows what happens when an applicant can’t explain them.
Where OrCore fits
The OrCore policy pack interview asks fixed questions about how your agency actually runs: your safeguarding lead, your local authority team, how you’ll check call times, who handles complaints about the manager. Your answers go into draft policies that you 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.