OrCore Compliance
CQC registration: drafting the policies that describe your service
If you are registering a health or social care service with CQC in England, your policies are one part of your application. OrCore Compliance helps you write your CQC policies from how you actually work.
Where OrCore fits in CQC registration
CQC's own guidance explains how registration works: What is registration?, Register as a provider and the documents everyone must send. CQC's list of documents for all provider applicants includes policies such as complaints, consent, safeguarding, recruitment and infection prevention and control, and a statement of purpose.
You apply to CQC yourself, and CQC makes its own decisions. OrCore covers one part: preparing draft policies from what you tell us about your business.
Some of our questions point to other organisations or articles for further reading, such as CQC's own guidance. This is called signposting. A listing is not an endorsement.
CQC says you need to register with it if you plan to provide a regulated activity in England. If you plan to offer services in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland too, CQC says you may have to register with the relevant regulator there as well (CQC: Register as a provider).
How OrCore Compliance works
- You answer fixed questions about your business on a screen. Most questions ask you to describe what you do in your own words.
- Your answers fill OrCore's master policies, so the drafts describe your service in your own terms.
- You read each draft policy, change anything that isn't right, and sign it off as your own. Nothing is final until you have.
A typical home care business answers about 618 questions. The exact number depends on your service, because questions that don't apply to you are left out. Allow around six to eight hours in total. Most people spread it over several sittings.
Stop and come back later
Your answers are saved after every question. When you start, you get a resume code, so you can stop at any time and carry on later on any device. Keep your code private, because anyone who has it can see and change your answers.
What OrCore does not do
OrCore does not give advice. The questions record what you tell us your business does. They don't tell you how to run your service, and they don't set any standard or figure. For advice about your own service, please speak to a qualified specialist of your choice.
No guarantee of registration. CQC makes its own decision on every application, and nobody can promise an outcome. Your policies are one part of your application, and you are responsible for checking that each one describes how your business really works.
Your answers and your privacy
We only ask about your business, never about the people you care for. Please don't enter health information, or details about people who use your service or about individual members of staff. Your answers are stored on OrCore's own server and aren't sent to any outside service. They're used only to prepare your draft policies. Read our privacy notice.