From 9 February 2026, CQC has introduced important changes to registration requirements for domiciliary care (home care) agencies and supported living services in England. These changes are designed to accelerate the registration process by ensuring only complete, well-prepared applications are assessed, but they also significantly raise the bar for documentation and readiness from day one.
Below is a combined, practical overview of what new and existing providers for supported living and domiciliary care need to know and do.
1. Who These Changes Affect
- Home care (domiciliary care) agencies applying to provide Personal Care.
- Supported living services registering for Personal Care.
- Any provider offering (or planning to offer) specialist services for autistic people and/or people with a learning disability under either model.
- Providers applying for multiple regulated activities or service types (for example, domiciliary care plus supported living, or Personal Care plus Treatment of Disease, Disorder or Injury).
If you are applying for more than one regulated activity or service type, you must ensure your documents clearly and consistently cover each element you are applying for, not just domiciliary care or supported living in isolation.
2. Core Principle: Incomplete Applications Will Be Rejected
CQC will now routinely return or reject applications that are incomplete or inaccurate at the point of submission, without progressing to a full quality assessment.
This means:
- Missing documents will no longer result in prolonged clarification exchanges; instead, the application may be closed.
- Poorly labelled, inconsistent, or generic documents significantly increase the risk of refusal.
- Providers must be inspection-ready at registration stage, not “work in progress”.
For providers, this raises the importance of robust pre-submission checks and internal quality assurance of all registration documentation.
3. Extra Documents All Domiciliary Care and Supported Living Providers Must Submit
In addition to the standard documents that all providers must send (for example, Statement of Purpose, governance details, key policies, and fit and proper person information), both domiciliary care and supported living applicants must now submit the following:
- Business plan and financial forecast
- Demonstrates financial viability and sustainability.
- Should cover start-up costs, cashflow, projected income and expenditure, staffing costs, and contingency plans.
- Must align with the scale and scope of services described in the Statement of Purpose.
- Evidence of legal occupancy
- For supported living: leases, licences, or Heads of Agreement (HOAs) relating to the properties from which care will be delivered.
- For domiciliary care: leases or licences for the office/registered location, or other formal evidence of lawful occupancy.
- The documentation must clearly show you are permitted to use the premises for the intended purpose.
- Service user guides
- Clear, accessible information explaining what the service does, how to access support, rights and responsibilities, complaints routes, and how to give feedback.
- Should be tailored to the specific user group (e.g. older adults, people with a learning disability, autistic people, mental health needs).
- Ideally available in different formats to support communication needs.
- Staff training plan
- A structured plan, not just a list of courses.
- Must show how you will ensure staff complete the Care Certificate (where applicable), mandatory training (e.g. safeguarding, MCA, infection prevention and control), and any specialist training required for your client group.
- Should cover induction, ongoing refresher training, specialist modules, and how competence will be assessed and supervised.
These documents sit alongside, and must be consistent with, your Statement of Purpose, policies, risk management approach, and governance arrangements.
4. Extra Requirements for LD/Autism Specialist Services
If your domiciliary care or supported living service provides specialist services for autistic people and/or people with a learning disability, you must also submit:
- Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) policy
- Sets out your evidence-based approach to understanding and reducing behaviours of concern.
- Should include proactive (preventative) strategies, de‑escalation approaches, staff training expectations, and how you involve people and families in understanding behaviour.
- Must align with current best practice for supporting people with learning disabilities and autistic people.
- Restraint policy
- Covers all forms of restrictive practice (physical, mechanical, chemical, environmental, and seclusion-like practices).
- Must clearly set out:
- Your commitment to minimising and eliminating restrictive practices.
- Legal and ethical frameworks (including human rights, MCA, least restrictive principle).
- Requirements for staff training, authorisation, recording, review, and post-incident learning.
- Should show how you will monitor, trend, and reduce the use of restraint over time.
These documents are no longer optional “best practice” add-ons for LD/autism specialist services; they are explicit registration requirements for applications submitted on or after 9 February 2026.
5. Documents You Must Not Send Up Front, But Must Have Ready
For both domiciliary care and supported living applications, CQC has clarified that some documents should not be submitted with the application, but must be available quickly if requested by inspectors.
You must not upload these routinely with your application, but you must have them ready, up to date, and aligned with your overall governance framework:
- Duty of candour policy
- Freedom to speak up / Whistleblowing / Confidential reporting policy
- List of risk assessments (e.g. lone working, medication, manual handling, environmental, safeguarding, restrictive practice, fire safety)
- Person-centred care planning policy (often referred to as PCCPP)
- Reportable incidents policy (including RIDDOR, safeguarding, and notification requirements)
- Risk management policy
- Sample care contract
- Sample care plan
- Staffing structure and rotas
- Any other documents an inspector considers relevant to understanding your proposed service
If you cannot provide these promptly when requested, your application may be delayed or adversely viewed, as it suggests the service is not genuinely ready to operate.
6. Providers Applying for Multiple Service Types or Regulated Activities
Many providers now combine service models (for example, domiciliary care and supported living) or apply for additional regulated activities such as Treatment of Disease, Disorder or Injury (TDDI). Under the new approach:
- You must send all the required documents for each regulated activity and service type.
- Your Statement of Purpose and key documents must clearly differentiate how each service will operate, including:
- Different locations or premises.
- Different service user groups and needs.
- Different staffing models, training requirements, and risk profiles.
- Inconsistent or generic documentation that does not properly reflect the complexity of your application is a key risk for refusal.
A common pitfall is submitting a single, generic set of documents that does not fully address supported living (tenancy-based models) versus domiciliary care (visits into people’s own homes), or fails to reflect LD/autism specialism.
7. Practical Readiness Checklist for Providers
Before submitting a CQC registration application for domiciliary care or supported living from 9 February 2026, you should be able to answer “yes” to all the following:
- Regulated activity and service type clarity
- Have you correctly selected “Personal Care” as the regulated activity?
- Have you clearly defined whether you are a domiciliary care agency, supported living provider, or both?
- Business plan and financial forecast
- Do they demonstrate realistic, sustainable operation with appropriate staffing and contingency?
- Do they match the scope, size, and locations described in your Statement of Purpose?
- Legal occupancy evidence
- Do you hold valid leases, licences, or HOAs for the premises from which you will operate?
- Are these documents in the correct legal name of the provider entity or accompanied by clear documentation of arrangements?
- Service user guides
- Are they written in plain, accessible language and in formats suitable for your clients?
- Do they clearly explain what you will and will not provide, complaints processes, and rights?
- Staff training plan
- Is there a structured induction and ongoing training schedule covering mandatory, role-specific, and specialist training?
- Does it reflect your staffing model (for example, lone working, night support, complex care)?
- LD/autism specialist documents (if applicable)
- Are your PBS and restraint policies robust, evidence-based, and aligned with best practice for learning disability and autism?
- Do they link clearly to your training plan, risk management, and governance systems?
- Secondary documents ready (but not submitted)
- Are all key governance, safeguarding, risk, and contract documents finalised and available on request?
- Are they consistent with your application narrative and your proposed model of care?
8. Common Refusal Risks Under the New Approach
Under these tighter expectations, providers are particularly at risk of refusal or delay where they:
- Submit applications with missing required documents (e.g. no business plan, no legal occupancy evidence, no staff training plan).
- Use generic policies that do not reflect LD/autism specialist practice where this is claimed in the application.
- Provide weak or outdated PBS and restraint policies for LD/autism services.
- Cannot quickly provide secondary documents when requested (suggesting governance is not genuinely in place).
- Show mismatch between the Statement of Purpose, business plan, and staffing or premises arrangements.
- Attempt to register multiple service types with documents that only properly describe one.
Avoiding these pitfalls requires a disciplined, evidence‑based, and governance‑led approach to registration preparation.
9. What This Means for New and Existing Providers
For new providers, these changes mean you must design your governance, quality assurance, and financial planning systems before you apply, not afterwards. Registration is no longer simply a gateway; it is an early test of whether you are set up for safe, effective, well‑led care.
For existing providers expanding into new locations or service types, you must ensure your documentation is updated to reflect the new model, particularly where you are developing supported living schemes or specialist LD/autism services.
By approaching registration with an “inspection-ready from inception” mindset and ensuring all required documents are robust, coherent, and service‑specific, providers can significantly increase their chances of a smooth and successful CQC registration under the post‑9 February 2026 regime.
by: Godfrey Mushandu
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gmushandu
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/godfreymushandu/
