CQC Policies and Procedures List: What You Must Submit for Registration (and What to Keep Ready)

When preparing your CQC policies and procedures for a new provider registration application, the Care Quality Commission divides your paperwork into three strict tiers: (1) core supporting documents that every applicant must submit upfront, (2) extra service-specific documents required upfront for sectors such as domiciliary care, supported living, and specialist learning disability or autism services, and (3) operational policies you must not email with your initial application but must keep ready for your inspector on request. Sending an incomplete document bundle or unadapted, generic policy templates will cause CQC to reject your entire application—and because resubmissions count as brand-new applications, you will lose your place in the registration queue.

This guide is written for new care providers, Nominated Individuals, and Registered Managers across England who want a verified checklist of what to submit and what to hold on file following the CQC’s 15 June and 10 August 2026 supporting-documents updates. Whether you are working step by step through how to register with CQC, or seeking specialist CQC compliance consultancy and registration support, the tables and checklists below map every required document directly to the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

In this guide

• Which core CQC registration policies and procedures must every new provider send upfront?
• What extra CQC policies and procedures for domiciliary care and supported living are required upfront?
• Which additional policies are required for services supporting autistic people and people with a learning disability?
• Which CQC compliance policies and procedures must you NOT send upfront—but keep ready for the inspector?
• Why do off-the-shelf template policy packs fail CQC validation and interviews?
• How do you structure version control and map policies to Regulations 9–20A and the Single Assessment Framework?
• Pre-submission CQC policy and supporting document audit checklist
• Frequently asked questions

Which core CQC registration policies and procedures must every new provider send upfront?

Under the CQC’s core supporting-documents rules for new provider applicants (updated 10 August 2026), every applicant must submit ten mandatory governance and clinical documents alongside their completed provider application form, plus up to two conditional documents depending on their premises and service type. CQC must receive your completed provider application form, any related Registered Manager applications, and all required supporting documents at the same time via hsca_applications@cqc.org.uk (or HSCA_Events@cqc.org.uk if applying in relation to the change to the regulated activity of treatment of disease, disorder or injury (TDDI) carried out at events). Note also that from 17 August 2026, ambulance services must send sector-specific additional documents with their applications.

Who is exempt from sending the CQC financial viability statement?

While CQC requires most independent healthcare applicants to submit a formal financial viability statement signed by an accountant, CQC’s official guidance explicitly exempts five categories of provider from sending this document:

• A home care (domiciliary care) agency
• A supported living service (SLS)
• A care home
• A corporate provider
• An NHS trust

Home care agencies and supported living services do not send the accountant’s letter, but they must send a business plan and financial forecast upfront as one of their service-specific documents (see below).

What extra CQC policies and procedures for domiciliary care and supported living are required upfront?

On 15 June 2026, the CQC updated its service-specific supporting document checklists for both home care agencies and supported living services applying to carry on the regulated activity of Personal care. When preparing your cqc policies and procedures for domiciliary care or your cqc policies and procedures for supported living, sending only the ten core documents above will trigger an immediate validation rejection.

In addition to the core documents that everyone must send, your cqc domiciliary care supporting documents and supported living submission bundle must include five extra items upfront:

Fifth, both home care agencies and supported living services must download, complete, and attach the official Additional information for providers of personal care form (.docx) from the CQC provider application forms page. For supported living applicants, CQC assessors scrutinise this form alongside your Service User Guide to verify true regulatory separation between accommodation and personal care—ensuring tenants hold genuine security of tenure and freedom to choose their care provider rather than operating as an unregistered care home.

If you plan to provide both domiciliary care and supported living—or additional regulated activities such as Treatment of disease, disorder or injury (TDDI)—CQC requires you to submit every document needed for each service type and reflect all services accurately across your policies and Statement of Purpose. Under CQC’s 25 August 2026 form rules, the main New Provider Registration Application Form only has space for 1 location, 1 nominated individual, and 2 partners; if your organisation exceeds any of those numbers, you must also attach the corresponding Additional Location, Additional Nominated Individual, or Additional Partner form.

Which additional policies are required for services supporting autistic people and people with a learning disability?

If your residential care home, domiciliary care agency, or supported living service intends to support autistic people or people with a learning disability—including ticking this service user band on your application form or Statement of Purpose even if you do not view yourself as a “specialist” provider—CQC mandates three further upfront submissions:

• Positive behaviour support (PBS) policy: Must explain how your service understands behaviour that challenges as a form of communication, conducts functional behaviour assessments, prioritises proactive environmental and communication adjustments, and upholds STOMP/STAMP principles (stopping the over-medication of people with a learning disability, autism, or both with psychotropic medicines).
• Restraint policy: Even if your agency operates a “hands-off” philosophy, CQC requires a dedicated Restraint Policy aligned with Regulation 13(4)(b), the Mental Capacity Act 2005, and Restraint Reduction Network (RRN) Training Standards. It must define all forms of restrictive practice (physical, mechanical, chemical, environmental, and seclusion), state how staff use least-restrictive de-escalation, and set out mandatory post-incident debriefing and governance review.
• Additional form for providers of services for autistic people and people with a learning disability: This mandatory supplementary Word form requires you to evidence how your model of care complies with CQC’s statutory guidance Right support, right care, right culture—proving your service maximises choice, independence, small-scale community inclusion, and human rights.

Which CQC compliance policies and procedures must you NOT send upfront—but keep ready for the inspector?

One of the most important changes in the CQC’s June and August 2026 guidance is the explicit separation between upfront application attachments and inspector-requested evidence. For home care and supported living applications, CQC states clearly: “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.”

You must have the following nine cqc compliance policies and procedures and operational templates fully drafted, tailored to your service, and ready to send promptly if your CQC registration inspector asks for them:

1. Duty of candour policy (Regulation 20): Setting out your statutory duty to be open and transparent when a notifiable safety incident occurs, including the exact thresholds for moderate/severe harm or prolonged psychological harm, an apology and notification in person as soon as reasonably practicable, the follow-up written notification, and investigation records.
2. Freedom to speak up / Whistleblowing / Confidential reporting policy (Regulation 17 & Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998): Explaining how staff can raise safety or malpractice concerns internally without fear of detriment, naming internal leads, and providing direct external escalation routes to the CQC, local authority safeguarding teams, and Protect.
3. List of risk assessments (Regulation 12): Your master register of service-level and individual risk assessments, covering lone working, staff safety in community visits, fire safety, COSHH, moving and handling, falls, choking, pressure area care, and infection control.
4. Person-centred care planning policy (PCCPP) (Regulation 9): Detailing how pre-admission assessments are conducted, how care plans are co-produced with the person and their family or advocate, how personal preferences and cultural needs are captured, and how plans are reviewed.
5. Reportable incidents policy (Registration Regulations 16 & 18): Defining internal accident and near-miss reporting alongside mandatory external notifications to the CQC (deaths, serious injuries, abuse allegations, police incidents) and RIDDOR reports to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
6. Risk management policy (Regulations 12 & 17): Explaining your overarching organisational risk register, likelihood-and-severity scoring matrix, and business continuity / emergency contingency plans for severe weather, IT outages, or sudden staffing shortages.
7. Sample care contract (Registration Regulation 19): A complete exemplar of your terms and conditions for self-funding and commissioned clients, demonstrating full compliance with Consumer Rights Act 2015 transparency rules on fee rates, notice periods, and termination rights.
8. Sample care plan (Regulations 9 & 12): A realistic, fictionalised support plan and linked risk assessment created inside your actual paper or digital care management system, proving your documentation captures outcomes and specific staff instructions (“how to support me”) rather than generic task lists.
9. Staffing structure and rotas (Regulation 18): An organisational chart showing clear lines of accountability from the Nominated Individual and Registered Manager to senior carers and care workers, paired with a sample roster demonstrating safe staffing ratios, realistic travel time between home care visits, and continuity of care.

Why do off-the-shelf template policy packs fail CQC validation and interviews?

Buying a cheap, generic set of care quality commission policies and procedures online and emailing them straight to CQC is one of the fastest ways to have your application rejected. CQC states that every document must be unique and tailored to your business, and template packs usually fall short in three ways:

How do you structure version control and map policies to Regulations 9–20A and the Single Assessment Framework?

To pass both initial validation and your first post-registration assessment, your policy library should follow structured document control principles aligned with ISO 9001 quality management systems and verified through regular internal audit services. Every policy document should open with a standardised control header recording the Document Reference, Version Number, Effective Date, Next Review Date (at least every 12 months or immediately following legislative change), Policy Owner, and Director/Registered Manager sign-off.

Beneath the control header, cross-reference each policy both to the relevant Fundamental Standards (Regulations 9 to 20A of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014) and to the 34 Quality Statements of the CQC Single Assessment Framework (SAF). Under the SAF, CQC scores providers across four evidence scale ratings using six evidence categories—and your policies, procedures, and governance audits sit directly inside the Processes evidence category.

Pre-submission CQC policy and supporting document audit checklist

Before compressing your files and emailing hsca_applications@cqc.org.uk, run your application pack through this pre-audit verification checklist:

• Exact legal entity match: The provider name, Companies House number, and registered address on every policy, your Statement of Purpose, your insurance quote/certificate, and your occupancy agreement match your main CQC application form character for character.
• Zero placeholder text: Every policy has been searched for square brackets ([ ]), “insert here” prompts, and generic references, and includes your local authority Safeguarding Adults Board contact details, local ICB details, and named organisational leads.
• Medication transport explicitly covered: Your Medicines Management Policy includes a dedicated procedure for the safe transportation and handover of patient medication in line with CQC’s core document specification.
• Upfront vs keep-ready separation observed: Your email attachment bundle contains all 10 core documents plus your mandatory service-specific extras (such as the 5 domiciliary care/supported living extras and learning disability/autism forms), while the 9 “do not send upfront” documents are saved in an indexed folder ready for inspector request.
• 25MB email limit and ZIP rules checked: Your total attachment size per email does not exceed 25MB, and if split across multiple ZIP archives, each email subject line follows CQC’s mandatory numbering format.

Frequently asked questions

Can I buy a template policy pack for CQC registration?

You can use a professionally drafted compliance framework as a starting point, but you must never submit an unedited off-the-shelf template pack. CQC registration assessors check that every policy is bespoke to your exact regulated activities, service user bands, digital care systems, and local authority safeguarding pathways—and they will test the Registered Manager’s working knowledge of those procedures during the registration interview.

Do domiciliary care and supported living agencies need to send a financial viability statement?

No. Under CQC’s supporting-documents guidance, home care (domiciliary care) agencies, supported living services (SLS), care homes, corporate providers, and NHS trusts are exempt from submitting the accountant’s financial viability statement. Instead, domiciliary care and supported living applicants must submit a detailed business plan and financial forecast upfront with their application.

What happens if I forget one supporting document when emailing CQC?

CQC requires your completed provider application forms, any related Registered Manager applications, and all mandatory supporting documents to be submitted together at the same time. If even one required document is missing, incomplete, or incorrect, CQC will reject the entire application and you will have to resubmit—and because resubmissions count as new applications, you lose your original place in the queue.

How do I send my policies if the files are over 25MB?

The maximum email size CQC can receive at hsca_applications@cqc.org.uk is 25MB. If your documents exceed 25MB, compress them into a ZIP file before attaching them. If the compressed ZIP file is still over 25MB, split your documents across two or more ZIP files and send each in a separate email, stating the provider name, application type, and email sequence number in the subject line (for example: Oxtown Care Limited New Provider application 1/2 and Oxtown Care Limited New Provider application 2/2).

How often must CQC policies and procedures be reviewed?

CQC expects every document to show the date it was created and the date it will be reviewed. Regulation 17 (Good governance) does not set a fixed cycle, so most providers review each policy at least once every 12 months. You must also review and update relevant policies immediately whenever UK legislation changes, CQC updates its regulatory guidance, or a serious incident, safeguarding enquiry, or internal audit identifies a gap in your procedures.

Sources: Care Quality Commission – Supporting documents: all provider applicants (updated August 2026); CQC – Extra documents for home care (domiciliary care) agencies (updated June 2026); CQC – Extra documents for supported living services (updated June 2026); CQC – Provider application forms and submission rules (updated August 2026); Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 (legislation.gov.uk); Department of Health and Social Care – Health and Social Care Act 2008 Code of Practice on the prevention and control of infections (GOV.UK); BSI Group – BS EN ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems. Last checked: October 2026.