How to Register a Domiciliary Care or Supported Living Agency with the CQC: Step-by-Step Guide (2026)

If you are researching how to register with CQC for a new domiciliary care (home care) or supported living agency in England, you must complete six stages before you can legally deliver a regulated activity: confirm your regulated activities and legal entity, obtain a CQC-countersigned Enhanced DBS check, write your four-part Statement of Purpose, prepare your mandatory policies and supporting documents, submit your Provider and Registered Manager applications together at the same time, and pass validation plus the Fit Person Interview and Nominated Individual assessment.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) charges £0 upfront to submit a registration application, but the full preparation and assessment process typically takes 3 to 6 months—and incomplete or mismatched submissions are rejected back to the end of the queue. This guide puts the entire CQC registration process into one practical sequence. If you want hands-on help preparing your documentation and interviews, visit our CQC registration and compliance support hub.

Step 1: Do you need CQC registration, and which regulated activity applies?

When founders search how to register care agency with CQC or how to register supported living with CQC, the first rule to understand is that the CQC registers regulated activities listed in Schedule 1 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014—not company names or building types.

For almost every domiciliary care (home care) agency and supported living provider, the primary regulated activity is Personal care. Under Schedule 1, Personal care means physical assistance—or prompting together with supervision where the person cannot make the decision themselves—given to a person in connection with eating or drinking, toileting, washing or bathing, dressing, oral care, or the care of skin, hair and nails.

Step 2: How do you set up your legal entity, Nominated Individual and Registered Manager?

Before filling in any CQC forms, confirm how your provider entity is structured and who holds the two statutory leadership roles:

1. Provider legal entity: Most care startups register as an organisation (a UK limited company registered at Companies House), though you can also apply as a partnership or an individual sole trader. Every document—from your Companies House incorporation to your insurance quote and office lease—must show the exact same legal entity name.
2. Nominated Individual (NI): Every organisation must appoint one Nominated Individual to act as the main point of contact with the CQC and supervise how the regulated activity is managed across the business. Under Regulation 6, the Nominated Individual must be a director, manager or secretary of the organisation who is of good character and able to properly supervise the management of the carrying on of the regulated activity.
3. Registered Manager (RM): Whenever you register as an organisation, a partnership, or an individual who is not in day-to-day charge, you must appoint a Registered Manager for each regulated activity. Under Regulation 7 of the 2014 Regulations and official CQC manager guidance, the proposed Registered Manager must:
   • be of good character and physically and mentally able to perform the role (with reasonable adjustments where needed)
   • have the necessary qualifications, competence, skills and experience to manage the specific service (for domiciliary care and supported living, CQC notes that a Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Adult Care or equivalent strengthens the application)
   • provide a full work history from age 16 onwards and explain any employment gaps of more than 4 weeks
   • supply contact details for their GP and last employer

Providing false or misleading information on a Registered Manager application is an offence and carries a fine of up to £2,500. In a small single-location startup, the same qualified director can act as both the Nominated Individual and the Registered Manager, provided they have the clinical/care management experience and full-time capacity required.

Step 3: Why must you apply for a CQC-countersigned Enhanced DBS check first?

The single most common bottleneck in the CQC registration process is the criminal record check. You cannot simply attach an existing employer DBS certificate or give CQC a DBS Update Service login.

• Who needs a CQC-countersigned Enhanced DBS: Every individual provider applicant, partner, and proposed Registered Manager who is not a registered healthcare professional must obtain an Enhanced DBS check countersigned by the CQC (including the relevant adult and/or children’s barred list check for the service user groups you will support).
• Exception for registered healthcare professionals: If you are already registered with a professional healthcare regulator (GMC, NMC, GPhC or HCPC), you still need an Enhanced DBS check with the appropriate barred list information, but it does not need to be countersigned by the CQC. Even then, the CQC does not accept the online DBS Update Service—you must have the original paper certificate.
• 12-month validity rule: Your DBS certificate must have been issued within the past 12 months at the date you submit your registration application.
• Processing time: CQC warns that obtaining a CQC-countersigned DBS check can take up to 60 working days. Apply for your CQC-countersigned DBS on day one and use those 4 to 8 weeks to prepare your premises, Statement of Purpose and policies.

Notice that this leadership DBS check is separate from the ongoing pre-employment vetting you will run on care workers under Regulation 19 and Schedule 3—which operates much like BS 7858 screening in the regulated security sector.

Step 4: How do you write your CQC Statement of Purpose (Parts 1 to 4)?

Under Regulation 12 and Schedule 3 of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009, every applicant must submit a Statement of Purpose alongside their application forms. The CQC provides a four-part template that you must complete and merge into a single document:

• Part 1 — About the provider: Your full legal name, legal status (limited company, partnership or individual), Companies House or charity number, business address, and address for service of formal notices.
• Part 2 — Aims and objectives: What your service aims to achieve for service users and how you will uphold the CQC Fundamental Standards (person-centred care, dignity, consent, safety, safeguarding and governance). Avoid vague marketing slogans; state measurable outcomes for the people you support.
• Part 3 — About the location(s): For a domiciliary care or supported living service, your “location” is the physical office from which the regulated activity is managed and records are held. Part 3 must list the office address, description, regulated activities carried out from that location, service types (e.g. Domiciliary care service / Supported living service), and the exact service user bands you will support (such as older people, physical disability, dementia, sensory impairment, mental health, or learning disabilities and autistic spectrum disorder).
• Part 4 — Registered Manager(s): The manager’s full details, the percentage of working time they spend at the location, and the regulated activities they manage.

Critical validation rule: Every single detail in Parts 1 to 4—especially the locations, regulated activities, service types and service user bands—must match your main Provider and Registered Manager application forms word-for-word. If Part 3 of your Statement of Purpose ticks a service user band that you omitted on the main form (or vice versa), CQC will reject the entire application at validation.

Step 5: Which CQC supporting documents and policies must you submit?

Meeting CQC registration requirements means sending the exact supporting documents CQC specifies for your service type. Following CQC’s June and August 2026 updates to its supporting-documents guidance, registration paperwork is split into three distinct groups: (1) core documents every provider must send upfront, (2) extra upfront documents for home care and supported living, and (3) operational documents you must not send upfront, but must keep ready to send immediately if the inspector asks.

If you already operate an ISO 9001 quality management system or use formal health and safety compliance procedures, those controls can support your Regulation 17 governance and risk evidence—provided your policies are written specifically for regulated social care in England and not generic corporate templates.

Step 6: How to register with CQC by email and what does it cost?

Once your CQC-countersigned DBS certificate is in hand and every form and policy has been cross-checked, the practical step in how to register with CQC is submitting your CQC new provider application by email to hsca_applications@cqc.org.uk (unless you are applying specifically for TDDI at events, which uses HSCA_Events@cqc.org.uk).

Submission rules that prevent instant rejection

• Send everything at the same time: Your completed new provider application form, the related Registered Manager application form(s), the additional personal care form, and all required supporting documents must arrive together. The CQC states explicitly that if anything is missing or incorrect, it will reject the application and any resubmission counts as a brand-new application at the back of the queue.
• 25MB email size limit: The largest email CQC can receive is 25MB. Compress your supporting documents into a ZIP file before sending. If the compressed files still exceed 25MB, split them across two or more ZIP files sent in separate emails with numbered subject lines—for example: Oxtown Care Limited New Provider application 1/2 and Oxtown Care Limited New Provider application 2/2.

What does CQC registration cost?

• Upfront CQC application fee: £0. The CQC charges nothing to submit a new provider registration or a Registered Manager application.
• Annual CQC regulatory fee (once registered): Every registered provider pays an annual fee on their registration anniversary to cover initial registration, variations, monitoring, inspection and rating. Under the current CQC fees scheme for community social care (domiciliary care and supported living), the annual fee per location is calculated as:
  £239 + (number of service users × £54.305) (capped at £92,558 for 1,700 or more service users).
  For example, a new single-location domiciliary care agency supporting 0 service users at its first invoice pays the £239 base fee; an agency supporting 25 service users pays £1,596.63 per year; and an agency supporting 60 service users pays £3,497.30 per year.

Step 7: What happens during validation, the Fit Person Interview and assessment?

Understanding how to register with CQC also means preparing for what happens after your email arrives. Your application passes through two assessment stages:

1. Initial validation check: The registration team checks that all forms are complete, the CQC-countersigned DBS is valid (under 12 months old), the Statement of Purpose matches the forms, and every mandatory supporting document is attached and relevant.
2. Assessment and interviews: Once validated, a CQC registration inspector assesses your application against the Fundamental Standards (Regulations 9–20A) and the Single Assessment Framework (Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive, Well-led). This includes:
   • Fit Person Interview with the proposed Registered Manager (testing their practical understanding of safeguarding, medication, consent/Mental Capacity Act, Regulation 19 safe recruitment, complaints, Duty of Candour and statutory notifications)
   • Nominated Individual Discussion (testing governance, financial oversight and how the Nominated Individual supervises and supports the Registered Manager)
   • Site Visit Assessment or virtual inspection of your office premises and record-keeping systems where required

Running a structured mock interview and pre-assessment audit (similar to our internal audit services) before your 28-day window ensures both the Registered Manager and Nominated Individual can explain how your policies operate in practice.

How long does CQC registration take? Realistic week-by-week timeline

The CQC does not guarantee a fixed processing duration, stating that its registration assessment is rigorous and “can take a few months”. In practice, when you include pre-application DBS processing and document preparation, a well-prepared domiciliary care or supported living application typically takes 14 to 24 weeks (around 3.5 to 6 months) from day one to receiving your certificate.

Seven common mistakes that get CQC applications returned or refused

• 1. Submitting a standard DBS or Update Service check instead of a CQC-countersigned DBS: Unless the applicant is a GMC, NMC, GPhC or HCPC registrant, CQC automatically rejects applications without a CQC-countersigned Enhanced DBS issued within the last 12 months.
• 2. Mismatches between the Statement of Purpose and the application forms: Listing different service user bands, regulated activities, or office addresses across Part 3 of the Statement of Purpose and the main Provider form triggers a validation return.
• 3. Using unedited template policy packs: Leaving [Insert Company Name] placeholders, citing Care Home regulations inside a Domiciliary Care policy, or submitting policies the Registered Manager has never read is spotted rapidly during validation and interview.
• 4. Ticking every service user band “just in case”: Selecting specialist bands such as learning disabilities and autism, children, or mental health without submitting the mandatory PBS/restraint policies, specialist training plans and Right support, right care, right culture form causes major delays or refusal.
• 5. Forgetting the 4 extra domiciliary care / supported living documents: Sending only the core provider policies without your business plan and financial forecast, evidence of legal occupancy, service user guide, staff training plan and personal care additional form gets the whole submission rejected.
• 6. Unexplained gaps in the Registered Manager’s work history: Regulation 7 requires a complete employment history from age 16 onwards, with a written explanation for every gap over 4 weeks.
• 7. Missing the 28-day assessment window or 25MB email limit: Oversized attachments that bounce, or failing to agree Fit Person Interview dates within 28 days of CQC contact, can result in your application being returned to the start.

Frequently asked questions

How long does CQC registration take from start to finish?

While the CQC does not publish a fixed service-level guarantee, most new domiciliary care and supported living providers should plan for 3.5 to 6 months end to end. That includes 4 to 8 weeks (up to 60 working days) to receive your CQC-countersigned Enhanced DBS check before you can submit, followed by 8 to 16 weeks for validation, inspector assessment and the Fit Person Interview.

How much does the CQC charge to submit a registration application?

Nothing upfront. The CQC charges £0 to apply as a new provider or to register a manager. Once registered, you pay an annual regulatory fee on your registration anniversary—for community social care (domiciliary care and supported living), this is £239 plus £54.305 per service user per location.

Can I start trading while waiting for my CQC registration?

You cannot provide or manage any regulated activity (such as Personal care) until the CQC confirms in writing that you are registered. Doing so is a criminal offence under Section 10 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008. You may only offer non-regulated services such as domestic cleaning, shopping or companionship while waiting.

Do I need a CQC-countersigned DBS check if I am on the DBS Update Service?

Yes. The CQC does not accept the online DBS Update Service for registration applications. Individual providers, partners and proposed Registered Managers must hold an original paper Enhanced DBS certificate issued within the past 12 months (countersigned by CQC unless they are registered with the GMC, NMC, GPhC or HCPC).

Can one person be both the Nominated Individual and the Registered Manager?

Yes. In a small single-location limited company, the same director can act as both the Nominated Individual and the Registered Manager, provided they meet all Regulation 7 qualifications, experience and character requirements and have full-time capacity for day-to-day management.

What happens if CQC rejects or returns my application at validation?

If your application is incomplete, missing a required policy, or contains mismatched information, the CQC rejects it and does not hold your place in the queue. When you fix the errors and resubmit, your application enters the queue as a brand-new submission.

Sources: CQC: Register as a new provider; CQC: Provider application forms and submission rules; CQC: Supporting documents for all provider applicants (updated August 2026); CQC: Extra supporting documents for home care (domiciliary care) agencies (updated June 2026); CQC: Extra supporting documents for supported living services (updated June 2026); CQC: DBS checks for CQC registration; CQC: Statement of Purpose guidance; CQC: Register as a new manager (Regulation 7); CQC: Provider fees payable — care and community social care. Last checked: October 2026.