How Often Should You Review a Client's Care Plan?

There's no single fixed interval written into law for every case. As an absolute minimum, CQC inspectors typically expect to see a review at least every 12 months. Many agencies set a shorter default — every 3 or 6 months — as good practice, especially in domiciliary care where a client's needs can shift quickly between visits.

Certain events should trigger an immediate review regardless of the scheduled date: a change in the client's health, mobility, or care needs; a hospital admission or discharge; a fall, medication error, safeguarding concern, or other significant incident; a request from the client or their family; a new or worsening risk (deteriorating skin integrity, increased confusion, a choking risk); or a change to the funded care package itself.

Under Regulation 9 (Person-centred care), CQC wants to see evidence that care plans are living documents rather than static paperwork completed once and filed away. That means timely, responsive reviews — not just calendar-driven ones — with the client (and family or advocate, where relevant) genuinely involved, and every review properly documented: date, who was involved, and what changed, or confirmation that nothing did.

Set a review date on every care plan with an automatic reminder before it's due, but train staff so that any significant change triggers an ad-hoc review straight away rather than waiting for the scheduled date. And always check your own agency's written policy and any commissioner contracts — some local authority or NHS contracts specify a shorter required interval than the general 12-month expectation.