Your CQC Registration Interview: How to Prepare as a New Home Care Agency

When you apply to register a home care agency, CQC assesses the company and the person who will manage the service day to day: the registered manager. As part of that assessment, CQC contacts the proposed manager to arrange an interview. It needs to be satisfied that they:

• are fit to be registered, and of good character
• have the right qualifications and experience for the service
• understand the laws and rules that apply to care, and know how to meet CQC's requirements
• can meet the specific needs of the people the agency will support
• are physically and mentally able to do the job, with reasonable adjustments if needed

It is not a test of whether you can recite the regulations. It is CQC checking that you know your own service and how you will keep people safe from the very first visit. Prepare for it as a conversation about your agency, not an exam.

CQC says it may interview you, as the provider, and your registered manager, by telephone, online or face to face. For a company, the provider is usually represented by its nominated individual: the director, manager or secretary the company names to supervise how the service is managed. In a small agency, the registered manager can sometimes take on this role too. For most new registrations, CQC also visits the premises.

CQC doesn't publish a set length for interviews, so allow plenty of time, plan a quiet room, and keep a copy of your application and your documents in front of you. If you are applying through CQC's new online service, the aims and objectives you wrote become part of your statement of purpose, so read them again first.

CQC will compare what you say with what you wrote. Before the interview, make sure you can explain in a sentence or two:

• who you will support (for example older people, people living with dementia, or people with a learning disability), and the experience you have of supporting them
• roughly how many people and how many hours of care you expect to start with, and in which area
• how you will recruit your first care workers, and how many you will need
• how visits will be planned, monitored and covered out of hours, including who is on call
• where your office is, and how records are kept secure
• how you will win your first work, whether from your council, the NHS or private clients

If anything has changed since you applied, say so and explain why. Details that don't match between your application, your statement of purpose and your answers are likely to lead to more questions.

Expect questions that check you understand the fundamental standards and can apply them to care in people's own homes. Read your own policy on each of these, and be ready to explain what you would actually do:

• Safeguarding (Regulation 13): recognising abuse and neglect, what you do the same day, when you refer to the council's safeguarding team, when you tell CQC, and how staff can raise concerns safely.
• Consent and the Mental Capacity Act 2005: the five principles, assessing capacity for a specific decision, best interests decisions, and what you would do if someone's care at home might amount to a deprivation of liberty. Outside care homes and hospitals, that needs authorisation from the Court of Protection, so you would raise it straight away with the council or NHS body that funds the person's care.
• Safe recruitment (Regulation 19 and Schedule 3): proof of identity with a recent photograph, an enhanced DBS check including the adults' barred list, evidence of conduct in previous care work and why it ended, relevant qualifications, a full employment history with any gaps explained in writing, and information about the person's health. Separately, immigration law requires right to work checks.
• Medicines (Regulation 12): the levels of support you will offer, medication administration records, what happens after an error, and NICE's guideline on managing medicines for adults receiving social care in the community.
• Staffing and visits (Regulation 18): matching care workers to visits, allowing for travel time, covering sickness, and spotting late or missed visits.
• Person-centred care (Regulation 9): how you assess needs, write care plans with the person, manage risks and review plans.
• Complaints (Regulation 16) and the duty of candour (Regulation 20): how you respond, investigate, apologise and learn.
• Notifications: the events you must report to CQC, such as deaths, serious injuries and allegations of abuse.
• Governance (Regulation 17): the audits, spot checks and supervision that tell you the service is safe, and what you do with what they show.
• Business continuity: what happens in bad weather, an outbreak, a staff shortage or an IT failure.

The best preparation is to talk through realistic situations out loud, ideally with someone who has run a care service. Questions like these are a good place to start:

• A care worker tells you a client has bruises on her arms and says her son "gets angry". What do you do today, and who do you tell?
• Two care workers ring in sick at 6am on a Saturday. Which visits do you cover first, and how?
• A daughter complains that her mother's lunchtime tablets were not given. How do you respond, investigate and learn from it?
• A new care worker's DBS certificate comes back with a disclosure. What happens next?
• A client living with dementia refuses personal care. What do you do, and what do you record?
• How will you know your service is safe on a day you are not in the office?

For each one, answer in order: what you would do first, who you would tell, what you would record, and what you would change afterwards. Use real examples from your own experience wherever you can.

• Not knowing your own policies: "I would follow the policy" is not enough: CQC wants to hear what the policy says and how it works in practice.
• Generic documents: policies written for a different kind of service, or that you have not read, are easy to spot.
• Over-promising: applying to support more groups of people than your experience covers. Every group you list should be backed by your experience or a clear plan.
• No staffing plan: no realistic plan for who will cover your first visits.
• Details that don't match: differences between your application, your statement of purpose and your answers.

CQC tells you its decision by email. You may be registered with or without conditions. If CQC proposes to refuse your application, or to add conditions you do not agree with, it sends you a notice of proposal, and you have 28 days to send written representations. If it then decides against you, you can appeal to the First-tier Tribunal within 28 days of the notice of decision. You must not provide personal care until your registration is confirmed.

Still planning your budget? Read how much it costs to start a home care agency.

Our library gives you policies and procedures written for home care, with your agency's details already in them. Read them and check that they match how your agency will actually work, so you can talk about them with confidence in your interview. You read them in the platform, where your staff can also confirm that they have read them. The library also includes a business plan, a service user guide and guidance on writing your statement of purpose. We guide you through the statement of purpose, but you write it in your own words, because it has to describe your service. Tell us about your agency and we will arrange a demo.