CQC policy requirements for domiciliary care
Domiciliary care agencies deliver personal care in people's own homes. Staff often work alone, so your policies need to cover lone working, access to homes and how care is monitored when you aren't on site.
Usual regulated activity: Personal care
Core policies
- Safeguarding adults (and children, where relevant), including how to raise and escalate concerns
- Complaints handling, with timescales and how people can escalate outside the service
- Duty of candour (Regulation 20) and incident reporting
- Recruitment and fit and proper persons checks, including DBS (Regulation 19)
- Staff training, supervision and induction (Regulation 18)
- Consent and the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (Regulation 11)
- Data protection, confidentiality and record keeping (Regulation 17)
- Whistleblowing / speaking up
- Equality, diversity and human rights
Home care specific areas
- Medicines support at home in line with NICE guideline NG67 (managing medicines for adults receiving social care in the community)
- Lone working and staff safety
- Missed and late visits, and electronic call monitoring
- Key safes, entering homes and no-reply procedures
- Handling people's money and shopping
- Moving and handling in the home, and equipment checks
- Travel time, rotas and continuity of care
- Deprivation of liberty in the community (via the Court of Protection)
How CQC looks at your policies
Under CQC's single assessment framework, evidence is grouped under five key questions: Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-led. Organising your library the same way makes it easier to show inspectors where each policy fits. Regulation 17 (good governance) expects you to keep policies current and to check they're followed, which is why a dated record of staff reading each version is useful evidence.
Frequently asked questions
Does a home care agency need different policies from a care home?
The fundamental standards are the same, but home care needs policies on lone working, missed visits, key safes and handling money, and DoLS does not apply in people's own homes.
How do I prove carers in the community have read policies?
Use a digital sign-off so each carer confirms they've read the current version from their phone, with a time-stamped record you can show at inspection.
Let MyCarePolicies keep this up to date for you
A managed policy library grouped by the five key questions, updated for you, with staff notified and proof they've read each version.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. MyCarePolicies is not affiliated with or endorsed by CQC. Other guides: Care homes, Nursing homes, Supported living.