CQC policy requirements for multi-location providers
Providers running several care homes, home care branches or supported living services are inspected location by location, but CQC also looks at provider-level governance. Your policies need to be consistent across the group, while still reflecting each location's service.
Usual regulated activity: Varies by location — usually accommodation with nursing or personal care, and 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
Group and multi-location areas
- Provider-level governance and quality assurance across locations (Regulation 17)
- A single core policy set, with controlled local variations
- Version control so every location works from the current policy
- Consistent incident, safeguarding and complaints reporting across the group
- Registered manager responsibilities at each location
- Group-wide training, supervision and agency staff induction
- Business continuity and emergency planning for each site
- Auditing that staff at every location have read the current versions
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
Should every location have identical policies?
The core should be identical so standards are consistent, with clearly controlled local variations where a location's service genuinely differs. Inspectors will ask why versions differ between sites.
How do I keep policies up to date across many locations?
Use a central, managed library: update once, notify every location's staff automatically, and keep a per-location record of who has read each version.
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, Domiciliary care, Supported living, Live-in care.