CQC policy requirements for supported living
In supported living, people hold their own tenancy and receive personal care from a registered provider. CQC regulates the personal care, not the housing, and expects your policies to protect people's choice, control and independence.
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
Supported living specific areas
- Positive behaviour support and reducing restrictive practice
- Person-centred planning, choice and control (Regulation 9)
- Separation of housing and care
- Supporting people with money, tenancies and benefits
- Medicines support and STOMP (stopping over-medication)
- Lone working and on-call
- Community deprivation of liberty and the Court of Protection
- Relationships, sexuality and positive risk taking
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 CQC inspect the housing in supported living?
No. CQC regulates the personal care. Your policies should still show how you keep care and housing separate and support people's rights as tenants.
Which guidance matters most for learning disability and autism services?
CQC's Right support, right care, right culture guidance sets out what it expects for people with a learning disability and autistic people.
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.