Interim Registered Manager support
An experienced manager in the chair while you find the right permanent one
Your Registered Manager has resigned, is off long-term sick, or is about to go on planned leave. The service still needs a leader every shift, and the regulator will want to know who it is. We provide experienced interim managers who keep the service steady, safe and well led until your permanent manager is in post.
What is interim Registered Manager support?
Interim Registered Manager support is experienced, temporary management cover for a care service with a vacancy or a gap in leadership. An interim manager runs the service day to day, keeps standards and statutory duties on track, and gives staff, families and the regulator continuity until a permanent Registered Manager is in post or yours returns.
When providers ask us for an interim manager
- Your Registered Manager has resigned, or left at short notice
- Long-term sickness, with no one ready to step up
- A planned absence, such as maternity leave
- A recruitment gap while you find the right permanent manager
- A leadership transition after a change of owner or a restructure
- Your manager has been suspended, or has left in the middle of a regulatory crisis
Interim management or crisis and turnaround?
They often overlap, but they're not the same service. Crisis and turnaround is about stabilising and improving a service that's in regulatory difficulty. Interim Registered Manager support is about experienced management leadership and continuity.
A well-run service facing a planned absence needs continuity, not a turnaround. A service with serious concerns and no manager often needs both, and we can provide both together. Sometimes providers need both, but not always.
Why is losing a Registered Manager so serious?
Because for most providers, having one is a condition of registration. The law requires a registered manager condition where the provider is an organisation, or an individual who won't be in full-time day-to-day charge of the service.
Failing to comply with a registration condition without reasonable excuse is a criminal offence under section 33 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008. The law gives no grace period, so what you do in the first weeks shapes whether you can show a reasonable excuse.
You also have to tell CQC. When a registered manager stops managing the service, the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009 say you must give CQC written notice as soon as it's reasonably practicable. For a planned absence of 28 days or more, notice is due no later than 28 days before the absence starts. If the absence arises from an emergency, you must notify CQC within 5 working days of it occurring.
Children's homes have their own rules. If there's no registered manager, most providers must appoint someone to manage the home and tell Ofsted without delay who it is. Ofsted expects providers to take all reasonable steps to find a new manager as quickly as possible, including appointing an interim manager. An interim manager expected to be in the role for 90 days or more must apply to register.
Why does a service without a manager worry the regulator?
CQC and Ofsted look at services through risk. The registered manager is the person who answers for the day-to-day running of the care. When that person goes, the regulator's question is simple: who's checking the medicines, the rotas, the care plans and the safeguarding referrals now?
In our experience, a service without leadership drifts fast. Audits slip first. Supervisions stop. Notifications don't get sent. Weeks later an inspector finds one gap, and one gap makes them ask what else isn't being done.
Ofsted puts it plainly. If the lack of a registered manager has a negative impact on the children, or disrupts the service, it will affect any inspection judgements.
What to do in the first 48 hours
If your manager has gone without warning. General information, not legal advice.
Hour 1: put one person in charge
Name an acting lead for today. Tell every shift who it is and how to reach them.
Hour 1: call us
We'll tell you on the first call who we can put in the building and when they can start.
Day 1: check what's slipped
Medicines records, care plans, rotas, incidents, safeguarding referrals and statutory notifications. Start with anything that could hurt someone today.
Day 1: tell the regulator
Notify CQC as soon as it's reasonably practicable that your registered manager has stopped managing the service, and say who's running it now. For a children's home, the duty is to Ofsted. In our experience, the news lands better coming from you.
Day 2: talk to commissioners and families
Tell them what's happened and what you're doing about it. Keep it short and factual, and say when you'll update them next.
Day 2: don't rush the permanent hire
Appointing the wrong manager in a hurry can cost you more than the gap. Get an interim in, steady the service, then recruit properly.
What our interim support covers
Shaped around your service, the length of the gap and what's happening around it.
- Experienced temporary management cover for vacancies, sickness, planned absences and leadership transitions
- Day-to-day leadership of the service: rotas, supervisions, audits, care plan reviews, incidents and safeguarding
- Statutory notifications kept up, and clear contact with CQC or Ofsted, commissioners and families
- Hands-on management and operational oversight where you need more leadership and delivery capacity
- Working alongside your team so standards are monitored and kept up in day-to-day practice
- Access to experienced compliance, clinical governance and operational professionals behind the interim manager
- A proper handover: we help induct your permanent Registered Manager so the service stays steady
Who we put in the building
Availability depends on the role, the location and the week. We tell you on the first call.
- Interim registered managers, from our bank of clinically led candidates across adult social care, primary and medical services
- Compliance leads to keep audits, actions and evidence on track while the manager runs the service
- Ofsted specialists for children's homes and supported accommodation
How an interim placement works
An indicative order. Your service sets the real pace.
Talk it through
You tell us about the service, the gap and how long it's likely to last. We tell you who is available and when they can start.
Settle in
Your interim manager takes the handover, meets the team and gets on top of today's risks: medicines, staffing, incidents and anything overdue.
Run the service
Day-to-day leadership, supervisions, audits and notifications, with our compliance and clinical governance team behind them.
Keep the regulator informed
Clear, timely contact with CQC or Ofsted about who is managing the service and what the plan is.
Hand over
We stay while you recruit a permanent Registered Manager, or until yours returns, then help with the handover so the service stays steady.
What happens if the gap is left open?
The gaps grow. Records slip, notifications go unsent, and the next inspection finds them.
Breaching a registered manager condition without reasonable excuse is an offence under section 33 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008. It can become personal. If a company commits that offence with a director's consent or connivance, or through their neglect, the director is guilty too, under section 91.
If enforcement is already running, a service with nobody in charge makes CQC's job easier. In our experience, it's one of the hardest things to explain away in representations.
Who leads our interim support
Kath Cox, our Head of Adult Social Care (Service Transformation), leads our adult social care interim and crisis support. She's a former Registered Manager and Operations Manager, so she knows the job an interim manager is stepping into.
Anita Willoughby, our Clinical Operations Coordinator, is a Registered General Nurse and former Clinical Services Manager. She keeps oversight of delivery across our interim support, so each placement is well coordinated and aligned to what the regulator expects.
Adam Duncan, our Managing Director, has held director-level roles including Director of Quality and Governance and Chief Operating Officer, and is a former CQC Specialist Advisor. He leads our compliance, governance and operational support for providers.
A case study
An established adult social care provider with a long record of Good ratings was served a Notice of Proposal to cancel its registration. Then its Registered Manager left without notice. The provider called us on a Friday morning. By the following Monday an experienced interim manager was running the service.
That provider needed interim management and crisis support at the same time. Not every gap starts in a crisis. A planned absence, or a wait for the right permanent manager, needs the same experienced leadership.
They were able to provide staff and support for our compliance needs rapidly and professionally. The team were always available for any needs and they have a vast amount of CQC compliance and HR experience and knowledge.
Russell Kourting, Salis CareCARE PROVIDER / COMPLIANCE AND HR
Common mistakes
- Promoting the deputy overnight and leaving them to sink.
- Holding off telling CQC or Ofsted until a permanent manager is found.
- Hiring the first permanent candidate just to close the gap.
- Leaving a planned absence until the week before it starts.
- Treating the manager's exit as an HR problem. It's a regulatory one as well.
Who we do this for
Interim Registered Manager support: common questions
How quickly can you put an interim manager in?
How long can a care service run without a registered manager?
Do I have to tell CQC my registered manager has left?
Do I have to tell CQC about a planned absence?
Does an interim manager in a children's home need to register with Ofsted?
Is interim management the same as crisis and turnaround support?
Served a notice? Call now.
020 8090 5346
Speak to one of our experts
Clinicians, a former CQC inspector and a former Registered Manager.
What happens on the call
- Pick a time that suits you. The call is free and takes 15 minutes.
- You speak to one of our experts about your situation.
- You leave with a clear next step, before any big commitment.
A clear next step, before a big commitment
Got a gap in leadership? Call us.
Whether your manager left yesterday or goes on leave next month, call now. We'll tell you who we can put in the building and when they can start.
Speak to one of our experts
Clinicians, a former CQC inspector and a former Registered Manager.
A 15-minute introductory call to explain your situation, explore the right support and discuss the next step.