CQC and Ofsted news and insights
CQC and Ofsted compliance, explained
Advice, news and video on regulatory change and best practice for health and social care providers.
Our latest articles and videos cover CQC registration, mock inspections, enforcement and the changes coming to the CQC. Browse by advice, news or video below.
Latest articles
- Advice
Due Diligence: What to Check Before Buying or Investing in a Care Service
Buying or investing in a care service can be a genuinely exciting step, but it carries risks that are not always visible on a spreadsheet. Care home due diligence goes well beyond financial checks: it looks at the quality of care being delivered, the strength of the management team, the condition of the building, staffing
- Advice
Fire and Rehire Changes Delayed to March 2027: What to Do Now
The Government has pushed the Employment Rights Act 2025 fire and rehire protections back to March 2027. For care providers, the terms most likely to be caught are pay, hours, shift patterns and pensions. Use the extra time to review contracts now and record how changes are agreed with staff.
- Advice
Interim Management Support: When and Why Providers Use It
Sometimes a care service loses its registered manager unexpectedly, faces a period of significant change, or needs experienced leadership in place while a longer term recruitment process runs its course. An interim manager care home teams can call on at short notice provides continuity when it matters most, keeping day to day operations steady and
- Advice
The First 72 Hours After a CQC Warning Notice
A CQC warning notice gives you 10 working days to make representations and a compliance date that does not pause while you argue. What the registered manager and nominated individual do in the first 72 hours shapes everything that follows. Here is how to use them well.
- Advice
What a CQC Quality Statement Score Means for Your Rating
A quality statement score of 2 can feel like a near miss. Under the current CQC method it can hold an entire key question below Good, and the rules for how scores add up are not always what providers expect. Here is how to read yours.
- Advice
Crisis Management: Steadying a Provider Under Pressure
When a care home or domiciliary care service hits a sudden crisis, whether that is a serious safeguarding incident, a poor inspection outcome, the sudden departure of senior staff, or a cash flow problem that threatens continuity of care, the situation can feel impossible to manage from the inside. Care home crisis management is about
- Advice
Care Home Turnaround: Rebuilding After a Difficult Period
A period of poor inspection outcomes, high staff turnover or financial strain can leave any care home feeling like it is starting from scratch, but a well-planned care home turnaround can rebuild both the quality of care and the confidence of staff, families and regulators. Turnaround is not about quick fixes or papering over problems:
- Advice
Case Study: Emergency Ofsted Enforcement and Children’s Residential Home Turnaround
How HLTH Compliance mobilised an Ofsted Crisis and Turnaround Team within 12 hours, and Ofsted confirmed within four weeks that it would not proceed with a proposed cancellation of registration.
- News
CQC to Regulate Autism and ADHD Diagnostic Assessments: What Providers Need to Know
The Department of Health and Social Care has asked CQC to regulate all autism and ADHD diagnostic assessments. Here is what is changing and how providers can prepare.
- Advice
How to Improve a ‘Requires Improvement’ CQC Rating
A requires improvement CQC rating sits in a difficult middle ground: it confirms that a service is not providing unsafe or seriously inadequate care, but it also makes clear that current practice falls short of what good looks like. For many providers, this rating becomes a turning point, a clear signal that focused, sustained effort
- Advice
Post-Inspection Support: Responding to a Difficult CQC Report
Receiving a difficult CQC report can be a genuinely disheartening moment for a provider, particularly when staff and leaders feel they have been working hard to deliver good care. Seeking post CQC inspection support at this stage is not a sign of failure: it is a practical, sensible step that helps providers respond constructively, meet
- Advice
Trade Union Changes: What Providers Need to Prepare
Trade Union Duty: Use the Extra Time Wisely Employers now have until 1 January 2027 to prepare for the new requirement to tell workers about their right to join a trade union. The original October 2026 start date has been moved back, and the Government’s consultation response sets out in some detail how the duty
A clear next step, before a big commitment
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