CQC inspection readiness checklist

Source anchors

How to use this checklist

This is the whole-service readiness audit. It walks the five key questions CQC asks, with a legal-baseline section first, and tests whether you can show the evidence today. An assessment or site visit may be announced or unannounced, so readiness is something you hold every day.

Score each row for assurance, not paperwork:

Assured: current evidence shows the control operates, is monitored and is effective.
Partially assured: the control exists, but operation, reach, monitoring or effectiveness is incomplete.
Not assured: the control is absent, materially unreliable, or contradicted by other evidence.
Not applicable: record the reason the activity or requirement does not apply to your service.

Draw evidence from more than one source, people's experience, staff and leaders, partners, observation, processes and outcomes, and check they agree. Where they conflict, investigate before you mark a row assured. Some rows apply only to certain services (medicines, premises, employing staff, being rated); mark those not applicable where they do not apply. Every partially assured or not assured item should create an action with an owner and a due date.

This checklist is a starting point and a guide to what CQC inspectors look for. It is not a complete or deployable procedure, and it is not legal advice. Working through it does not guarantee a rating or compliance. Check all regulatory references and timescales against current primary sources and adapt it to your own service.

Service details

Field	Local entry
Service name
Location
Date completed
Completed by
Registered Manager
Nominated Individual or provider lead
Period reviewed

1. Documents and legal baseline

These apply according to your service type and legal form; mark any that do not apply as not applicable.

Check	Evidence to review	Status	Action owner	Due date
Confirm the statement of purpose is current and matches the service actually delivered.	Processes, Observation
Where the service has received a CQC rating, confirm the most recent applicable rating, its date and the required CQC information are displayed conspicuously at each relevant premises and on every website describing the service.	Observation, Processes
Confirm the current CQC registration certificate is available on request and that staff know where it is held.	Observation, Processes
Confirm the service has completed the ICO data protection fee assessment and either maintains a current registration or has recorded the specific basis on which an exemption is claimed.	Processes, Feedback from staff and leaders
The provider has insurance, indemnity, risk-pooling, self-insurance or equivalent arrangements appropriate to its legal form, activities and liabilities.	Processes, Feedback from staff and leaders
Confirm the registered provider, directors or equivalent, and registered managers remain fit, competent and able to fulfil their roles.	Processes, Feedback from staff and leaders, Observation
Confirm the service maintains a current notification matrix showing the CQC events applicable to its provider type and regulated activities, plus a timeliness check that notifications are made through the required route.	Processes, Feedback from staff and leaders
Where Regulation 9A applies, people are supported to receive visits, care-home residents are not discouraged from taking visits outside the home, and people attending hospital or hospice appointments are enabled to be accompanied unless exceptional circumstances apply.	People's experience, Observation, Processes
Where Registration Regulation 13 applies (it does not apply where the provider is an English local authority or a health service body), confirm the provider can demonstrate financial viability and contingency arrangements sufficient to continue safe delivery, that viability is monitored, and that identified risks to continuity trigger owned action that is completed and reviewed.	Processes, Feedback from staff and leaders
Confirm that, where required, Schedule 3 information is available for each worker.	Processes, Feedback from staff and leaders
For people directly employed by the provider, statutory right-to-work checks are completed before employment begins and repeated where permission to work is time-limited.	Processes
Confirm the level and type of DBS check obtained is appropriate to, and legally available for, each role, and that any barred-list check is used only where the role is eligible.	Processes, Feedback from staff and leaders
Where a role requires professional registration or a licence to practise, confirm it is checked before work starts, that scope and any conditions or restrictions are understood, and that ongoing registration is monitored so a lapse or restriction is caught and acted on.	Processes, Feedback from staff and leaders
Confirm the service operates a complaints procedure that meets Regulation 16.	People's experience, Processes, Outcomes

2. Safe

Check	Evidence to review	Status	Action owner	Due date
The service can show a just, fair and non-blame safety culture operating in practice.	Feedback from staff and leaders, People's experience, Processes, Outcomes
Individual risks are assessed, kept current and proportionate to the person, and staff can show they follow the recorded actions for recognising deterioration, a crisis or a change in need and for escalating them.	Observation, Processes, People's experience, Feedback from staff and leaders
At referrals, handovers, transfers and any delegated activities, the records show who is responsible for each action and that the right information moved at the right time.	Processes, Feedback from partners, Observation, Outcomes
Staff can recognise safeguarding concerns across the range relevant to the people they support, including abuse, neglect, exploitation, discrimination and hate, sexual safety and online safety, and, where children are present or affected, child safeguarding.	Feedback from staff and leaders, Processes, Observation
Infection prevention and control is assessed for the setting and the people, good practice is observable where it applies (for example hand hygiene, personal protective equipment, cleaning and waste), audits or checks run on a cycle, and issues found produce owned action that is completed and whose effect is re-checked.	Observation, Processes, Outcomes
Staffing is matched to demand, dependency, acuity or the pattern of contacts rather than to a fixed number.	Feedback from staff and leaders, Processes, People's experience, Observation
Where the service provides or supports medicines or treatments, the handling of each follows the requirements applicable to that medicine, treatment and setting across prescribing, supply, storage, administration, monitoring, reconciliation and disposal.	Processes, Observation, Outcomes

3. Effective

Check	Evidence to review	Status	Action owner	Due date
People's needs are assessed holistically, proportionately and on current information at the start of care, treatment or support, covering physical, psychological, communication, social, cultural and equality-related needs, any co-occurring or long-term conditions, and relevant information from family or carers where the person agrees.	People's experience, Observation, Processes, Feedback from staff and leaders
Care, treatment or support follows current evidence-based guidance, and the service can name the specific source for its key interventions, say when that source was last checked for currency, and show how a change in guidance was actually implemented in practice (for example a changed protocol, updated care records, or a briefed team) rather than only noted.	Processes, Feedback from staff and leaders, Observation, Outcomes
The service has defined the outcomes that matter for the people it supports or treats, expressed as changes in people's health, wellbeing, function, experience or personal goals, and not as counts of completed audits, training or activity.	People's experience, Outcomes, Processes, Feedback from staff and leaders
Where relevant to the service, people are supported to live healthier lives through prevention, health promotion, or signposting that is tailored to the individual rather than generic.	People's experience, Processes, Outcomes
Consent to care, treatment or support is sought so that it is voluntary, informed, and specific to the decision in question, and is revisited when the person's circumstances, the intervention, or their wishes change.	People's experience, Observation, Processes, Feedback from staff and leaders

4. Caring

Check	Evidence to review	Status	Action owner	Due date
Direct observation and current feedback from people (not only historical surveys) show people are treated with kindness, patience, compassion and dignity, including at busy or pressured times and at the points where privacy or dignity could be compromised.	People's experience, Observation, Feedback from staff and leaders
People are actively involved in decisions about their care, treatment or support to the extent they wish, their individual needs, preferences, history and any protected characteristics visibly shape what is delivered, and staff can explain how they do this for a named person.	People's experience, Observation, Feedback from staff and leaders
People are supported to make choices, retain independence and exercise control over their daily life, care and treatment wherever possible, and organisational routines, schedules or staff convenience do not unnecessarily override individual choice.	People's experience, Observation, Feedback from staff and leaders

5. Responsive

Check	Evidence to review	Status	Action owner	Due date
The way care, treatment or support is provided is shaped by an understanding of the people who use the service and the local population it serves, including changing demand and known gaps in local provision.	People's experience, Feedback from partners, Processes, Outcomes
People, and those close to them, know how to give feedback or raise a complaint and can do so in ways that are accessible to them, including the formats, languages and communication support people need and routes that do not require digital access.	People's experience, Observation, Processes
Waiting times, appointment or visit scheduling, and missed, cancelled, delayed or failed contacts are monitored against what the service commits to, where these apply to the service model.	People's experience, Processes, Outcomes
The service reviews feedback, complaints, incidents and people's experience data broken down by relevant characteristics to test whether particular groups receive a poorer, less respectful or less responsive service.	People's experience, Feedback from staff and leaders, Processes, Outcomes

6. Well-led

Check	Evidence to review	Status	Action owner	Due date
The service can show a clear direction or plan that connects to the needs of the people it serves, the risks it has identified, its workforce capacity and a small set of measurable priorities.	Feedback from staff and leaders, Processes, Outcomes
The service reviews workforce data and staff feedback together for signs of discrimination, bullying, harassment, unequal opportunity, wellbeing concerns and differential experiences between groups of staff.	Feedback from staff and leaders, Processes, Outcomes
Leaders have the skills, experience, capacity and sector knowledge their roles require.	Feedback from staff and leaders, Observation, People's experience, Processes
A regular governance review looks across incidents, complaints, risks, audits, safeguarding, staffing, training and feedback, and the information reaching decision-makers is accurate, timely and sufficiently complete to base decisions on.	Processes, Feedback from staff and leaders, Outcomes
The risk register is live, showing review decisions and dates rather than a static list.	Processes, Feedback from staff and leaders
The service can demonstrate what changed for people because of its partnership and community working, a concrete improvement in access, experience or outcomes, not merely that meetings, forums or referrals took place.	Feedback from partners, People's experience, Outcomes
Improvement activity is recorded as a method, not a to-do list.	Processes, Outcomes

7. Summary judgement

Question	Answer
Where is your strongest assurance?
Where is your weakest assurance?
Where does evidence from different sources contradict?
Which people or groups are least represented in your evidence?
Which outcome is deteriorating?
Which high-risk action is overdue?
Which issue needs provider-level escalation?

8. Action log

Action	Source check	Owner	Due date	Completion evidence

9. Completion

Sign-off	Name	Date
Completed by
Reviewed by Registered Manager

This checklist is a working tool. It does not replace live regulator guidance, professional advice or clinical judgement. The evidence is there because the work happened, not because the inspection is coming.