Licence

Registration of residential care homes (England)

You need to register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to run a residential care home for adults in England

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You need to register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to run a residential care home for adults in England.

The service provider - which can be an organisation, partnership or individual - must register. If you’re registered as an organisation or partnership then the person responsible for managing the services must also register. If you’re registering as an individual, you don’t need to have a separately registered manager unless you don’t intend to be in charge full-time.

There are separate processes to apply for registration as a:

There’s no application fee, but after you’ve registered you must pay an annual fee. Fees can be paid by cheque or BACS.

Along with your application, you must:

  • provide details of each location from where you will provide residential care services
  • list the regulated activities you intend to carry out
  • meet essential standards of quality and safety
  • make a declaration of compliance

Fines and penalties

If you carry out a regulated activity without being registered, you will be committing an offence, and you could be fined and/or imprisoned.