Every domiciliary care agency has policies. Not every agency has good ones.
The difference between a policy that satisfies a CQC inspector and one that does not is usually not the length. It is the specificity. Generic policies that could apply to any organisation anywhere tell an inspector nothing about how your agency actually operates. Specific, personalised policies - with your registered manager named, your local authority referenced, your procedures written for your service - tell a completely different story.
Here are the ten policies that matter most, what they need to include, and which CQC regulations they cover.
1. Safeguarding Adults Policy and Procedure
CQC Regulation: Regulation 13 - Safeguarding service users from abuse and improper treatment
Inspected under: Safe
This is the policy CQC inspectors ask for first. It needs to reference the Care Act 2014 Section 42, name your registered manager as designated safeguarding lead with their contact details, include your local authority safeguarding adults team contact number, cover all ten categories of abuse from the Care Act statutory guidance, and include a step-by-step procedure for what staff do when they suspect abuse.
The most common gap: policies that list the types of abuse without giving staff clear guidance on what to do when they encounter them.
2. Medication Administration Policy and Procedure
CQC Regulation: Regulation 12 - Safe care and treatment
Inspected under: Safe, Effective
Must cover staff competency assessment, Medication Administration Records, what happens when a dose is missed or an error occurs, covert medication procedures, self-administration assessment, and controlled drugs if your agency handles them. CQC inspectors will ask your care workers medication questions during inspection - their answers must match your policy.
3. Infection Prevention and Control Policy
CQC Regulation: Regulation 12 - Safe care and treatment
Inspected under: Safe
Must reference the Health and Social Care Act 2008 Code of Practice on infection prevention. Cover standard precautions, correct PPE use and disposal, hand hygiene procedure, outbreak management, and how staff are trained. Since the pandemic, IPC is inspected more rigorously than it was before. Inspectors will look at your audit trail as well as the policy itself.
4. Lone Working Policy and Procedure
CQC Regulation: Regulation 12 - Safe care and treatment, Regulation 18 - Staffing
Inspected under: Safe, Well-Led
Your care workers go into people's homes alone. Your policy must address how you assess risk before they visit, how you monitor their whereabouts, what they do if they feel unsafe, your check-in and check-out system, and what happens if a worker fails to check in. Must reference the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and HSE guidance on lone working.
5. Mental Capacity Act Policy and Procedure
CQC Regulation: Regulation 11 - Need for consent
Inspected under: Effective, Caring
The five principles of the MCA must be embedded in your policy - not just listed but explained in the context of your service. Your policy must cover the two-stage capacity assessment test, best interests decision-making, deprivation of liberty considerations, and the role of independent mental capacity advocates. Staff understanding of the MCA is one of the most frequently tested areas in inspection.
6. Complaints Policy and Procedure
CQC Regulation: Regulation 16 - Receiving and acting on complaints
Inspected under: Responsive, Well-Led
Must include how complaints are received (written, verbal, anonymous), acknowledgement timescales, investigation process, response timescales, escalation if the complainant is not satisfied, and how learning from complaints is documented and shared. CQC will ask to see your complaints log alongside the policy.
7. Care Planning Policy and Procedure
CQC Regulation: Regulation 9 - Person-centred care
Inspected under: Responsive, Caring
Must cover how assessments are conducted, how service users and families are involved in care planning, what a care plan must contain, review frequency - minimum every three months or sooner if needs change - and what triggers an unscheduled review. Inspectors will look at actual care plans alongside this policy to check your practice matches your procedure.
8. Health and Safety Policy
Legislation: Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
Inspected under: Safe, Well-Led
Required by law for any organisation with employees. Must state your commitment to health and safety, employer responsibilities, employee responsibilities, risk assessment approach, and specific hazards relevant to domiciliary care. Your registered manager must be named as having overall responsibility.
9. Moving and Handling Policy and Procedure
Legislation: Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992
Inspected under: Safe, Effective
Must cover the principles of safer moving and handling, individual risk assessment for each service user, staff training requirements including practical assessment, equipment use and maintenance if applicable, and what staff must do if they are asked to carry out an unsafe move. Any use of hoists must also reference LOLER 1998.
10. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy
Legislation: Equality Act 2010
Inspected under: Caring, Well-Led
Must cover all nine protected characteristics, your commitment to person-centred care that respects individual identity and culture, how you will meet the needs of service users from diverse backgrounds, and your approach to supporting staff from diverse backgrounds. Inspectors increasingly look at how equality principles translate into actual practice - not just whether the policy exists. Your policy should also require that any reasonable adjustments made for individual service users are clearly documented in their care plan, with evidence of how those adjustments were identified, agreed, and reviewed. For example, they will check whether you provide information in accessible formats such as easy-read, large print, or translated documents for service users whose first language is not English. They look at whether care plans reflect religious and cultural dietary needs, prayer times, and gender-specific care preferences - particularly for personal care tasks where dignity is paramount. Inspectors may also ask staff how they would support a service user who identifies as LGBTQ+ or how they adapt communication for someone with a learning disability, so your policy must be backed by practical training under the Equality Act 2010.
How These Policies Connect to CQC Ratings
Under the Single Assessment Framework, CQC rates your service across five key questions: Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive, and Well-Led. Each policy above maps to one or more of these questions. A weak safeguarding policy can drag down your Safe rating. A vague complaints policy affects your Responsive score. Poorly documented care planning undermines Effective and Caring.
The agencies that achieve Good or Outstanding ratings consistently are the ones where policies are not just documents in a folder - they are living references that staff actually use. When an inspector asks a care worker what they would do if they suspected abuse, the answer should match the procedure in the safeguarding policy. When they ask how medication errors are handled, the process the care worker describes should mirror the medication policy.
This is why personalisation matters. If your policy references your specific local authority, your actual DSL by name, and your real procedures, staff are far more likely to know and follow them. Generic policies get filed and forgotten.
Review and Update Schedule
CQC expects every policy to be reviewed at least annually. However, some require more frequent updates:
- Immediately when legislation or national guidance changes - for example, the Employment Rights Bill changes in 2025 affected several employment-related policies
- After any serious incident - if a safeguarding concern, medication error, or significant complaint reveals a gap in your procedures, the relevant policy should be updated to address it
- When your service changes - if you expand your geographic area, change your client group, or take on new regulated activities, your Statement of Purpose and related policies must be updated
- When key personnel change - if your registered manager, DSL, or nominated individual changes, every policy that names them must be updated
Maintaining a policy review calendar - even a simple spreadsheet with policy name, last reviewed date, next review date, and responsible person - demonstrates to CQC that governance is an active process, not a one-off exercise at registration. Skills for Care provides templates and guidance for policy management in adult social care settings.
The Problem With Generic Templates
You can download policy templates from dozens of places online. Many of them are free. Most of them are generic - they do not name your registered manager, they do not reference your local authority, they do not reflect your specific service type or client group.
When a CQC inspector picks up your safeguarding policy and sees a generic contact number instead of your actual local authority safeguarding team, or finds your registered manager's name is missing from the designated safeguarding lead section, that is a flag. Small gaps like these add up across all ten policies and contribute to an overall impression of a service where governance is superficial rather than embedded.
CareDocPro generates all ten of these policies personalised to your agency - your name, your manager, your local authority, your CQC number - referenced throughout every document. Each policy is aligned with the current Single Assessment Framework and cites the relevant legislation by regulation number. Free to start.