Hi Sheila,

To open a domiciliary home care Agency do I need an office or can I work from a home office?

If I need an office outside home, can I use a serviced one? Also what are the policies and regulations I need to comply with?

Thanks

Answered by Sheila Scott

Dear Abi,

Thank you for your question.

There is a lot of useful information on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website http://www.cqc.org.uk/content/apply-new-provider

You can have the office of your intended business in your own home but you need to be very conscious of security. In my opinion you will need a room designated as the office and this room should have a lock on the door. You will have confidential information about both service users and staff in the office so you should also have a lockable and fire proofed filing cabinet of some description. You should also complete a risk assessment about security.

You will need to have in place before you apply for registration the appropriate policies and procedures.

You may want to write them yourself but you may also like to look at specialist providers of policies, procedure and forms for instance Quality Compliance Systems (QCS) have such a system for Domiciliary Care providers. Look at their website www.ukqcs.co.uk/

You will see that as well as the information about the system you can ask to have a free trial.

I hope all goes well for you.

Sheila