Welcome to the second in our series of blogs about specific regulations and what they mean in practical terms for you when running a service.
When we talk about Care Quality Commission (CQC) compliance, we often talk about the legal regulations. It is vital to remember that these regulations are the Fundamental Standards – the legal baseline of safety and quality below which care must never fall.
Regulation 19: Fit and Proper Persons Employed is a vital regulation because it sets out the requirements services must meet to ensure that anyone supporting vulnerable people is safe, competent, of good character, and able to do so. It is one of the most common areas where care services fall short. So, what does non-compliance mean for your service, and what can you do to avoid breaches while staying firmly on an improvement journey?
The True Cost of Non-Compliance
The CQC treats recruitment failures extremely seriously. A breach of Regulation 19 will instantly cap your overall service rating at ‘Requires Improvement’, no matter how outstanding your day to-day care delivery is. This regulation is also one of the more transparent regulations, the evidence needed is clear and is largely not up for debate or down to inspector judgement.
At worst, deploying an unvetted or barred worker triggers severe enforcement: warning notices, heavy fines, or urgent cancellation of registration. You need rigorous, everyday oversight to ensure that at every stage of recruitment, and ongoing employment, you are following the regulations and best practice.
The Ripple Effect: Linked Fundamental Standards
Recruitment failures are rarely isolated; they usually signal wider leadership and management weaknesses. If you breach Regulation 19, inspectors will immediately check linked standards:
- Regulation 12 (Safe Care and Treatment): Using unvetted staff potentially creates serious, immediate risks to service users
- Regulation 18 (Staffing): Without verified qualifications, you cannot guarantee the correct, competent skills mix on every shift
- Regulation 17 (Good Governance): Missing documents and unchecked history gaps reveal a critical lack of management oversight, control and understanding of the need to provide safe care
Practical Strategies for Total Compliance
To stay compliant, implement these essential workflows:
- Ensure all Schedule 3 documentation is available: Ensure that you have proof of identity (with a recent photo), DBS checks, and a full employment history, with written explanations for any gaps, references verifying conduct and reasons for leaving previous care roles.
- Be Aware of the Wide Regulatory Scope: Under CQC guidance, people ‘employed’, and therefore subject to Regulation 19, has a broad meaning and doesn’t just cover staff with a formal contract. Elements of it include anyone working in your service—including bank staff, agency workers, external contractors, and volunteers. You need to study the regulation in detail to ensure all required evidence is available.
- Verify Qualifications and Professional Registrations: You must hold definitive proof of any qualifications required for the role. For professional roles (like nurses), verify that their registration (e.g., NMC PIN) is active, current, and free of restrictions online before they practice
- Assess and Evidence “Good Character”: Good character cannot be a ‘gut feeling’—it must be documented. Use values-based, scenario-type interview questions to probe their approach. If an anomaly arises (like a minor historic DBS disclosure), you must explicitly document a signed risk assessment justifying why they are still deemed suitable
- Apply Reasonable Adjustments Proactively: When assessing health capability, the goal is not to exclude individuals with long-term conditions. In line with the Equality Act 2010, use health self-declarations to identify and document any reasonable adjustments or alternative duties needed to support them safely
- Monitor Suitability Post-Employment: Fitness isn’t a one-off pre-employment box to tick. Maintain an active monitoring system: mandate the DBS Update Service for live status tracking, require annual good character declarations, and use regular supervisions, appraisals, and online registration checks to ensure continued suitability
What to Do If You Discover a shortfall in the required evidence
- Isolate the Risk: Immediately place the worker under documented supervision or remove them from regulated activity while you retrospectively secure the missing evidence
- Log and Remediate: Formally record the deficiency, your risk assessment, and the corrective timeline. If serious ongoing fitness concerns emerge, take immediate interim measures to protect people and notify professional regulators, the police, or local safeguarding teams without delay
If the CQC identifies the issue during an assessment, submit a transparent action plan detailing how you are auditing your full workforce documentation and updating your protocols. Fast, evidence-backed action is the best way to rebuild trust.