A simple rhythm to keep all five CQC key questions moving in the right direction, for all registered care settings.
Most compliance problems are not caused at inspection. They are discovered at inspection, because nobody looked in the eleven months before it.
A weekly routine changes what an assessment feels like. Instead of assembling evidence under pressure, you are showing something that has been maintained continuously. This page sets out what to check weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually, who should own each check, and what to do when one of them fails.
Treat it as a working document rather than a page to read once. The lists below are the checks themselves. The sections around them cover the two things that decide whether the routine survives contact with a busy service: what to do when a check fails, and who owns each one.
Why a weekly rhythm beats an annual scramble
Evidence has a shelf life. A supervision record from fourteen months ago does not demonstrate current oversight. A risk assessment untouched since the person's needs changed is not merely out of date, it is evidence that your review process is not working.
Inspectors also look for a thread rather than a document: an incident, an analysis, a change in practice, and confirmation that the change held. That thread can only be built as events happen. It cannot be reconstructed in the week before an assessment, and attempts to reconstruct it are usually visible.
A routine also spreads the load. The volume of compliance activity in a care service is roughly constant. What varies is whether you meet it in small regular instalments or in one exhausting block when a notification arrives.
None of this requires new systems or extra headcount. Every check below is something a well-run service already does. What the routine adds is the guarantee that each one has a date, an owner, and a record, which is the difference between doing the work and being able to show it.
Every week
The weekly pass is deliberately short. Each line is a question with a yes or no answer, and most weeks the answer is yes. When it starts taking longer than a sitting, what it has found is a backlog rather than a task.
New incidents and accidents logged, with an owner assigned within your stated timescale
Any incident from last week with an action still open, chased
Safeguarding referrals made this week, and outcomes recorded as they arrive
Medication errors and near misses reviewed
Complaints received, acknowledged within your policy timescale
Training expiring in the next 30 days, flagged to the person and their manager
New starters: identity and right to work verified before the first shift, with no supervised exception
New starters: DBS and references received, or a recorded risk assessment and supervision plan where one is still outstanding
Rotas checked against dependency or call volume for the week ahead
The weekly pass is not there to complete anything. It is there to make sure nothing has silently stalled.
Every month
Supervisions and spot checks completed against the number your policy requires
Care plan reviews due this month, completed and dated
Risk assessments reviewed after any change in need
Medication audit on a sample of people
Complaints and compliments summarised, with what changed
Staff turnover and vacancy figures updated
Policies published in the last month, with evidence staff have read them
The monthly pass is where patterns first become visible. One late care plan review is workload. The same review late two months running is a signal about how reviews are scheduled. Recording the monthly position, even briefly, is what lets the quarterly review say something more useful than how things feel.
Every quarter
The quarterly cycle is where the service steps back from individual checks and looks at direction. It is also the layer that shows whether leadership sees the same service the records describe.
Full audit cycle against your own schedule, with findings, owners and closure dates
Incident trends examined: same person, same time of day, same task, same worker
Feedback gathered from people using the service and families
Feedback sought from partners: commissioners, district nurses, GPs, discharge teams
Governance report to the provider or board
Business continuity plan reviewed or tested
Partner feedback is the line most services skip. It is also the one that produces the most surprising findings.
Every year
The annual pass looks at the documents that define the service rather than the ones that record its activity. Little on this list changes often, which is exactly why it needs a fixed point in the year.
Every policy reviewed and dated
Appraisals completed for all staff
Training matrix reconciled against roles
Statement of purpose checked against what the service actually does
Insurance and professional registrations verified, and DBS status rechecked in line with your own recheck policy or the Update Service
Most of the annual items exist because they drift rather than fail. A statement of purpose does not stop being accurate on a particular date. It becomes gradually less true as the service changes around it, and the annual pass is the point where that drift is caught and corrected.
What to do when a check fails
A failed check is not a problem for your evidence. An unrecorded failed check is.
Record what was missed, why, what you did, and when it was resolved. Then ask whether it failed because of a one-off or because the process does not fit the service. If the same check fails three months running, the process is wrong rather than the people. Change the process, and record that you changed it.
This is the material that demonstrates a learning culture, and it only exists if you write down the failures alongside the passes.
The same applies in the other direction. When a check passes for months on end, ask occasionally whether it is still testing anything. A check that can never fail is not oversight, it is ritual, and inspectors can tell the difference between a routine that examines the service and one that decorates it.
Who owns each check
Ownership is the difference between a checklist that runs and one that quietly decays. Every line above needs a named person rather than a role, and a named deputy for when they are away. The registered manager cannot own all of them. Where a check is owned by someone with no authority to fix what it finds, it will keep finding the same thing.
Ownership also needs to survive people leaving. Write the allocation down somewhere visible rather than holding it in the manager's head, review it whenever someone changes role, and hand each check over explicitly when its owner moves on. A checklist that ran well six months ago and has quietly stopped is usually a checklist whose owner left.
Adapting this to your setting
The frequencies above are a starting point rather than a standard. What changes by setting is which checks carry the most weight. In domiciliary care compliance the weekly pass matters most for call timing and lone working. In residential care it matters most for staffing against dependency and environmental safety. In supported living it matters most for the boundary between support and restriction.
Before an assessment, work through the CQC inspection checklist alongside this one. This page keeps your evidence current. That one tells you what will be asked for.
Frequently asked questions
How often should we run CQC compliance checks?
A weekly pass on incidents, training expiry and new starters, a monthly pass on supervisions and care plan reviews, a quarterly audit and feedback cycle, and an annual review of policies, appraisals and registration details.
What should a weekly compliance check cover?
Anything that can stall without anyone noticing: open incident actions, safeguarding outcomes, medication errors, complaint acknowledgements, training about to expire, and pre-employment checks for new starters.
Who should own compliance checks in a care service?
A named person for each check, with a named deputy. Avoid assigning a check to someone who lacks the authority to act on what it finds.
How is this different from a CQC inspection checklist?
This keeps evidence current throughout the year. An inspection checklist tells you what an inspector will ask to see. Use both.
Do we need to record checks that pass?
Yes. A record showing a check ran and found nothing is evidence of oversight. Recording only failures makes the routine look reactive.
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