Domiciliary care policies and procedures are the operating manual for your service. They explain how you keep people safe, how staff should act, how managers monitor quality and how the provider meets CQC expectations.
This list is written for UK domiciliary care providers, registered managers, owners, nominated individuals and new CQC registration applicants.
Core Policies Every Domiciliary Care Provider Needs
Safeguarding Adults Policy and Procedure
This should explain how staff recognise abuse, report concerns, protect people from immediate harm and refer to the local authority. It should include the Care Act 2014, Section 42, Making Safeguarding Personal and your local safeguarding route.
Medication Policy and Procedure
This should cover prompting, assisting, administering, MAR charts, medication errors, refused medication, controlled drugs where applicable and staff competency. The detail must match the level of medication support your service provides.
Care Planning Policy and Procedure
This should explain assessment, care planning, consent, review, service user involvement, family involvement, risk assessment and how care plans are updated when needs change.
Risk Assessment Policy
Domiciliary care risk assessments often cover moving and handling, falls, medication, environment, lone working, nutrition, pressure care, behaviour, infection control and emergency arrangements.
Complaints Policy and Procedure
This should explain how complaints are received, acknowledged, investigated, responded to and used for learning. It should also explain escalation routes and how complaints are recorded.
Staff and Workforce Policies
- Recruitment and selection policy
- DBS and safer recruitment procedure
- Induction policy
- Training and competency policy
- Supervision and appraisal policy
- Spot check and observation policy
- Disciplinary and grievance policy
- Whistleblowing policy
These policies should not only list requirements. They should state how often supervision happens, how often spot checks happen, how new staff are assessed, how appraisals are completed and how poor practice is managed.
Governance and Quality Policies
- Quality assurance policy
- Audit schedule
- Incident and accident reporting policy
- Duty of candour policy
- Data protection and UK GDPR policy
- Record keeping policy
- Business continuity plan
- Equality, diversity and inclusion policy
For CQC, governance is not just paperwork. It is how you know the service is safe. Your policies should explain what you check, how often you check it, who is responsible and what happens when problems are found.
Clinical and Specialist Policies
Depending on the service you provide, you may also need policies for moving and handling, infection prevention and control, catheter care, stoma care, continence, nutrition and hydration, pressure care, end of life care and mental capacity.
Do not hold policies that have nothing to do with your service just to look comprehensive. But if your staff support an area of care, the relevant procedure should be clear and practical.
CQC Registration Documents
If you are applying to register a domiciliary care agency with CQC, policies are only part of the picture. You may also need a Statement of Purpose, service user guide, staff handbook, nominated individual information, quality assurance framework and other supporting documents.
The registration documents should match your policies. If your Statement of Purpose says you support adults with dementia, your policies and training arrangements need to reflect that.
How CareDocPro Helps
CareDocPro generates domiciliary care policies and procedures around your agency profile. That means the documents can include your provider details, manager details, nominated individual, contact routes, local authority information and service model.
The aim is not to create paperwork for the sake of it. The aim is to help you create documents that are easier to review, explain and use in the real world.