Domiciliary Care Company

What you need to know to set up a domiciliary care company

In this article, I am going to cover what domiciliary care is, and also how to set up a Domiciliary care agency in the UK.

The registration body, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) says that there are very important distinctions about registering as a domiciliary care agency compared to that of registering as a Supported Living scheme. By Supported Living Schemes, they mean schemes that provide personal care to people as part of the support that they need to live in their own homes. Personal care is provided under separate contractual arrangements to those for the person's housing. Accommodation is often shared but can be single households. Supported Living providers that do not provide the regulated activity personal care are not required by law to register with the CQC. However, most supported living schemes do register as domiciliary care agencies as well because they do want to be offering the regulated activity. Or it might be that it happens that at some point during the time that they are working with a service user, they may need to be provided with some kind of regulated activity.

So setting up a domiciliary care activity, or a domiciliary care agency as well, is something that you have to be registered with the CQC to do. And they offer quite a lot of information on their website as to how you go about doing that. But also, some of the issues, the values, and the requirements that they have in place are also found on their website..

Important documents to help you understand what entails setting up a domiciliary care company and Supported Living Scheme are, Registering The Right Support, and other best practices, and also Changing Our Lives - Quality of Life, the standard toolkit for you to download and read comes from the Centre for Welfare Reform . It really does help you to think about how you're going to start your business, the values that underpin all of this are about choice, promotion, independence and inclusion. If you start your company, your supported living scheme or your domiciliary business, even the recruitment of your workers with that, and those standards and values in mind, then you are off to a very good start.

So what does the CQC want from you when you begin your process of making your Domiciliary care company ? Again, I'll say they, the CQC, give clear guidance on their website. And they have documents that you can read, they really want to help you get it right. The first thing that they want, they want to know how you will meet the Health and Social Care Act 2008, and the associated regulations, relevant guidance and any other laws that apply. They want to know what your training is, and what your experiences are. You must be able to show how you meet and continue to meet the "Fundamental Standards" that they have asked for.

You need to explain how you'll make sure your service is safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led. And they'll ask you about the regulations that you will have to put in your application. You will have to register a lead practitioner that will be the Registered Manager who will have to have relevant qualifications, current and up to date training and you will need to have policies and procedures that cover safeguarding, complaints, handling medication, consent, mental capacity, health and safety and human resources. They're going to ask for written proof of all of the qualifications that you have and completed training undertaken. They will want evidence that shows competence, skills and experience. The next thing that they'll look for are that you will have the required and additional plans and procedures in place. The Registered provider also has to complete an application, that means that you as the provider will have to show that you have relevant qualifications, skills, a current and up to date DBS, written proof and have completed training. You'll also need a business plan, financial forecasts statement of financial viability policies and procedures, quality assurance systems and a statement of purpose. Your key staff must understand how your Domiciliary care company policies and procedures apply to your agency and help keep people and staff safe. You and your managers (and you might be the Registered manager as the owner), you need to understand what is required of you under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the deprivation of liberty safeguards. You must also have the qualification skills and experience to provide personal care as a Domiciliary care company that meets the needs of the people who will use your service. So if you plan to act as the sole company director for the company, the provider and or the proposed Registered Manager and or the Proposed nominated individual, you must be able to demonstrate your fitness for each of these roles.

You must also make sure that your premises are appropriate to deliver personal care, this is the final thing that they would want to be looking at when they inspect you and as part of your application. So you must include information about how appropriate your premises are, you have to show where they are located in your application. If you plan to deliver care within people's homes you still need information about your premises. This has to do with all sorts of different requirements for Domiciliary care which the CQC outline including crucially the need for confidentiality.

So now you should be getting a good idea of what you will need to have in place to set up as a domiciliary care agency and what is required to be registered with the CQC

to get ready for your company to pass inspections, and be registered. There are a lot of things that you need to do which are prerequisites for registration. You need to look at relevant qualifications and experience to provide Domiciliary care sometimes called home care, you need to satisfy the essential standards in quality and safety. You truly need to be committed to the vocation of providing excellent standards of care that respect and enrich the lives of those who will be providing the service to. That is an important consideration with providing and regulated care including Domiciliary care, which the CQC will look at as part of your registration process and also how you deliver your services.

There is also a a little bit of a chicken and egg issue that goes on here when setting up your Domiciliary care company; you actually will have to have your Registered Manager in place before you can offer a service. Well, that means that you have to recruit someone if it's not you, to be acting as the Registered Manager and they will have to go through the registration process as an individual. You need to apply for a DBS, that used to be the CRB check which ensures that you can lawfully work with vulnerable adults. That's the first action that you must take. The DBS checks carried out on the Registered Manager and the people who own the company, the directors the Nominated Person. You need to get several references; they need to be employment references about your career history, including your last employer plus one from your GP. The GP reference is to make sure that you are fit enough to provide this service. You need to fill in the registration forms which you will get on the the CQC website. The forms do vary according to whether you intend to supply services as an organisation or partnership or as an individual. Your Domiciliary care company must have a statement of purpose in place. A Statement of Purpose needs to be thorough, with detailed information and you must ensure nothing is left out. Information in the Statement of Purpose includes the details of the services provided, contact details, your aims and objectives. Once you've got your DBS, you're ready to submit your application, you cannot submit your application before you got DBS.

Let's briefly look at qualifications and training needed for a Domiciliary Care Company. As I said, CQC are really clear about what that is. It's mainly around the Common Induction Standards and you'll see those on their website. For the Registered Manager, they need to have qualification and competence of NVQ five and above in Health and Social care. The responsible individual also needs to have the experience to run a Domiciliary Care business.

Funding, establishing and addressing cash flows is very important. Winning tenders is likely to be a significant element in securing income and an understanding of the essentials of the cash flow process is one of the keys to success.

Then you'll need to think about employing staff. So as we know, running a Domiciliary Care company is very challenging. The main challenges are providing care in multiple locations, obtaining suitably qualified, trustworthy staff. When recruiting suitable staff members, you need to be certain about the required qualifications and experience, you'll need to get support if you've never done that before.

Get in contact with us at Gardner Recruitment, we can support you to set up your Domiciliary Care Company with good qualified and suitably trained staff, tender writing and Quality Assurance tools. We also offer Management Consultancy and training on all aspect of Care provision. Contact us today