How Home Care Is Regulated
The direct answer
In England, any organisation that provides personal care to people in their own homes must be registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the independent regulator of health and adult social care, under the Health and Social Care Act 2008. Registration requires a registered manager, a nominated individual, policies and systems that meet the fundamental standards in the 2014 regulations, and checks on everyone who works there. The CQC then inspects, asks five key questions and publishes a rating. Hertfordshire County Council separately commissions and monitors the providers it pays for. Registration is the minimum; it is where a family’s questions should start, not end.
Written by the Starling Homecare leadership team and reviewed by Rupen Faldu, Managing Director and the provider’s nominated individual. Last reviewed 24 October 2026; next review by April 2027. Sources are listed at the end of this page.
Regulation at a glance
- The regulator is the Care Quality Commission, created by the Health and Social Care Act 2008.
- The regulated activity is “personal care”; a provider must be registered for it before helping anyone wash, dress or use the toilet.
- Every registered provider must have a registered manager and a nominated individual, both assessed by the CQC.
- Providers must meet the fundamental standards in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
- Inspections ask whether a service is safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led, and give one of four ratings.
- Staff must have an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check, references, induction and ongoing training.
- A new provider is registered before it is inspected; “not yet inspected” is a normal status, not a warning.
What registration involves
The regulated activity
Schedule 1 of the 2014 Regulations defines personal care as physical assistance with eating, drinking, toileting, washing, bathing, dressing, oral care and the care of skin, hair and nails, or prompting and supervising someone to do those things, where the person cannot do them without that help. A provider offering any of this in people’s own homes must register for the activity “personal care”. Housekeeping, companionship or shopping alone do not require registration, which is why some “care” businesses are unregulated: they do not provide personal care, or should not.
The registered manager and the nominated individual
Every registered location must have a registered manager, a named person the CQC has assessed as fit to run the service day to day, who is legally accountable alongside the provider. The provider must also name a nominated individual, usually a director, who supervises the management of the regulated activity. At Starling Homecare the registered manager is our Registered Care Manager and the nominated individual is the Managing Director; both are listed on our CQC registration.
The fundamental standards
Regulations 9 to 20A of the 2014 Regulations set the standards every provider must meet: person-centred care, dignity and respect, consent, safe care and treatment, safeguarding, meeting nutritional needs, premises and equipment, receiving and acting on complaints, good governance, staffing, fit and proper persons employed, the duty of candour, and the display of ratings. These are the standards an inspection tests against.
The five key questions
The CQC asks of every service: is it safe, is it effective, is it caring, is it responsive to people’s needs, and is it well-led. Under the single assessment framework introduced from 2023, each question is broken into quality statements, and evidence is gathered continuously from the provider’s own data, from people using the service and their families, from staff, and from on-site visits. Inspectors look at care plans, medication records, visit records, staff files, complaints, safeguarding logs and how the manager knows what is happening in people’s homes.
The ratings
Each key question and the service overall receives one of four ratings: Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement or Inadequate. A provider that has been inspected must display its rating where people can see it, including on its website. Our page on how to read a CQC report explains what each section means in practice.
When something goes wrong
Providers must notify the CQC of certain events, including deaths, serious injuries, abuse allegations and police involvement. The CQC can require improvement, impose conditions, prosecute, or cancel a registration. Safeguarding concerns about an adult at risk go to Hertfordshire County Council’s adult safeguarding team, which leads enquiries under section 42 of the Care Act 2014, with the provider and the CQC informed.
Registration means a provider has met the threshold to operate and will be inspected. It does not mean every visit will be on time, that the same carer will come each week, or that the care plan is good. A “Good” rating describes what inspectors found on the evidence available, often a year or more ago. Regulation sets the floor; the provider’s own standards and the family’s own questions set the rest. That is why this section also covers the signals of a good and a bad provider and the questions to ask.
Two things sit outside CQC regulation altogether. Introductory agencies that match families with self-employed carers are not providing the care themselves and are usually unregulated, and a privately employed carer is not inspected at all. Our page on the three business models sets out what that means for a family.
Hertfordshire County Council does not regulate providers, but it commissions care for people it funds and monitors the providers it contracts with, including quality visits and contract reviews. It also runs adult safeguarding and carries out the care needs and financial assessments under the Care Act. A provider can therefore be registered with the CQC without holding a council contract, and many private-pay families use providers who serve both markets. Starling Homecare is registered with the Care Quality Commission; our registration details are on our About Us page, and we will go through them with you on the phone.
Common questions about home care regulation
How do I check whether a home care provider is registered with the CQC?
Ask the provider directly. A registered provider can tell you its registered activities, its registered manager, its registration date and whether it has been inspected yet without looking anything up, and will show you its registration if asked. A provider that cannot answer those questions is either unregistered or an introductory agency that is not itself providing the care. Starling Homecare will answer all of them on the first call: 01727 324 127.
What does “not yet inspected” mean?
It means the provider has been registered, which requires the CQC to assess the organisation, its manager and its policies, but has not yet had its first inspection. New providers are normally inspected within their first year or two of registration. It is a normal status for a new service, not a warning.
Can a home care provider give injections or change a catheter?
Not unless it is also registered for the regulated activity of treatment of disease, disorder or injury and employs registered nurses. Most home care providers, including Starling Homecare, are registered for personal care only. A nurse can delegate a specific, non-invasive task such as stoma bag care to trained carers for a named person, but catheter insertion and injections are carried out by the NHS or by staff a registered nurse has trained and signed off for that task under a written delegation; they are not part of ordinary personal care.
Where to go next
- Ask any provider you are considering to show you its registration, to name its registered manager and to say who its nominated individual is. A registered provider can answer all three without looking anything up.
- Before you speak to any provider, write down four questions. Is it registered with the CQC for personal care, and who is the registered manager? How long have the people running it worked in home care themselves? Is it independent, a franchise or an introductory agency? Who will actually come to the house, and how many different faces will there be?
- Ask us. Starling Homecare is registered with the CQC, independent and family run, and led by people with more than a decade of running home care in Hertfordshire. Call 01727 324 127 or request a callback and we will answer each question plainly, including the things we do not do.
- Read who does what in home care to understand the roles the regulations refer to.
Our own registration
Starling Homecare is the trading name of Triara Limited, company number 16293338. Our CQC location is registered as STARLING HOMECARE (St Albans and Harpenden), location ID 1-26096518915, registered on 17 December 2025 for the regulated activity of personal care, for adults over and under 65 including people living with dementia, physical disabilities and sensory impairments. Our registered manager is Kelly-Anne Taylor and our nominated individual is Rupen Faldu. Our office is Suite 4 (recorded by the CQC as Unit 4), STANTA Business Centre, 3 Soothouse Spring, St Albans AL3 6PF. The CQC’s current status for us reads “We have not inspected this service yet”; we will link the report here when it is published. Source: our CQC registration record, checked 24 October 2026.
Sources
- Health and Social Care Act 2008, legislation.gov.uk, accessed 24 October 2026.
- Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, legislation.gov.uk, accessed 24 October 2026.
- The fundamental standards, Care Quality Commission, accessed 24 October 2026.
- How CQC assesses services: the single assessment framework, Care Quality Commission, accessed 24 October 2026.
- Care Act 2014, legislation.gov.uk, accessed 24 October 2026.
- Starling Homecare (St Albans and Harpenden), CQC registration record, accessed 24 October 2026.
- Adult social services, Hertfordshire County Council, accessed 24 October 2026.
Arranging Care Is Simple
Starting care can feel like a big step. We keep it calm and straightforward, and we are here from your very first call to help you explore what might feel right, whether that is with us or simply pointing you in the right direction.
1. Talk to us
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2. A home visit and initial consultation
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3. Your care begins
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