Domiciliary care policies: the essential checklist
By Cura Compliance UK · Updated 3 July 2026
A CQC-registered domiciliary care agency needs policies covering safe care in people's own homes: lone working, medication, care planning, safeguarding, recruitment and governance. Because care happens away from a central site, your procedures for supervision, spot checks and record keeping carry extra weight — they are how you evidence that unseen care is safe and person-centred.
Why domiciliary care is different
In home care, staff work alone in people's homes rather than under direct on-site supervision. That shapes your policy set: you need robust procedures for lone working and staff safety, for medication support without a clinical room to hand, and for demonstrating oversight of care you cannot watch in real time. Inspectors look hard at how you assure quality at a distance.
The essential policy checklist
Almost every domiciliary agency needs policies and procedures covering:
- Safeguarding adults and whistleblowing
- Lone working, staff safety and travel between calls
- Medication support, administration and MAR-chart recording
- Person-centred care planning, consent and mental capacity (MCA)
- Care call scheduling, missed and late calls, and electronic call monitoring
- Safe recruitment, DBS checks, induction and the Care Certificate
- Supervision, spot checks, competency and appraisal
- Infection prevention and control in people's homes
- Complaints, compliments and duty of candour
- Business continuity, on-call and emergency arrangements
- Records, confidentiality and UK GDPR
Mapping to the CQC quality statements
Under the single assessment framework your policies support the quality statements across all five key questions — for example safeguarding and medicines under safe, person-centred care under caring and responsive, and governance and oversight under well-led. The strongest evidence is the chain from policy to practice to record. For the full picture, read CQC policies and procedures: the complete guide.
Keeping the set current
Version-control every policy, review at least annually and whenever guidance changes, and keep an acknowledgement log so you can show which staff have read which version. A maintained library removes the risk of a policy quietly going stale between inspections.
How CuraFlow helps
CuraFlow gives home care agencies the complete domiciliary policy set, auto-filled with your company details, with acknowledgement tracking and Word and PDF downloads — kept current as the rules change. Browse it in the domiciliary care library or see pricing and free samples.
Frequently asked questions
- What policies does a domiciliary care agency need for CQC?
- At minimum: safeguarding, lone working, medication, person-centred care planning and consent, safe recruitment, supervision and spot checks, infection control, complaints and duty of candour, business continuity, and records / data protection. The exact set follows your Statement of Purpose and the care you provide.
- Are there extra policies for lone and remote working?
- Yes. Because staff work alone in people's homes, you need clear lone-working and staff-safety procedures, plus supervision, spot-check and call-monitoring arrangements that evidence oversight of care delivered away from a central site.
- How do domiciliary policies map to the CQC quality statements?
- They provide documentary evidence across all five key questions — safeguarding and medicines under safe, person-centred care under caring and responsive, and governance under well-led — with records and audits showing the policies are applied in practice.
Ready-to-use, regulator-aligned policies for your service
Browse the domiciliary care policy library