Why is Well-led the key question home care agencies most often fall short on?

What Regulation 17 asks for

From CQC's guidance on Regulation 17 (16 May 2025), providers must:

• have effective governance, including assurance and auditing systems or processes
• assess, monitor and drive improvement in the quality and safety of services, including people's experience
• assess, monitor and mitigate risks to the health, safety and welfare of people using services and others
• keep accurate, complete and detailed records for each person using the service, for staff, and for the management of the regulated activity, securely
• seek and act on feedback from people using the service, those acting for them, staff and other stakeholders
• continually evaluate and seek to improve governance and auditing practice

What that means for the policy

A governance and quality assurance policy that only says "we will audit" does not show a system. CQC's document guidance asks it to show how you will meet Regulation 17. In practice an assessor looks for named audits with a frequency, who does them, where the results go, how actions are tracked to closure, how feedback is collected and what changed because of it, and how records are kept secure. The same policy must carry a review date and the links to Regulation 17 and the assessment framework.

The assessment framework

CQC assesses the five key questions through quality statements, each linked to the regulations (framework section last significantly updated 1 May 2024; "how we assess" updated 19 May 2025). For home care there is a specific evidence categories section, "Homecare and shared lives services". The governance policy should reference the framework, not the pre-2023 key lines of enquiry.

Why a new agency should care now

Of the 14,594 home care and supported living locations on the register, 5,516 have no rating yet. A first assessment usually comes within the first years; the governance system you describe at registration is the one you will be assessed on.

Who this is not for. Care homes: their Well-led figures sit in the residential category and are not in this chart. Nothing here predicts any individual provider's rating.

Questions