In the UK, care agencies are regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). All agencies providing personal care (including home care, domiciliary care, live-in care, residential care and nursing care) must be registered with the CQC.
The CQC is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. They make sure that health and social care services provide people with safe, caring, effective, responsive and well-led care, and that they are sustainably run.
Registration with the CQC is a legal requirement for all care agencies providing personal care services. This means that the CQC must be satisfied that the agency is providing a safe and effective service before it can be registered.
The CQC carry out regular inspections of all registered care agencies to check that they are meeting the essential standards of quality and safety. If an agency is not meeting these standards, the CQC can take enforcement action to make them improve.