How to Prepare for Your First CQC Assessment After Registration

Securing your Care Quality Commission (CQC) registration is a milestone worth celebrating. We know how much work goes into receiving those e mails confirming registration of your service and registered manager.

It signals that your healthcare organisation – whether a GP practice, primary care network, private clinic, or independent provider – has met the legal requirements to operate. But once the certificate is in your hand, the journey doesn’t stop there.

Your very first CQC assessment after registration can feel daunting. The regulator will be looking to see whether the systems you’ve declared on paper are actually embedded in practice, whether patients are safe, and whether governance processes are working effectively. The good news is that with structured preparation, you can turn the assessment into a positive opportunity to showcase your quality of care.

Below we outline practical steps to help healthcare providers prepare.

1. Understand What CQC Will Look At

CQC’s Assessment Framework is now the foundation for all inspections. It focuses on five key questions:

Safe – Are people protected from harm?
Effective – Do services achieve good outcomes?
Caring – Are patients treated with compassion, dignity and respect?
Responsive – Are services organised to meet patient needs?
Well-led – Is leadership effective, accountable, and open to learning?

Within these areas, inspectors will use quality statements as the benchmark. Providers should be ready to evidence how they meet these standards through policies, audits, records, and – crucially – everyday practice.

Here’s how the 34 statements sit under the five key questions — with practical examples of the kind of evidence CQC might expect:

Key Question	Examples of “We Statement” Evidence
Safe	- Safeguarding logs, incident reports, and lessons learned. - Risk assessments for fire safety, infection control, and lone working. - Medicines audits showing error reduction. - Staff rotas and training records demonstrating safe staffing levels.
Effective	- Patient care plans showing needs assessment and regular review. - Clinical audits (e.g. antibiotic prescribing, chronic disease management). - Multidisciplinary meeting minutes demonstrating teamwork. - Staff training logs and appraisal records.
Caring	- Patient and family feedback forms. - Observations from mock inspections showing staff-patient interactions. - Equality and diversity training materials. - Case studies of patient involvement in care planning.
Responsive	- Accessibility policies (e.g. interpreters, easy-read materials). - Complaints log and evidence of changes made in response. - Waiting time monitoring reports. - Community engagement initiatives (e.g. Patient Participation Group minutes).
Well-led	- Board or partnership meeting minutes showing oversight of quality and risk. - Quality improvement plans and progress reports. - Staff surveys highlighting culture and wellbeing. - Use of data dashboards to track performance.

2. Conduct a Baseline Compliance Assessment

Before the inspection window arrives, undertake a full baseline assessment of your compliance. This means:

Mapping your policies and procedures against the quality statements
Checking mandatory training records are complete and up to date
Reviewing risk assessments (for infection control, medicines management, premises, etc.)
Engage your team
Auditing clinical notes, prescribing, and safeguarding processes
Gain client and team feedback

This exercise not only highlights gaps but also gives you the chance to fix issues before the CQC arrives.

3. Evidence, Evidence, Evidence!

It isn’t enough to say you’re compliant – you need to show it. Evidence could include:

Clinical audits demonstrating improvements (e.g. prescribing safety, referral pathways)
Patient feedback surveys and actions taken in response
Minutes from governance meetings showing how risks are tracked and managed
Supervision records and appraisals for staff
Incident logs with evidence of learning and changes made
Risk register and risk assessments
Evidence of meeting NICE guidelines

The most common challenge for providers is not a lack of good practice, but a lack of documentation to prove it.

If it isn’t written down, you cannot evidence that it happened.

4. Involve Your Whole Team

CQC will speak to staff as well as leadership. Make sure your team understands:

The purpose of the assessment
How their daily work links to compliance
What to expect if approached by an inspector.

Short training sessions, “CQC readiness” briefings, and scenario-based discussions can build confidence and consistency.

5. Test Readiness with a Mock Inspection

A mock inspection carried out by external specialists can be invaluable. It replicates the real process, uncovers “unknown unknowns,” and gives you a clear, prioritised improvement plan. Practices who invest in mock inspections often find their actual CQC visit less stressful and far more successful.

6. Keep Compliance Ongoing – Not a One-off Event

Perhaps the most important step is to embed compliance into everyday governance. CQC will expect to see that systems are not just created for inspection day but are part of normal operations: regular audits, action logs, learning from incidents, and evidence of continuous improvement.

Final Thoughts

Your first CQC assessment after registration doesn’t need to be intimidating. By understanding the framework, preparing evidence, engaging your team, and embedding compliance into daily practice, you can approach it with confidence.

At BAXCQC, we specialise in supporting healthcare providers through this exact journey. From baseline assessments and policy reviews to tailored training sessions and full mock inspections, our CQC compliance team ensures you are always inspection ready.

Contact us today to discuss how we can help your organisation not just pass, but excel, at your first CQC assessment.