 We’re making changes to the registration process for applicants seeking to register as care home providers, supported living service providers, and learning disability and autism care providers, to help reduce delays and improve applicant experience.
Through running various pilots, we found that assessing supporting documentation at the start of the application process highlighted that a significant number of applications we're being submitted with incomplete information, contributing to the growing backlog of registration applications.
From 9 February 2026, we will now routinely return and reject applications that are not complete or accurate at the point of receipt, without the need for a full registration assessment of quality. This will make our process for handling registrations more efficient and consistent and will support applicants to submit complete and accurate applications.
By introducing a clearer process and pointing providers to the right information from the start, we aim to reduce the number of applications being returned and improve turnaround times. The new guidance is now published on our website.
Who this affects
From 9 February 2026, this means:
- All new applications for services for autistic people and people with a learning disability received from this date will follow this process
- Care home applicants may need to submit some additional documents
- Supported living service applicants will need to complete an additional form and provide some additional documents
If an application has been submitted that’s incomplete or incorrect, the provider can cancel and resubmit it by following this guidance.
 From January 2026, we have a refreshed approach to how we prioritise adult social care assessments. This will enable us to more quickly prioritise settings with a very old rating or are not rated at all, helping us manage the backlog while ensuring our work remains consistent and focused on the areas that matter most.
This means we’ll follow a balanced approach. We’ll plan assessments across all priority areas.
We will continue to act quickly where there is extreme risk. Alongside that we’ll focus on:
- Services with urgent, emerging risks identified by inspection teams.
- Services identified by our intelligence as very high risk, which have never been assessed.
- Other services flagged as very high risk.
- Services registered for over a year that have not yet been assessed or inspected.
- Services with older ratings, to keep ratings current and reliable.
Flexibility is built in so we can respond to exceptional circumstances, such as safeguarding concerns, without losing sight of overall priorities. We’ll keep this approach under review to ensure that it’s working as intended.
 We are working with IFF Research to better understand how adult social care providers approach risk and safety.
We are inviting providers of all sizes and service types across England to take part in a short survey. It should take around 10 minutes to complete.
The survey is for people who can describe how their organisation manages risk and safety. This may include registered managers, operations managers, compliance or health and safety leads, or others with responsibility for safety.
Your feedback will help us understand how we can support improvements in safety across adult social care, and ensure people receive safe care that meets their needs.
All responses are confidential. No individual or organisation will be identified. Findings will be reported to CQC in aggregate only.
If you would like your organisation to take part, please use the following link: Care Quality Commission Safety Survey – IFF Research.
You have the right to request a copy of your data, change your data, withdraw from the research or stop the survey at any point. You can request for your responses to be excluded from our analysis up until the end of February 2026. For more information, please see IFF Research’s Privacy and GDPR policy: Privacy policy | IFF Research
 CareFind.com is the free, public facing website supported by the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England that helps people find trusted care home services. With over 125,000 searches each week, CareFind is now embedded on NHS.uk and is being added to local authority and partner websites to signpost communities to reliable care information.
CareFind is now expanding to include home care providers. More than 3,000 providers have already created profiles ahead of the February 2026 launch. Setting up a profile takes only a few minutes and is linked to Capacity Tracker, so no additional logins are required.
To create your organisation’s profile, log in to Capacity Tracker and follow the links to the CareFind profile page or resource centre.
If you need support, you can contact the Capacity Tracker Support Centre, Monday to Friday from 8am to 5pm, on 0191 691 3729 or by email at necsu.capacitytracker@nhs.net.
Vacancy and available capacity information – supporting hospital discharge and brokerage teams
Vacancy data in Capacity Tracker is essential for hospital discharge and brokerage teams. They make more than 7,000 searches each month to identify short‑ and long‑term placements for people waiting to leave hospital.
Please update your vacancy information at least every 72 hours, or sooner if your capacity changes. Keeping this information up to date supports safe and timely discharge planning, reduces repeat information requests, and helps maintain patient flow across the system.
Keeping people safe starts with stopping infections before they spread.
The UKHSA has published new guidance to help adult social care providers prevent the spread of multidrug‑resistant organisms (MDROs).
Why this matters
MDROs are pathogens that no longer respond to common treatments. This makes infections harder to treat and increases the risk of serious illness.
What are MDROs?
They include bacteria and fungi that have developed resistance to multiple medicines. Some examples you might recognise:
- MRSA (Meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus)
Can cause skin infections, pneumonia, and blood infections.
- VRE (Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci)
Lives in the gut and may cause wound, bloodstream, and urinary tract infections.
- CPE (Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales)
Resistant strains of common bacteria like E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae that can cause serious infections.
- Candidozyma auris (C. auris)
A yeast resistant to many antifungal treatments, linked to bloodstream and wound infections.
What the guidance covers:
- Practical steps to prevent the spread of MDROs in adult social care settings.
- Infection prevention and control principles for staff and managers.
- How to recognise and respond to infections caused by MDROs.
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