CQC statement of purpose

The rule: Regulation 12 and Schedule 3

Regulation 12 of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009 requires every registered person to give CQC a statement of purpose, keep it under review and report any revision within 28 days. The regulation has three paragraphs, and they are short enough to quote in full:

1. “The registered person must give the Commission a statement of purpose containing the information listed in Schedule 3.”
2. “The registered person must keep under review and, where appropriate, revise the statement of purpose.”
3. “The registered person must provide written details of any revision to the statement of purpose to the Commission within 28 days of any such revision.”

Schedule 3 to the 2009 Regulations, headed “Information to be included in the statement of purpose”, has five paragraphs: “the aims and objectives of the service provider in carrying on the regulated activity”; “the kinds of services provided for the purposes of the carrying on of the regulated activity and the range of service users’ needs which those services are intended to meet”; the full name, business address, business telephone number and email address (where available) of the service provider and any registered manager, with the address CQC may send notices to; “the legal status of the service provider”; and “details of the locations at which the services provided for the purposes of the regulated activity are carried on”.

The registered person means the provider and any registered manager, so both carry the duty. CQC’s guidance on Regulation 12 states its intention: “to make sure that providers have produced and sent to CQC a clear statement of all the information listed under Schedule 3”. It is not a formality. The same page says “CQC can prosecute for a breach of this regulation or a breach of part of the regulation”, which means it “can move directly to prosecution without first serving a warning notice”, and that CQC “must refuse registration if providers cannot satisfy us that they can and will continue to comply with this regulation”.

These are the rules for services registered with CQC in England. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own regulators and their own registration requirements.

What a statement of purpose must include

CQC’s own statement of purpose guidance describes the document as the place where a provider can tell CQC “in your own words” three things: “what you do”, “where you do it” and “the people your service is for”. It adds: “All registered providers must have an accurate, up-to-date statement of purpose. It is a legal requirement.” CQC turns Schedule 3 into four parts:

1. About your business: the name of the business; its legal status, “for example sole trader, partnership, or organisation”; the business address, telephone number and email address, including the address for serving notices or other documents; and the names of any partners.
2. Your aims and objectives in providing the regulated activities at the locations you operate.
3. Each location: the address and other contact details; a description of the location; the type of service provided at or from it; “the different needs of people who use your service”; the regulated activities provided there; and the registered manager who manages those activities at that location.
4. Each registered manager: full name and contact details; the address for serving notices and other documents; “the locations they manage and the percentage of time they spend at each”; the regulated activities they manage; and details of any job share arrangements.

CQC’s guidance on the statement of purpose as a registration document adds two details for each location: the description should cover “any other uses for the property (e.g. is it a domestic dwelling?)”, and the needs of people who use the service are recorded as “your service user bands”. Service types and service user bands are CQC’s own categories, so use its terms rather than a description of your own, and make the bands match the people you actually support.

CQC’s guidance on service user bands explains them as “specialisms”: “Examples include dementia, physical disability, sensory impairment, mental health, learning disability or autism”, with age categories such as “Adults aged 65+” for a service that meets general needs. Bands apply “at location level only”, and CQC is explicit that “you must tell us in your statement of purpose about all the needs that your services intend to meet”, including needs outside its list, such as the cultural and religious needs of a particular community or acquired brain injury. CQC says it “will check during our registration, ongoing assessment, and inspection activities that you provide appropriate facilities and your registered manager and staff have the knowledge and skills to meet any specialist needs”, and it shows the bands against each location on its website, so the statement shapes what the public sees about the service.

For a care home, the location part is where most of the detail sits: the address, the service type (CQC’s list includes care home services with nursing and care home services without nursing), the service user bands, the regulated activities and the registered manager. For a home care, supported living or shared lives service, CQC’s guidance on what a location is says the location is “the premises from which a registered provider organises or manages care that is delivered to people in their homes”, usually an office, and not a virtual office. A provider with several services completes the location and manager parts once for each.

Writing it so that it stays true

The aims and objectives are the only part of the statement written freely, and they are where most statements go wrong, by being either a marketing paragraph or a list of values that could belong to any service. The useful version says what the service sets out to do for the people it supports, in terms a family, a commissioner or a member of staff could check against what they see: the kind of support offered, how people are involved in planning it, the outcomes the service aims for, and any specialism.

CQC’s guidance on what each supporting document must include applies to a statement of purpose sent with a new registration, and it is a good standard for every later version. Every document must include “your business name”, “the name of the person responsible for the policy”, “the date it was created” and “the date it will be reviewed”. It must be “complete and relevant”, must not “contain personal information about service users or members of the public”, must be “consistent with your other policies” and must be “accessible to your staff, people who will use your service and their representatives”. CQC also warns that a third-party template must suit the service type: “a template for residential care will not work for home care applicants.”

Consistency is the practical test. The service user bands in the statement should match the admissions criteria, the service user guide, the training staff have had and the needs of the people actually supported. CQC’s rule for admissions is precise: “You should only agree to provide a service to someone whose current presenting need(s) at the point the service starts (the reason they require that service) fall within the service user bands you have told us you intend to meet.” A person who develops new needs while already receiving the service does not change the bands, although CQC will expect staff to have the knowledge and skills to meet them. A statement that still names a registered manager who left in the spring is wrong in a way CQC can see from its own records.

For a specialist service for autistic people and people with a learning disability, CQC says the provider “must show how you have considered the needs of autistic people and people with a learning disability”, including “what you have done to make sure people can access and use your statement of purpose”. An easy-read version is one common way to do that.

Keeping it under review, and the 28-day notification

Regulation 12(2) requires the registered person to keep the statement under review, and Regulation 12(3) sets the clock: written details of any revision must reach CQC “within 28 days of any such revision”. CQC’s guidance on 12(3) puts it in plain terms: “If a provider changes their statement of purpose, it must tell CQC what these changes are within 28 days of making the changes.”

CQC’s changes to your statement of purpose notification form page sets out the steps. You must keep the statement up to date, “for example, if you change the specialist services you provide”; notify CQC of any change; and “send us a revised copy of the statement when you notify us”. The notification is the form “Statutory notification: Change to a statement of purpose”, emailed to the address on that page, and “if your form is incomplete we will return it to you”. CQC then updates the registration details from the revised statement once it has processed the notification.

The common triggers for a revision are:

• a change to the people the service is for, such as starting to support people living with dementia, younger adults or people with a learning disability
• a change to the type of service or the specialist services offered at a location
• a new registered manager, a manager leaving, or a change in the locations a manager covers or the share of time spent at each
• a change to the provider’s or manager’s contact details or the address for serving notices
• rewritten aims and objectives, for example after a change of ownership or model of care

One case catches providers out. If, exceptionally, a service takes one person whose presenting need is outside its bands, CQC’s service user bands guidance says “you must still update your statement of purpose to describe the change in specialist needs that the service is now meeting” and notify CQC, although it need not add the band unless it intends to support other people with that need.

Build the review into the governance calendar rather than leaving it to memory: an annual review with the registered manager and the provider, a named owner, and a check whenever one of the triggers above happens. Keep each version with its date, and keep the notification and CQC’s acknowledgement with it, so that you can show which statement was in force on any given day and when CQC was told.

When a revision is not enough: changes that need CQC’s permission first

Revising the statement of purpose and notifying CQC records a change. It does not authorise one. Some changes are conditions of registration, and CQC’s guidance on making changes to your registration says they need an application that is granted before the change is made: “You must have your application granted before you start to implement any change you apply for.” The main ones for a care provider are:

• Adding or removing a regulated activity. CQC’s guidance says a provider changing the services it offers “may need to apply to add or remove a regulated activity”.
• Adding, removing or moving a location. CQC lists locations as a condition of registration, so a provider can move to a different location only after it has applied to vary that condition, and a manager’s registration needs the same change.
• Changing the number of people a care home can accommodate, which is a condition on registration for accommodation for persons who require nursing or personal care: “If you wish to change this number, you must apply to vary the condition.”
• Removing a condition that stops a location supporting autistic people and people with a learning disability: “You must not make the changes to how you carry on the regulated activity until we have granted your application.” The service user bands guidance is blunt about this one: “You cannot just notify us of a change to your service user bands.”

CQC’s Regulation 12 guidance links the two: a provider applying to vary a condition of its registration “should send CQC a copy of its proposed statement of purpose with its application”. Smaller changes go through notification forms instead. A change of business address or contact details uses the change of contact details notification form, as does “an administrative change in a location address but no change to the location or the facilities provided”. A provider registered for each relevant regulated activity, with a condition allowing that activity at the location address, does not need a variation to add another service there, but CQC says “you should describe the specific services you operate at or from each location in your statement of purpose.”

Changes to the provider itself, such as a new nominated individual, director or company name, are notified under Regulation 15 of the 2009 Regulations, and the CQC notifications guide sets out each form and timescale. Where one change touches several of these routes, a new registered manager for example, it can mean a statement of purpose revision, a notification and a manager’s own registration application together.

Where the real change is decided

Statements of purpose rarely go out of date in a meeting. They go out of date one decision at a time, and most of those decisions are taken in messages.

The registered manager texts the owner on a Thursday evening: the hospital discharge team is asking whether the home can take a man in his fifties with early-onset dementia and alcohol-related brain injury, and the bed has been empty for three weeks. The owner replies “if you think the team can manage, yes”. A month later the home takes another. Nobody has decided to change the service user bands; the service has simply started supporting a group of people the statement does not mention, and the decision that should have led to a revision and a notification is a reply on a personal phone.

The same is true of the decision not to change. A deputy who asks the manager in a staff group chat whether they can accept a referral, and is told no because it is outside what the home is registered and staffed for, has just recorded the service applying its statement of purpose properly. That is useful evidence of good governance, and it is sitting on two personal phones.

Those messages are records about the management of the regulated activity, and when a commissioner, a family or an inspector asks how the service came to support people it was not set up for, they are the answer. ComplyChat gives those conversations a channel the provider owns: everyone in it is told it is on the record, a mobile number verified by SMS is the identity so an owner or a bank senior without a work account can take part, and messages are recorded on the server as they are sent. On paid plans the lasting record files into the provider’s own Microsoft 365 once the tenant is connected, under its own retention rules. It does not write the statement of purpose, submit notifications or manage registration; it keeps the conversation in which the decision was made.

A question for the next provider or board meeting: when did this service last change who it supports, and could you show who decided, and when, from records the provider holds?

Questions people ask

What must be included in a CQC statement of purpose?

A CQC statement of purpose must include the five things in Schedule 3 to the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009: the provider’s aims and objectives; the kinds of service provided and the range of needs they are intended to meet; the name, business address, telephone number and email address of the provider and any registered manager, with an address for serving notices; the provider’s legal status; and the locations where services are provided. CQC’s guidance asks for each location’s service type, service user bands, regulated activities and registered manager, and for each manager’s locations and the percentage of time spent at each.

How do I notify CQC of a change to my statement of purpose?

You notify CQC of a change to your statement of purpose by sending the form “Statutory notification: Change to a statement of purpose”, with a revised copy of the statement, within 28 days of the revision, as Regulation 12(3) of the 2009 Registration Regulations requires. CQC’s notification page gives the email address and says an incomplete form will be returned; if the change is to a condition of registration, such as a new location or more beds, you must apply and have the application granted first.

Is there a CQC statement of purpose template?

Yes: CQC publishes four statement of purpose templates on its statement of purpose page, covering the provider, aims and objectives, each location and each registered manager. CQC says that if you use them you should “copy and paste all the parts into one document before submitting it”, and using a template is optional: the legal requirement is that the statement contains the Schedule 3 information.

Does a new provider have to send a statement of purpose with its registration application?

Yes: a provider that applies to register with CQC must send its statement of purpose with the application. CQC’s guidance on Regulation 12 says “Providers must submit their statement of purpose on first application for registration together with the registration application form”, and the statement is on CQC’s list of documents every provider applicant must send. CQC says it will reject an application if a required document is missing or contains incorrect or out-of-date information.

Official guidance and your next step

The primary sources are Regulation 12 and Schedule 3 of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009 on legislation.gov.uk; CQC’s guidance on Regulation 12; its statement of purpose guidance with the four templates; the notification form for changes; and its guidance on making changes to your registration. Quotations are from those pages as published on 3 October 2026; CQC updates its forms, so download the current one each time.

This guide is a summary for providers registered in England, not legal advice about a particular registration or change.

Then do one thing: print the statement of purpose CQC holds for your service, walk the building or the rota with it, and mark every line that no longer matches – the manager, the people supported, the services offered. Each mark is either a revision to notify within 28 days or a change that needed an application.