In most cases, yes. Unless you are an individual who will personally manage the service day to day, the CQC requires a registered manager who is responsible for the running of the service. The registered manager application is submitted alongside the provider application, and both need to be right.

Yes. In smaller services it's common for the same person to be the director, the nominated individual and the registered manager. You'll need to show you have the time, skills and experience to do all of it properly.

The regulations don't name a specific qualification, but the CQC expects the registered manager to have the qualifications, competence, skills and experience the role needs. In adult social care the sector norm is a Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Adult Care, or to be working towards it, along with relevant hands-on experience. We'll assess where you stand and advise.

Once the CQC has reviewed your application, the people applying to be registered are interviewed, usually by video call. The interview tests whether you understand the regulations, the fundamental standards, the Quality Statements and how your own service will meet them. It also covers safeguarding, the Mental Capacity Act, medicines, recruitment, governance and how you'll handle things going wrong.

We run through the areas the CQC will cover, work through the kinds of questions you'll be asked, and practise answering with evidence from your own policies and plans. By the time you sit the interview you'll have heard the hard questions before, and you'll know your application inside out because you built it with us.

The CQC can ask for more information, ask you to withdraw, or issue a notice of proposal to refuse. None of those is the end of the road, but they cost time. Our preparation is designed to make sure it doesn't come to that.