{"id":1818683,"date":"2026-09-15T14:24:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T12:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/articles\/how-to-open-a-care-agency-in-the-uk\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T14:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T12:55:10","slug":"how-to-open-a-care-agency-in-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/articles\/how-to-open-a-care-agency-in-the-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"How to open a care agency in the UK in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Opening a care agency in England is the only business in this series that can be refused permission to exist. Providing personal care without registering with the Care Quality Commission is a criminal offence, and the CQC’s own guidance states that applications from domiciliary care agencies are the most likely to be delayed or refused. What follows sets out the process in England, and flags where the other nations differ.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Most start-up guides treat regulation as paperwork to be completed after the commercial decisions are made. Home care inverts that. The regulator decides whether the business may trade at all, it assesses the named individuals rather than the brand, and it can say no. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything else, the office, the funding, the marketing, follows from clearing that gate. This is also the sector where the UK’s four nations diverge most sharply, because each has its own regulator and its own registration regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"home<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is a care agency business?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A domiciliary care agency, also called a home care agency, supplies paid care workers to people living in their own homes and manages those workers. What makes it regulated is the regulated activity of personal care<\/strong>, defined in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014: help with washing, dressing, eating and medication. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An agency that merely introduces care workers to clients, or supplies staff to another registered provider, is not carrying on that activity and does not register. The distinction is ongoing direction or control<\/strong> of the worker. If the agency manages the care, it registers. If it hands over responsibility entirely, it does not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to open a care agency in the UK, step by step<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Establish whether registration applies<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The first question is not commercial. A provider delivering personal care with ongoing direction or control of its workers must register, whether it trades as an individual, a partnership or a company. Partnerships cannot avoid it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three activities are exempt: acting as an employment agency or employment business supplying care workers to others, making introductions with no ongoing role, and an individual care worker directly employed by the person receiving care without an agency involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Identify the registered manager and the nominated individual<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

An organisation registers two people alongside itself. The registered manager<\/strong> must have the qualifications, competence, skills and experience to manage the regulated activity under Regulation 7, and is assessed personally. The nominated individual<\/strong> is the person responsible for supervising how the activity is carried on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a small agency the same person often holds both roles. Securing a credible registered manager before applying is the single most common bottleneck, because the application is judged partly on that individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Write the statement of purpose and the policy set<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The statement of purpose is a formal document describing the service, its aims, the people it serves and the locations it operates from. It is submitted with the application and it binds what the agency may then do. Alongside it sits a full policy and procedure set mapped to the CQC’s quality statements. Applications commonly fail because these documents are generic rather than written for the service actually proposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choose a structure and register the business<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A private company limited by shares<\/strong> is the usual structure, incorporated at Companies House, with directors carrying statutory duties under the Companies Act 2006 and now verifying their identity. A PAYE scheme follows before the first payday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Welfare services supplied by a state-regulated provider are generally exempt from VAT rather than zero-rated, which means an agency usually cannot recover VAT on its costs, so VAT is a cost line rather than a pass-through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arrange the funding<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Care is a working capital business rather than a capital expenditure business. There is no fit-out, no kitchen and no shopfront, but staff are paid weekly or fortnightly while local authority invoices settle in arrears, so the gap has to be funded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Start Up Loans<\/strong>, run by a British Business Bank subsidiary, lends up to \u00a325,000<\/strong> per applicant at a fixed 7.5%<\/strong>, unsecured, to a maximum of \u00a3100,000 per business. Franchisors in the sector report that banks will lend a majority of the total investment against a business plan, subject to status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Register the office as a location<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For a home care agency the registered location is the administrative base from which staff are managed, not the homes where care is delivered. That keeps property costs low compared with every other sector in this series. Each location is registered separately and each carries its own annual fee, which matters for anyone planning a second territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apply to the regulator<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The application covers the provider, the registered manager and the nominated individual, and includes the statement of purpose, policies and evidence of fitness. Interviews with the proposed manager are normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No regulated care may be delivered until registration takes effect. In the other nations the regulator differs: the Care Inspectorate in Scotland, Care Inspectorate Wales, and the RQIA in Northern Ireland, each with its own application process and standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recruit, check and train the team<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Every worker in contact with people using the service needs an enhanced DBS check including the adults’ barred list<\/strong>, and so does the registered manager. Right to work checks apply to every recruit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mandatory training must be completed before staff deliver care, not after. Recruitment is the operational constraint in this sector: an agency that cannot staff a package cannot accept it, however strong the enquiry flow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Types of care business<\/h2>\n\n\n\n