Business guidance

Healthcare & Social Care

Advertise a physiotherapy, osteopathy or chiropractic clinic

Adverts must follow the CAP Code. CAP lists the claims it expects to accept for each profession, and any other health claim needs documentary evidence.

Healthcare & Social Care

AI medical device compliance

AI that diagnoses, recommends treatment, monitors or triages patients is usually a medical device and must be registered with the MHRA before going on the UK market. You also need classification, technical documentation, quality management and post-market surveillance. Purely administrative software, such as scheduling or billing, generally is not a device.

Healthcare & Social Care

Care home and hospital duties under the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000

What a care home, independent hospital or other provider in Scotland must do when an adult cannot make their own decisions: the section 47 certificate for medical treatment, the Part 4 rules for managing residents' money, the limits on attorneys and guardians, and the penalties. This is the Scottish equivalent of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Healthcare & Social Care

Check practitioners before they treat in your clinic

Check each practitioner's regulator register, confirm their indemnity cover and ask for the right DBS check before they treat anyone in your clinic.

Manufacturing & Engineering

Choosing a UK Approved Body for medical devices

You need a UK Approved Body to UKCA mark any medical device above Class I, and for the sterility or measuring aspects of Class Is and Im devices. Higher classes face fuller assessment, up to design examination and clinical data review for Class III, so pick a body whose designated scope covers your device.

Healthcare & Social Care

CIW inspection preparation checklist

Care Inspectorate Wales inspects services against RISCA 2016 and its 2017 regulations, focusing on people's well-being. Before an inspection, make sure the Statement of Purpose is current, the Responsible Individual has visited at least quarterly with written reports, and the six-monthly quality of care review is done.

Healthcare & Social Care

Claim local authority funding for free childcare places

To be paid for funded childcare places in England, sign a provider agreement with the local authority, verify parents' eligibility codes before places start, and charge only for genuinely optional extras. From October 2026 a local authority must pay monthly if you ask.

Manufacturing & Engineering

Classify your medical device for the GB market

Before placing a medical device on the Great Britain market, you must classify it under the Medical Devices Regulations 2002 by its intended purpose, invasiveness and duration of contact. The class decides whether you can self-certify, as for most Class I devices, or need a UK Approved Body.

Healthcare & Social Care

Client notes, confidentiality and disclosure for counsellors

Notes about a client's mental health are health data under UK GDPR. Some laws override confidentiality. Your register and nation decide which duties apply.

Healthcare & Social Care

Compare healthcare regulation across the UK nations

Health and social care regulation is devolved, so each nation has its own regulator, legislation and registration process. Providing a regulated service without registration is an offence in every nation, and you register separately wherever you operate. Professional registration with bodies such as the GMC applies UK-wide.

Healthcare & Social Care

Compare the care regulators in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each regulate care under their own law, through the Care Inspectorate, Care Inspectorate Wales and RQIA. They differ in how they grade services, which body registers the workforce, which criminal record check applies and where you appeal an enforcement decision.

Healthcare & Social Care

Counsellor and psychotherapist registration rules

You need no licence to work as a counsellor or psychotherapist. A care regulator applies if a doctor or nurse provides or supervises treatment.

Healthcare & Social Care

Get a DBS check as a self-employed counsellor

The law does not require a DBS check in England and Wales, but a register or client may ask. If your role is eligible, you can apply for an Enhanced one.

Healthcare & Social Care

Get planning permission for nursery premises

A day nursery falls in planning use class E(f). If your premises are already in Class E, such as a shop or office, you can usually open a nursery without planning permission for a change of use. Other premises need permission, and councils often attach conditions on hours, numbers, noise and parking.

Healthcare & Social Care

Healthcare and social care regulation (CQC)

CQC registration requirements for health and social care providers in England, including detailed guidance on regulated activities, costs, and devolved nation alternatives.

Healthcare & Social Care

Healthcare premises and equipment requirements

If you are a CQC-registered healthcare provider in England, your premises and equipment must be suitable, clean, maintained and used by trained staff. You may also need radiation protection, specialist ventilation, medical gas and decontamination arrangements, and must plan for accessibility and fire evacuation.

Healthcare & Social Care

Healthcare professional registration requirements

Registration requirements with GMC, NMC, GDC, GPhC, and HCPC for healthcare employers and professionals.

Healthcare & Social Care

How care is regulated in Wales

How Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) regulates care services under RISCA 2016, the Responsible Individual model, Welsh Language Standards obligations, and how the Welsh framework differs from CQC in England and Care Inspectorate in Scotland.

Healthcare & Social Care

How RQIA regulates health and social care in Northern Ireland

The Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority registers and inspects health and social care services in Northern Ireland, where both are delivered through one integrated system. Unlike the CQC, it does not give ratings: it publishes inspection reports measured against the Minimum Care Standards.

Healthcare & Social Care

Human tissue authorisation in Scotland

What hospitals, pathology services and teaching and research bodies in Scotland must do before removing, keeping or using human tissue. Scotland works by authorisation under the Human Tissue (Scotland) Act 2006, not by HTA licence. The guide separates the four systems that can apply (post-mortem, transplantation, human application and anatomy) and lists the records you must keep.

Healthcare & Social Care

Insurance for Childcare Businesses

Insurance requirements and options for childcare providers including public liability, employer's liability, professional indemnity, and vehicle insurance for outings.

Healthcare & Social Care

Keep children's records and protect their data

Childcare providers in England must keep a record for each child, a daily attendance record, and written records of medicines, accidents, physical intervention and complaints, and handle them under UK GDPR. Tell Ofsted about serious incidents within 14 days.

Healthcare & Social Care

Keep food safe in your childcare setting

If you give children meals, snacks or drinks, you are a food business: register with your local authority (childminders are registered through Ofsted), run a food safety system, manage allergens, and serve healthy, balanced food and fresh water under the EYFS nutrition guidance.

Healthcare & Social Care

Manage fire safety and risk in a childcare setting

Every registered childcare provider must have an emergency evacuation procedure, working fire detection and control equipment, and clear fire exits. Nurseries and other non-domestic premises also need a recorded fire risk assessment, and every provider must assess risks to children, including on outings.

Healthcare & Social Care

Manage medicines and controlled drugs safely

Prescription-only medicines may be supplied or given only on a prescriber's direction or under a lawful patient group direction. Controlled drugs add rules on locked storage, registers and destruction, and a privately funded provider needs a Home Office licence to hold Schedule 2 stock.

Manufacturing & Engineering

Manage the medical devices you buy and use

Buy only medical devices with a UKCA marking or a recognised CE marking, keep a record for each device, maintain and examine it, and train its users. Report adverse incidents and near misses to the MHRA, and consult a radiation protection adviser if you use X-ray equipment.

Manufacturing & Engineering

Medical device compliance checklist

Before placing a medical device on the Great Britain market, confirm you have classified it, completed the right conformity assessment, compiled technical documentation, affixed the UKCA or CE mark and registered with the MHRA. Since 16 June 2025, you also need a post-market surveillance system that meets the enhanced rules.

Healthcare & Social Care

Meet RISCA 2016 compliance requirements for care services in Wales

How to meet the ongoing compliance requirements under the Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016 and the Regulated Services (Service Providers and Responsible Individuals) (Wales) Regulations 2017, including Statement of Purpose, governance, staffing, service user engagement, and complaints handling.

Healthcare & Social Care

Meet RQIA Minimum Care Standards

Every RQIA-registered service in Northern Ireland must meet the Minimum Care Standards that the Department of Health publishes for its service type. Find the standards for your service, assess yourself honestly against each one and gather evidence, because shortfalls can lead to requirements or conditions on registration.

Healthcare & Social Care

Meet Scotland's Health and Social Care Standards

How to meet Scotland's Health and Social Care Standards (My support, my life), covering the five headline standards, self-assessment approaches, evidence of compliance, and common shortfalls identified by the Care Inspectorate.

Healthcare & Social Care

Meet the EYFS requirements for a childcare setting

All early years providers registered in England must follow the EYFS statutory framework, which sets the learning, assessment, staffing, safeguarding and premises requirements. Ratios apply across the whole provision, at least one paediatric first aider must be present, and each child needs a key person.

Retail & Consumer Goods

MHRA authorisation for medicines and medical devices

Making, distributing or selling medicines or medical devices in the UK needs MHRA authorisation. Medicines need a marketing authorisation for each product, manufacturers a manufacturer's licence and distributors a wholesale dealer licence, while device makers register their devices; since 1 January 2025, authorisations cover the whole UK.

Healthcare & Social Care

NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit compliance

Any organisation that handles NHS patient data or connects to NHS systems, from GP practices to suppliers and care homes, must complete the Data Security and Protection Toolkit every year. Failing to reach Standards Met can cost you access to NHS systems and contracts.

Healthcare & Social Care

Outdoor Learning and Forest School in Early Years

Requirements for outdoor learning and forest school provision in early years settings, including risk assessment, insurance, qualifications, and health and safety compliance.

Healthcare & Social Care

Physiotherapy, osteopathy and chiropractic clinic registration

A clinic staffed only by physiotherapists, podiatrists, osteopaths and chiropractors usually does not register. Check your team and services in each nation.

Manufacturing & Engineering

Place a medical device on the GB market

To place medical devices on the GB market, you must classify them, follow the right conformity assessment route and register them with the MHRA. UKCA marking has no expiry date, and CE marking under the old EU directives is accepted until 30 June 2028.

Manufacturing & Engineering

Placing medical devices on the Northern Ireland market

Under the Windsor Framework, medical devices placed on the Northern Ireland market must meet the EU Medical Devices Regulation and carry a CE mark, not UKCA alone. If a UK Approved Body assesses the device, add the UKNI mark, and non-UK manufacturers need an EU Authorised Representative.

Healthcare & Social Care

Plan the finances of a care business

Most care businesses earn from two sources: councils, which pay the fee rates they set when they commission care, and people who pay for their own care at your rates. Model both before you commit, and understand the duties that shape how councils buy care.

Manufacturing & Engineering

Post-market surveillance for medical devices

If you place medical devices on the Great Britain market, you must run a post-market surveillance system proportionate to their risk class, under enhanced rules in force since 16 June 2025. That means a written plan, active data collection, trend analysis, summary reports and field safety corrective action when needed.

Healthcare & Social Care

Prepare for an Ofsted Inspection

Ofsted inspects a childcare setting within 30 months of registration and then at least once in every 4-year window, and since 10 November 2025 it publishes a report card grading each area on a 5-point scale. The best preparation is good everyday practice, backed by self-evaluation and evidence.

Healthcare & Social Care

Prepare for an RQIA inspection

The RQIA carries out both announced and unannounced inspections, so keep your service ready at all times. Check that your registration certificate is displayed, your statement of purpose and insurance are current, a registered manager is in post and earlier inspection requirements are met.

Healthcare & Social Care

Prevent and control infection in a healthcare service

A registered healthcare provider in England must assess the risk of infection and prevent, detect and control its spread. The Hygiene Code sets ten criteria the Care Quality Commission takes into account. You may follow it or show an equally effective approach, and a failure that harms someone is an offence.

Healthcare & Social Care

Prevent and control infection in an independent healthcare service in Scotland

If you run an independent hospital, clinic or medical agency in Scotland, you must have systems, processes and procedures to prevent and control infection. Register with Healthcare Improvement Scotland before you open, base your procedures on the national manual, train your staff and keep evidence for inspection.

Healthcare & Social Care

Prevent and control infection in an independent healthcare service in Wales

If you run an independent hospital, clinic or medical agency in Wales, you must keep a written infection control policy, protect patients from healthcare associated infection and report serious outbreaks to Healthcare Inspectorate Wales within 24 hours. Breaking these rules is a criminal offence as well as grounds for enforcement.

Healthcare & Social Care

Protect adults from abuse and follow the Mental Capacity Act

Providers regulated in England must prevent abuse, investigate any allegation at once and tell the local authority and the Care Quality Commission. Staff must presume capacity, help people decide and act in best interests, and a care home or hospital needs authorisation before depriving someone of their liberty.

Healthcare & Social Care

Protect patient data in a healthcare practice

Health data is special category data, so you need both a lawful basis and a health or social care condition to use it. You must keep it confidential, secure it, report notifiable breaches to the Information Commission (formerly the ICO) within 72 hours and answer access requests within a month.

Healthcare & Social Care

Recruit staff safely for a childcare setting

Before anyone starts work in a childcare setting, you must get a written reference, receive their enhanced DBS and barred list result, and check they are not disqualified. Record each check. Nobody unchecked may have unsupervised contact with children.

Healthcare & Social Care

Register a care service with Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW)

You must register with Care Inspectorate Wales before providing a regulated care service in Wales, and providing one without registration is a criminal offence. Appoint a Responsible Individual and a service manager first, as both must meet CIW's fitness requirements. Registration takes up to 14 weeks from a complete application, so start well before opening.

Retail & Consumer Goods

Register a food business in Wales

Every food business in Wales, from restaurants and market stalls to home bakers and online sellers, must register with its local authority at least 28 days before trading. Registration is free and cannot be refused, but failing to register is a criminal offence. The Food Hygiene (Wales) Regulations 2006 set the rules.

Healthcare & Social Care

Register a health or social care service with RQIA

If you plan to provide a health or social care service in Northern Ireland, such as a care home, domiciliary care agency or dental practice, you must register with the RQIA before you open. Operating unregistered is a criminal offence, and registration usually takes 12 to 16 weeks.

Healthcare & Social Care

Register and run X-ray equipment in a chiropractic clinic

A chiropractic clinic does not register with the CQC to take X-rays. You must still register the equipment with the HSE and follow the radiation rules.

Healthcare & Social Care

Register as a childminder in England

To work as a childminder in England you must be at least 18 and register with Ofsted or a childminder agency before looking after children. You need DBS checks, a health declaration, child protection and paediatric first aid training and insurance, then a registration visit.

Healthcare & Social Care

Register a social care service

In England you must register with the Care Quality Commission before you provide personal care, run a care home or offer home care, and carrying on a regulated activity unregistered is an offence. Services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland register with their own regulators.

Healthcare & Social Care

Register Holiday Clubs and Out-of-School Care

Holiday, breakfast and after-school clubs in England caring for children aged 5 to 7 must register with Ofsted on the Compulsory Childcare Register, though some school-run clubs are exempt. Clubs for children aged 8 and over can register voluntarily, which lets parents use Tax-Free Childcare.

Healthcare & Social Care

Register with the Care Inspectorate Scotland

If you plan to provide a care service in Scotland, you must register with the Care Inspectorate before you start, and running an unregistered service is a criminal offence under the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010. Assessment usually takes 3 to 6 months, and you pay an application fee and annual fees.

Healthcare & Social Care

Register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC)

If you provide a regulated health or social care activity in England, such as personal care or treatment of disease, you must register with the Care Quality Commission before you start. Applying is free, but you pay an annual fee for each location, and operating unregistered is a criminal offence.

Healthcare & Social Care

Register your care staff with Social Care Wales

Staff in registrable care roles in Wales must register with Social Care Wales, and new starters have a set period to do so. As their employer, you must not employ anyone in those roles unless they are registered or within that period, and you must report fitness-to-practise concerns.

Manufacturing & Engineering

Report a medical device safety incident to MHRA

If your medical device is involved in a serious incident in Great Britain, report it to the MHRA through the MORE portal: within 2 calendar days for a serious public health threat, 10 for a death or unanticipated serious deterioration, and 15 for other serious incidents. Failing to report is a criminal offence.

Healthcare & Social Care

Responding to Care Inspectorate enforcement action in Scotland

What to do when the Care Inspectorate imposes conditions, issues improvement notices, or initiates cancellation of your registration, including your rights of appeal under the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 and the sheriff court appeal process.

Healthcare & Social Care

Respond to CIW enforcement action in Wales

Care Inspectorate Wales escalates enforcement by severity, from non-compliance notices to conditions on registration, improvement notices and cancellation. Where there is a risk of serious harm, a restriction notice takes immediate effect. You can appeal against cancellation and other enforcement decisions to the First-tier Tribunal, so respond quickly and with evidence.

Healthcare & Social Care

Respond to RQIA enforcement action

If the RQIA takes enforcement action against your service in Northern Ireland, act quickly: a failure to comply notice sets improvements and a deadline, and conditions or cancellation can follow. Under the urgent procedure, cancellation can take effect immediately, and you can appeal to the Care Tribunal.

Healthcare & Social Care

Run a clinical trial of a medicine in the UK

You cannot start a clinical trial of a medicine until the MHRA and a research ethics committee approve it through one IRAS application, decided within 30 days of validation. Sponsors must then follow good clinical practice, report safety events, register the trial and keep records for 25 years.

Healthcare & Social Care

Run care services across UK nations

Each UK nation has its own care inspectorate, legislation and quality framework, so registration in one does not cover another. To provide care in more than one nation, apply and pay fees separately to each inspectorate and meet its workforce rules, including a Responsible Individual in Wales.

Healthcare & Social Care

Run clinical governance that meets CQC expectations

Regulation 17 requires you to run systems that monitor and improve the quality and safety of care and manage risk. You must also tell patients about notifiable safety incidents under the duty of candour, and operate an accessible complaints system. CQC tests all of this under its well-led question.

Healthcare & Social Care

Safeguarding and Child Protection for Childcare Providers

Every childcare setting must have a written safeguarding policy, a designated safeguarding lead trained to Level 3, and staff who can recognise physical, emotional and sexual abuse and neglect. Record any concern immediately and report it to the lead the same day; providers also have a legal Prevent duty.

Healthcare & Social Care

Social care workforce qualifications and staffing

England is the only UK nation where care workers need not register with a workforce regulator. There, the CQC expects new staff to complete the Care Certificate within 12 weeks of starting, senior carers to hold Level 3, and registered managers to hold or work towards Level 5.

Technology & Digital

Software and AI as medical devices (SaMD/AIaMD)

Software with a medical purpose, such as diagnosing, monitoring or treating disease, is a medical device in its own right and must be registered with the MHRA before going on the Great Britain market. Many such products are Class I now, but most are expected to move to at least Class IIa.

Healthcare & Social Care

SSSC workforce registration for care providers in Scotland

How to ensure your care staff register with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), including registration categories, qualification requirements, timescales, fitness to practise, PVG scheme membership, and employer obligations.

Manufacturing & Engineering

UKCA and CE marking for medical devices

Medical devices on the Great Britain market can carry a UKCA mark, which has no expiry, or a CE mark during the transition: until 30 June 2028 for devices certified under the old directives and 30 June 2030 under the EU MDR or IVDR. Northern Ireland requires CE marking.

Healthcare & Social Care

Understanding the Care Inspectorate Scotland

The Care Inspectorate registers, inspects and enforces standards for around 12,000 care services in Scotland, from childminders to care homes, while Healthcare Improvement Scotland covers healthcare. It inspects against the Health and Social Care Standards, which focus on outcomes for the people using a service.

Healthcare & Social Care

VAT on physiotherapy, osteopathy and chiropractic treatment

Treatment within a registered practitioner's profession is VAT-exempt if its main purpose is health. Product sales and third-party reports are not exempt.

Tax & Finance

Check if you need to register for VAT

You must register for VAT when your taxable turnover passes the registration threshold in any rolling 12 months, or when you expect it to pass the threshold within the next 30 days alone. Under the first test, register within 30 days of the end of the month. Late registration brings penalties and backdated VAT.

Compliance & Legal

File your confirmation statement

File a confirmation statement every 12 months, within 14 days after your review period ends. Filing late is a criminal offence for the company and its officers.

Premises & Operations

Meet your business waste duty of care

Every business that produces, stores or disposes of waste has a duty of care under section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, and stays responsible after it hands the waste on. Use only registered waste carriers, complete waste transfer notes correctly, and follow the stricter rules for hazardous waste.

Compliance & Legal

Verify your identity for Companies House as a director or PSC

Yes, if you are an individual director or PSC of a UK company, or an individual director of an overseas company registered in the UK. Corporate directors and officers of corporate PSCs are not yet required to verify. The transition for existing directors and PSCs ends on 17 November 2026.