Clinical Governance Policies
A comprehensive suite of CQC-aligned clinical governance policies, customised for your service and updated annually to reflect current legislation, NICE guidance, and CQC regulatory requirements.
Clinical governance policies are the documented foundation of your compliance framework. They tell the CQC — and your patients — how your service operates, how risks are managed, and how you ensure safe, effective, and person-centred care.
Policies that are generic, out of date, or not implemented in practice are one of the most common reasons for 'Requires Improvement' ratings in CQC inspections of independent healthcare providers. The CQC expects to see policies that are specific to your service, regularly reviewed, and evidenced in day-to-day practice.
The Compliance Clinic provides policy templates that are customised to your service type, regulated activities, and local context — and updated annually as part of our membership packages to ensure they remain current.
Every CQC-registered independent healthcare provider needs the following core policies as a minimum:
Policy and procedure for identifying, reporting, and responding to concerns about the abuse or neglect of adults at risk.
Policy and procedure for identifying, reporting, and responding to concerns about the welfare of children and young people.
Policy covering the principles of valid consent, capacity assessment, and documentation requirements for all clinical interventions.
Policy and procedure for being open and honest with patients when things go wrong, in line with the statutory Duty of Candour.
Policy and procedure for receiving, investigating, and responding to complaints, with documented learning and service improvement.
Policy covering standard precautions, hand hygiene, decontamination, and management of infection risks in your clinical environment.
Policy covering the safe prescribing, dispensing, storage, administration, and disposal of medicines, including controlled drugs where applicable.
Policy and procedure for identifying, assessing, and managing clinical and operational risks through a maintained risk register.
Policy covering safer recruitment practices, DBS checking requirements, and management of staff with criminal convictions.
Overarching clinical governance policy setting out your governance framework, committee structure, and accountability arrangements.
For CQC registration you need policies covering all regulated activities and the Fundamental Standards. Core policies include safeguarding adults and children, consent, duty of candour, complaints, infection prevention and control, medicines management, risk management, recruitment and DBS, training and competency, and clinical governance. The exact policies required depend on your regulated activities.
CQC guidance recommends that all policies are reviewed at least annually, or sooner if there are changes in legislation, NICE guidance, or CQC regulatory requirements. Policies should also be reviewed following any significant incident or complaint that reveals a gap in the existing framework.
Yes, template policies are widely used and accepted by the CQC, provided they are customised to reflect your specific service, regulated activities, and local context. Generic, unmodified templates that do not reference your service name, location, or specific procedures are less likely to satisfy CQC inspectors.
Contact us to discuss your service type and regulated activities. We will provide a customised policy suite that meets your CQC requirements from day one.
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