Compliance services for care homes and supported living
A care home carries every statutory duty a commercial building carries, plus a resident population that cannot self-evacuate and a regulator that reads your maintenance records. Fire, water, electrical, lifting and ventilation compliance are not five separate admin jobs here. They are the evidence base for Regulation 15 and a large part of how a Safe rating is won or lost.
A UK care home must hold a current fire risk assessment, a legionella risk assessment with a live written control scheme, a fixed wiring inspection certificate, emergency lighting and alarm test records, LOLER thorough examinations for every passenger lift and hoist, and gas safety certification, and must be able to produce all of it to CQC on request.
Who usually owns compliance here
- Registered manager and nominated individual
- Group head of estates or facilities
- Head of procurement or operations director in a multi-site group
- Owner or managing director in a single or two-site home
What the regulations require
Premises and equipment must be safe, clean, properly maintained and suitable for purpose. This is the regulation CQC cites when maintenance records are missing, and it applies to the building as well as to hoists, baths and call systems.
CQC Regulation 15 ↗The responsible person must carry out and keep up to date a fire risk assessment. In a care home the assessment has to address progressive horizontal evacuation, staffing levels at night, compartmentation between bedrooms and personal emergency evacuation plans for every resident.
The Order on legislation.gov.uk ↗Where the home is in a building over 11 metres, additional duties apply for quarterly fire door checks in common parts and annual checks of flat entrance doors.
The Regulations on legislation.gov.uk ↗Legionella control is a duty, and care homes are explicitly a higher-risk setting because residents are older, often immunosuppressed and frequently exposed to aerosol from showers and assisted bathing. A written scheme, monthly temperature monitoring and a named responsible person are the minimum.
HSE ACoP L8 ↗Passenger lifts carrying people need a thorough examination every six months. Ceiling track hoists, mobile hoists and bath lifts are lifting equipment for lifting people and also fall on the six month cycle. Slings are part of the examination.
HSE LOLER guidance ↗Fixed electrical installations must be maintained in a safe condition. Industry guidance places care homes on a maximum five year fixed wiring inspection cycle, with annual inspection of a proportion of the installation in higher-risk areas.
Statutory frequencies at a glance
| Item | Frequency | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Fire risk assessment review | Annually, and after any material change | RRO 2005, article 9 |
| Fire alarm test | Weekly call point test, six monthly service | BS 5839-1 |
| Emergency lighting | Monthly function test, annual three hour duration test | BS 5266-1 |
| Fire door inspection | Quarterly in common parts of buildings over 11m | Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 |
| Legionella risk assessment review | Every two years, or on any change to the system or occupancy | ACoP L8 |
| Hot and cold water temperature monitoring | Monthly sentinel outlets, annual full rotation of all outlets | HSG274 Part 2 |
| Passenger lift thorough examination | Every six months | LOLER 1998 |
| Hoists and slings thorough examination | Every six months | LOLER 1998 |
| Fixed wiring inspection (EICR) | Maximum five years | BS 7671 and industry guidance |
| Gas safety inspection | Annually | Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 |
Frequencies are the common baseline. Your own risk assessment, insurer requirement or the date on your current certificate can shorten any of them, and where they conflict the shorter interval applies.
Where this sector usually comes unstuck
Consequence: Resident mobility changes constantly in a care setting. An evacuation plan that describes a resident who could walk two years ago is the single most common finding after a care home fire.
Fix: Tie PEEP review to the care plan review cycle, not to the fire risk assessment cycle, so it happens monthly rather than annually.
Consequence: Temperatures get recorded but nothing is escalated when they fail. An HSE inspection or an outbreak investigation reads that logbook as evidence the duty holder knew and did nothing.
Fix: Keep monitoring in-house if you want, but have a WMSoc or LCA registered consultant write the scheme, train the person and audit it annually.
Consequence: A service visit is not a LOLER thorough examination and does not satisfy the regulation. Providers routinely discover this only during an inspection.
Fix: Ask the provider directly for the thorough examination report reference and the competent person's details, not just the service sheet.
Consequence: Compartmentation fails, progressive horizontal evacuation becomes impossible, and the fire and rescue service issues an enforcement notice.
Fix: Fit acoustic or alarm-linked hold-open devices on the doors staff keep wedging, then re-inspect quarterly.
Consequence: Nobody independently checks the work, remedials get deferred, and the estate drifts out of compliance quietly between inspections.
Fix: Split the disciplines, or keep one contractor and commission an independent annual audit of their records.
What an inspector asks to see
- Current fire risk assessment, signed, dated and with a documented action tracker
- PEEPs for every resident, dated within the last review cycle
- Fire alarm, emergency lighting and fire door inspection logs
- Legionella risk assessment plus the written control scheme and monitoring records
- LOLER thorough examination reports for every lift, hoist and sling
- Current EICR with remedial C1 and C2 items closed out and evidenced
- Gas safety record and boiler service history
- Ventilation and extract cleanliness records for kitchens and laundries
- Contractor competence evidence: accreditation certificates, insurance, DBS where staff work unsupervised near residents
What the decision maker is on the hook for
The registered manager and the nominated individual are accountable to CQC under Regulation 15, and the responsible person under the Fire Safety Order can be prosecuted personally. Corporate structure does not move that duty off the individual named on the registration.
- A single compliance register listing every statutory item, its due date and the last certificate
- Named competent person for fire and for water hygiene, with their qualification on file
- Remedial action tracker showing what was found, who owns it and when it closes
- Evidence that the contractor's accreditation was current on the date of the work, not just today
- Which scheme are you accredited under, what is your registration number, and can I verify it on the scheme's own register?
- Who exactly attends site, what are their qualifications, and are they employed or subcontracted?
- Does your price include remedial works, or is that a separate quote you will raise after the inspection?
- What is your response time for a C1 electrical finding or a failed fire door out of hours?
- Can you provide two references from care homes of a similar size and CQC registration type?
Service lines for this estate type
Care homes and supported living questions buyers actually ask
How often does a care home need a fire risk assessment?
The Fire Safety Order does not set a fixed interval, it requires the assessment to be kept up to date. In practice a care home should review annually and immediately after any change to layout, staffing, resident dependency or building fabric. Most insurers and fire authorities expect to see a review dated within the last twelve months.
Does CQC inspect fire and water compliance directly?
CQC does not enforce fire safety law, the fire and rescue authority does, and it does not enforce ACoP L8, the HSE does. CQC does inspect whether premises and equipment are safe and properly maintained under Regulation 15, and missing fire or legionella records are routinely cited as evidence that they are not.
Do ceiling track hoists need a six monthly LOLER examination?
Yes. Equipment used to lift people requires a thorough examination at least every six months. That covers ceiling track hoists, mobile hoists, bath lifts and the slings used with them. A manufacturer's service visit is a different thing and does not satisfy LOLER on its own.
How often should a care home have an EICR?
The Electricity at Work Regulations require the installation to be maintained safely rather than naming an interval. Industry guidance for care premises is a maximum of five years for the fixed installation, with a shorter cycle for high-risk or heavily used areas. Your existing EICR states the recommended date of the next inspection and that date is the one to work to.
Who is responsible if a contractor gets it wrong?
The duty stays with you. Appointing a contractor transfers the work, not the legal duty. That is why competence checking before appointment, and evidence that you checked, matters as much as the certificate itself.
Relevant guides
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