CQC Notification of Death: When and How to Tell CQC
When a person using your service dies, the law may require you to notify CQC without delay. Which deaths count, which form to use, what the form asks for, and the record to keep when you decide a death is not notifiable.
By HeroDocs Team
A CQC notification of death is the report a registered provider must send when a person using the service dies in circumstances the law covers. The duty sits in Regulation 16 of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009, and it applies to care homes, domiciliary care agencies and supported living services alike.
Most managers know the duty exists. The questions come at the worst moment: whether an expected death still counts, whether a death in hospital is yours to report, how fast "without delay" really is, and what the form will ask while you are also supporting a family and your staff.
Which deaths need a CQC notification of death
For an adult social care provider, Regulation 16(1) sets two tests. You must notify CQC of the death of a person using the service if either is true:
the person died while services were being provided in the carrying on of a regulated activity, or
the death has, or may have, resulted from the carrying on of a regulated activity.
The first test is about timing. The second is about cause, and the words "or may have" matter: you do not need to know that your care contributed, only that it might have.
Regulation 16(2) has a narrower rule that lets NHS bodies and GP practices leave out deaths following an illness's natural course. That exception is written for health service bodies, local authorities exercising public health functions and providers of primary medical services. An independent care home or home care agency is not one of them, so the two tests above are the ones to apply.
Deaths of people detained under the Mental Health Act are handled separately under Regulation 17, with their own form. Do not use the general death notification for them.
Expected deaths and end of life care
An expected death can still be notifiable. If a resident dies peacefully in your care home after weeks of planned end of life care, they died while you were providing a regulated activity, so the first test is met.
CQC's own form is built with this in mind. It asks whether the person was receiving end of life or palliative care, and whether the death was the expected outcome of an illness or condition. Those questions would be pointless if expected deaths were never reported.
Home care, supported living and deaths in hospital
The first test is easy to apply in a care home, where you provide care around the clock. It takes more thought in other settings.
Domiciliary care. A client who dies during a visit meets the first test. A client found dead at a morning call raises the second test: could a missed visit, a medicines problem or a gap in the care plan have played a part? If it may have, you notify.
Supported living. Look at what you were commissioned to provide and when. Round-the-clock support looks much more like a care home than a few hours a week does.
Deaths in hospital. CQC's form includes "hospital" as a place of death, so a death outside your premises can still be notifiable. Apply the second test honestly. A resident admitted after a fall in your home, or with a pressure ulcer that developed in your care, is a clear case to report.
When the answer is unclear, send the notification. CQC states it can prosecute for a breach of Regulation 16 without first serving a warning notice, and missing death notifications appear in inspection reports. One archived report for a residential home records plainly that "No death notification had been sent to CQC following one person's death."
How fast is "without delay"
The regulation says "without delay" and CQC's form page says "as soon as possible". Neither sets a number of hours. You may see "within 24 hours" quoted online, but that figure does not come from the regulation.
Read it as the next working opportunity once you know the basics: when and where the person died, and what led up to it. Do not hold the notification back until a cause of death is certified. The form lets you answer "no" to whether the certified cause is known.
How to send a CQC notification of death
CQC offers two routes:
Online, through the CQC provider portal, using the "Death of a person using your service" form.
By email, using CQC's Word form, sent to [email protected].
If you use the Word form, download it fresh from CQC's website each time. CQC says you must use the current version, and that an incomplete form will be returned to you.
The form also tells you not to include the name of any person other than the one completing it. Use your own unique identifier for the person who died, and keep the key to that identifier in your records.
What the CQC death notification form asks
Gather these first, so you are not hunting for dates halfway through the form. It asks for:
your CQC provider ID and location ID
an identifier for the person, the date they started using your service, and their month and year of birth
whether they were receiving end of life or palliative care
whether the certified cause of death is known, plus the date, time and place of death
whether they died within 30 days of surgery, or during or within 30 days of the use of restraint
whether the death was the expected outcome of an illness, when their last medical consultation was, and whether they were receiving appropriate care
whether the death is subject to a formal investigation, for example by the police, a coroner or HSE
for unexpected deaths, details of the last person who provided care, and any concerns about medicines or medical devices
Then comes the free text section. CQC asks for the circumstances leading up to the death, how the person died, who was present, when staff last saw the person and in what circumstances, and any recent risk assessments. It also asks you to list any notifications you sent about the same person in the last three months for a serious incident, police involvement or an allegation of abuse.
The last section asks whether the death is a notifiable safety incident under the duty of candour. If it is, you have separate duties to the family. Our duty of candour guide sets out the steps.
Keep a record either way
Keep a copy of what you sent and the acknowledgement CQC returns. CQC says the reference may come back as an ENQ number, a notification ID or a case ID, and any of them identifies your notification.
Record your reasoning when you decide a death is not notifiable, too. A two-line note saying which test you applied and why it was not met shows an inspector that someone made the decision on purpose. Our full list of CQC statutory notifications covers the other events with the same duty. When CQC asks for evidence, the inspection evidence export pulls your records together.
Where HeroDocs fits
The duty only works if the person on shift knows what to do. Your notifications policy should name who sends death notifications, who covers when the registered manager is away, and where the decision record is kept. With HeroDocs you send that policy to the right staff and see who has read it, so the night senior knows the process in advance.
Last checked: 6 October 2026.