CQC Statement of Purpose: What to Include, Section by Section

Your CQC statement of purpose defines the service you are registered to run. The rest of your application has to match it. Get it wrong and everything else is measured against the wrong service.

This is what goes in it, section by section, and where applications come unstuck.

What it is for

The statement of purpose describes the service you run today. Not the service you hope to run in two years, and not a general description of good care. It is the reference document an inspector uses to decide whether you are doing what you said you would do.

An ambitious statement of purpose creates obligations across every other document you submit, and that is where most rejections start.

What a CQC statement of purpose must contain

This is not a matter of opinion. Regulation 12 of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009 says the registered person "must give the Commission a statement of purpose containing the information listed in Schedule 3".

Schedule 3 lists five things.

1. Your aims and objectives

"The aims and objectives of the service provider in carrying on the regulated activity."

Write outcomes, not values. "People are supported to stay in their own homes safely for as long as they choose" is an aim. "We are passionate about care" is not.

2. The services you provide, and the needs they meet

"The kinds of services provided for the purposes of the carrying on of the regulated activity and the range of service users' needs which those services are intended to meet."

Two halves, and people often write only the first. Say what you do, and say who for: age ranges, conditions, levels of need. Be specific about what you do not do as well.

This is where consistency starts to matter. If you say you support people living with dementia, every policy you submit has to work for people living with dementia.

3. Contact information

For the service provider and any registered manager: full name, business address, business telephone number, and email address where available.

For the registered person: the address CQC can send documents and notices to, and an email address if you consent to service by email.

4. Your legal status

"The legal status of the service provider." Sole trader, partnership, limited company, charity, NHS body. Easy to leave out, and you have to include it.

5. Your locations

"Details of the locations at which the services provided for the purposes of the regulated activity are carried on."

When you must update it, and the 28-day rule

Regulation 12 also says the registered person "must keep under review and, where appropriate, revise the statement of purpose", and "must provide written details of any revision to the statement of purpose to the Commission within 28 days of any such revision".

So it is not simply that a change is notifiable. You have 28 days from making the change to tell CQC in writing what changed.

CQC also says this. If you apply to change a condition of your registration, send your proposed statement of purpose with the application.

The four mistakes that get applications sent back

Describing a bigger service than you can staff. If your statement of purpose says you provide complex nursing care, your staffing and training documents have to show you can. The statement itself is rarely the problem. The gap between it and the rest of the pack is.

Copying someone else's. Inspectors read a great many of these. A statement of purpose that names another provider's model of care, or uses wording that does not match your registration, is obvious immediately.

Leaving placeholders in. "Insert manager name", a version number still on 0.1, a review date of "TBC". Each one signals a document nobody owns.

Never updating it. Changing your statement of purpose is itself a notifiable event. Services change what they do and forget to tell CQC, which means the document on file no longer describes the service.

Read the whole set in one sitting

Print your statement of purpose and your main policies, and read them in one sitting. You are looking for three things:

1. Does every policy work for the people you described? If you named dementia, look for it in care planning, consent, restrictive practice and communication.

2. Does any policy describe an activity you are not registered for? A generic policy pack will often include one.

3. Could a stranger reading only these documents describe your service accurately? If not, the gap is what an inspector will probe.

Reading them separately hides the contradictions. Reading them together exposes them in about an hour.

Structure and format

Your statement of purpose has to stay consistent with every policy you hold, so it is worth reading it against the full policy list for your service type at the same time.

There is no required layout, but there is a format that reads well:

• A cover page with the service name, the version number, the date, the author and the approver.

• The five Schedule 3 sections above, in that order, with clear headings.

• No jargon. This document is read by inspectors, by people considering your service, and by their families.

• A review date, and a note of what changed in the last version.

The version control is not decoration. It shows the document is managed rather than written once and filed. If you keep your documents in HeroDocs, a cover page carries the version, owner and approval date automatically so nobody has to remember to update it by hand.

Why an out-of-date one counts against you

This is not a filing detail. CQC's draft adult social care framework judges it directly under governance. A service rated Good "has an accurate statement of purpose that clearly reflects current service provision". One of the markers of Inadequate is that "the service does not have an up-to-date or accurate statement of purpose". An out-of-date statement of purpose is evidence against you under well-led.

Where to check the requirements

Work from CQC's own registration guidance for the current required content, since it changes. Use this article for the structure and the consistency checks, and CQC for the letter of what must be included.

Sources

• Regulation 12 of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009, which requires a statement of purpose containing the information in Schedule 3, and written details of any revision within 28 days.

• Schedule 3 of the same Regulations, "Information to be included in the statement of purpose".

• CQC, registration guidance for providers.

• CQC, notifications, which lists "Changes to your statement of purpose" as a notifiable change.

• CQC, draft adult social care assessment framework, version 9, 19 March 2026, published with the consultation on draft sector-specific frameworks. Under good governance, a service rated Good "has an accurate statement of purpose that clearly reflects current service provision".

Last checked: 21 September 2026.