CQC notices of proposal: how to respond

When the CQC is proposing to take civil enforcement action without following an urgent process, then they will serve a Notice of Proposal on the registered provider.

This notifies the provider of the action that the CQC is proposing. Commonly this is either to impose conditions on the registration or to close the home.

The Proposal is most likely to state that CQC proposes one of the following:

1. To prevent future admissions without the consent of the CQC
2. To remove one of the registered activities
3. To remove the location from the provider’s registration (i.e. in effect to close the unit)
4. To impose positive conditions, such as the provision of information regularly to the CQC — which will enable them to monitor the home more closely

Where the CQC serves a Notice of Proposal, the registered provider has 28 days to make representations to the CQC setting out why it says that the proposal should not be adopted by the CQC.

It is clearly important that providers take the opportunity to make these representations and to make them as full and detailed as possible. There is much that can be done to maximise the chance of avoiding the proposal. If the CQC then decides to proceed with the proposal, those representations are likely to form the basis of an appeal by the provider to the First Tier Tribunal.

If an appeal to the Tribunal is made (within 28 days of the Notice of Decision by the CQC to uphold the NOP) the proposal does not take effect until the conclusion of the tribunal process.