GUIDE
CQC vs Ofsted: which regulator do you need?
The two regulators cover different worlds, but the line is not always obvious. Here is a clear guide to which one your business needs, and the edge cases that catch people out.
Last reviewed: 05 June 2026
The simple version
In England, two regulators govern most care and childcare businesses, and they cover different things. The CQC, the Care Quality Commission, regulates adult social care and health services. Ofsted, the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, regulates childcare and early years education, and children’s social care. The simplest way to hold it: if you are caring for adults, you are almost certainly looking at the CQC; if you are caring for or educating children, you are almost certainly looking at Ofsted. Most businesses fall clearly on one side.
What the CQC regulates
The CQC regulates adult social care and health in England, under the Health and Social Care Act 2008. What triggers CQC registration is not the type of business but the activity, the CQC registers ‘regulated activities’, the most common of which, for the businesses we work with, is personal care. A domiciliary care agency, a supported living service providing personal care, a care home: all CQC. The CQC assesses these services against its Single Assessment Framework and the 34 Quality Statements.
What Ofsted regulates
Ofsted’s remit splits into two distinct areas. The first is childcare and early years education, nurseries, pre-schools, and childminders, which register on the Early Years Register or the Childcare Register and must meet the EYFS, under the Childcare Act 2006. The second is children’s social care, including children’s homes, which register under a separate regime built on the Care Standards Act 2000 and the Children’s Homes Regulations 2015. These two Ofsted worlds, early years and children’s social care, are themselves quite different from each other, with different rules, different applications, and different inspections.
The edge cases that catch people out
Most businesses are clearly CQC or clearly Ofsted, but a few situations cause confusion. Supported living is the big one: the housing is not regulated by anyone as care, but if your staff provide personal care, that is a CQC-regulated activity, so a supported living service usually needs CQC registration. Another: a service for adults is CQC regardless of what you call the setting, the CQC looks at what your staff do, not the label. And remember the two Ofsted regimes are separate, a children’s home and a nursery are both ‘Ofsted’, but they register under entirely different rules. The mistake to avoid is assuming the regulator from the setting name; it is the activity and the people served that decide.
Personal care and other regulated activities.
Childcare, early years, and children’s homes.
Not the setting’s name.
What if you are not sure, or need both?
Some people we work with are weighing up more than one option, or are genuinely unsure which regulator applies to the business they have in mind. That is exactly what a consultation is for. We specialise in both CQC and Ofsted registration, which is unusual, most consultancies do one or the other, so we can tell you straight which regulator your plan needs, and build the whole business around it.
CQC vs Ofsted questions, answered
Related guides
Do you need CQC registration? The personal care boundary
When personal care triggers CQC registration.
Read the guide →EYFS explained: what early years providers must meet
The statutory framework for early years.
Read the guide →The 34 CQC Quality Statements explained
What the CQC assesses and how the evidence works.
Read the guide →