LONDON

Start a care or childcare business in London

We help care and childcare professionals across London build CQC and Ofsted-registered businesses, while they keep working. London is the biggest and most complex care market in the country, and we know how to set you up to win work in it, borough by borough.

Done-for-you registration, built properly, for people who already know the work.

Book a free consultation See what we build

CQC & Ofsted · Serving every London borough · Done for you

Why London is its own kind of market

London is not one care market, it is dozens. Where most English cities sit under a single council, London is made up of thirty-two boroughs and the City of London, and each one is its own local authority with its own way of commissioning care. That makes London the largest care and childcare market in the country, and also the most varied. The opportunity is huge, but knowing how to approach it matters more here than anywhere else.

It is also the market where your background may matter most. London has the highest proportion of overseas-born care workers of any region in England, and the highest care vacancy rate, which means demand for new, well-run providers is real and constant. A great many of the people we help start businesses are exactly the experienced London care and childcare professionals who keep the city’s services running, and who are ready to own something of their own.

The care and childcare market in London

London’s sheer scale means continuous demand on both sides of what we do. On the adult care side, an ageing population, constant pressure to move people out of hospital and support them at home, and a chronic shortage of care workers all keep demand for domiciliary providers high. London consistently has among the highest care vacancy rates in the country, which tells you the work is there.

On the childcare side, London is full of working families, has one of the youngest and most diverse populations in the country, and sustains strong demand for nurseries, childminders, and early years provision across nearly every borough. From inner-city boroughs to the outer suburbs, the need for good, compliant childcare is constant.

One thing to understand about cost: most London boroughs commit to paying care staff at least the London Living Wage, which is higher than the national rate, and London’s running costs are higher generally. That shapes how you price and structure a business here, and it is one of the things we help you get right from the start.

How care is commissioned in London, borough by borough

Local commissioning details last reviewed 05 June 2026. Arrangements vary by borough and change over time, always confirm current arrangements with the relevant council.

This is the part that makes London different to plan for. There is no single “London” contract for home care. Each borough commissions its own adult social care, sets its own fee rates, runs its own provider lists or frameworks, and uses its own procurement portal. Hackney does it one way, Lambeth another, Croydon another again. So winning council-funded work in London is not about one application, it is about choosing the boroughs you want to serve and understanding how each of them buys care.

The models vary. Some boroughs run formal home care frameworks with a set list of approved providers. Others use flexible purchasing systems that reopen to new providers periodically. Some still buy care on a more ad hoc, spot-purchase basis. Across all of them, the common requirement is the same: before a borough will commission you, your business must be CQC-registered, compliant, and free of quality or safeguarding concerns. That is the foundation, and it is exactly what we build.

Increasingly, boroughs also work together in sub-regional clusters, groups of neighbouring London boroughs coordinating how they commission and shape their local care market, particularly in areas like south-west or north-central London. For a provider, that can mean a single relationship opening doors across several boroughs. The practical approach in London is to get registered and compliant, decide which boroughs and which communities you are best placed to serve, and be ready to apply as each borough’s opportunities open.

It sounds complex, and it is, but that complexity is exactly why a properly built business matters in London. We set yours up so that whichever boroughs you choose to target, you arrive registered, compliant, and credible.

Boroughs we work across

We help people start care and childcare businesses in every part of London, inner and outer, north and south of the river. Wherever you are based and whichever boroughs you want to serve, we can build your business for that market. Some of the areas we work across include:

North London

  • Barnet
  • Enfield
  • Haringey
  • Camden
  • Islington

East London

  • Newham
  • Tower Hamlets
  • Hackney
  • Redbridge
  • Barking and Dagenham
  • Waltham Forest

South London

  • Croydon
  • Lambeth
  • Southwark
  • Lewisham
  • Greenwich
  • Bromley
  • Wandsworth

West London

  • Ealing
  • Brent
  • Hounslow
  • Hillingdon
  • Harrow
  • Hammersmith and Fulham

And every other London borough and the City of London.

This is not a limited list. If your borough is not named here, we still work there, London-wide is exactly what we do. On your consultation, tell us which boroughs you want to serve and we will talk through how each one commissions care.

How we help you start in London

We build your whole regulated business and handle the registration, so you can keep working in London while we do it. The regulatory process is national, the CQC for adult care, Ofsted for childcare, but London is where local knowledge counts most, and we set your business up to compete across the boroughs you choose to target.

London questions, answered

Yes. We work with clients in every London borough and the City of London, inner and outer, and across the rest of England too. We build and submit your registration remotely and efficiently, so you do not need to take time off work to set your business up.

No. You register once with the CQC for adult care, or Ofsted for childcare, and that registration is national. What varies by borough is council-funded work: each London borough commissions care its own way, so if you want council contracts, you choose which boroughs to target and apply to each. We set your business up to be ready for that.

There is no single answer, it depends on the communities you know, where you are based, and the type of care you want to provide. Some boroughs have open frameworks, others do not. On your consultation we talk through your situation and which boroughs make sense for you. We are honest that council work is competitive everywhere in London.

Around sixteen weeks to a submitted CQC or Ofsted application. After that, the regulator’s assessment timeline applies, which is outside our control. We handle the whole process.

Yes. We build both CQC-regulated care businesses and Ofsted-registered childcare and early years businesses, including nurseries and children’s homes, right across London.

Start your London business properly

Book a free consultation. We will tell you honestly whether what you want to build works, which boroughs make sense for you, and exactly how we would do it.

No obligation. 100% confidential.