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Care Sync Experts delivers mock inspections that mirror the actual CQC process, covering every quality statement within the Single Assessment Framework and providing your team with a clear, prioritised action plan to close compliance gaps before they become regulatory findings.
Experts
Our team includes former CQC inspectors who understand what triggers a rating change, what evidence categories carry the most weight, and how to present your service in a way that reflects the quality of care you actually deliver. Whether you hold a Good rating and want to reach Outstanding, or you need to move from Requires Improvement to Good, a mock inspection from Care Sync Experts gives you the roadmap to get there.
The difference is that our findings stay with you, giving your service time to act on recommendations and build a stronger evidence base for when the real inspection takes place.
A CQC mock inspection gives your domiciliary care or supported living service a full rehearsal of what the Care Quality Commission will assess when inspectors arrive.
From £1,000 plus VAT
A CQC mock inspection from Care Sync Experts starts at £1,000 plus VAT for a single registered location. What takes it above that is size and scope rather than anything hidden: more locations, more people supported, a visit rather than a desktop review, and how much you want written up afterwards.
We publish the starting figure because almost nobody in this market does, and being asked to book a call before anyone will tell you a number is a poor way to spend your afternoon. If your service falls outside the shape described below, tell us and we will say so before you commit to anything.
A single registered location is the base. Each additional location adds to the day count, because the records, the staff and the people supported are different at each one.
A service holding Good and aiming higher needs a different review from one that has been rated Requires Improvement or Inadequate and has a timetable to meet.
The care plans, risk assessments and daily records we sample scale with the size of the service, and sampling too few of them would not tell you anything reliable.
A desktop review of records and governance costs less than a review that includes a visit, staff interviews and observation of practice.
A scored report against the quality statements with a prioritised action plan takes longer to produce than a verbal debrief, and is worth more when CQC arrives.
Some providers take the report and act on it themselves. Others want help closing the gaps. The second costs more and is a separate decision from the inspection itself.
The question worth asking any provider is not the fee, it is what comes back. A walk round and a list of observations is not a mock inspection. What you need is your evidence scored the way CQC scores it, so you know which quality statement is sitting at a 1 and therefore capping the rating for the whole key question. That is set out in the next section, and it is the part to compare when you are weighing one quote against another. Our mock inspection checklist covers what to prepare beforehand.
CQC does not decide a rating by forming an impression. It scores each quality statement from 1 to 4, adds the scores up, divides by the maximum available and reads the percentage off fixed bands. A mock inspection that hands you a list of observations has not told you what CQC would have rated you.
So we score against the same quality statements, using the same four-point scale and the same six evidence categories, and we give you the percentage and the band it lands in. Everything below is CQC's own published method, not our interpretation of it.
The total for a key question divided by the maximum available, which is the number of quality statements assessed multiplied by four.
A key question can score inside the good range and still be rated requires improvement, if any single quality statement inside it scored a 1. And a key question can score inside the outstanding range and be held at good, if any single quality statement scored a 1 or a 2.
That is why an average is not good enough to work from. One weak statement decides the rating for everything around it, and the only useful thing a mock inspection can tell you is which one it is.
Which categories apply depends on the service type and the assessment.
Scoring and rating method taken from CQC's How we reach a rating, last updated 13 May 2025. CQC consulted on four draft sector specific assessment frameworks and that consultation closed on 12 June 2026. Until those are published and in use, quality statements and this scoring method are what a mock inspection should be built against, and we will say so on the day if that changes.
A CQC mock inspection follows a structured process designed to replicate the conditions of a real CQC assessment.
When you commission a mock inspection from Care Sync Experts, the process begins with a planning call where we agree the scope, dates, and whether the visit will be announced or unannounced. We then carry out the on-site or hybrid inspection using the same assessment criteria that CQC inspectors apply under the Single Assessment Framework.
A CQC mock inspection follows a structured process designed to replicate the conditions of a real CQC assessment. When you commission a mock inspection from Care Sync Experts, the process begins with a planning call where we agree the scope, dates, and whether the visit will be announced or unannounced. We then carry out the on-site or hybrid inspection using the same assessment criteria that CQC inspectors apply under the Single Assessment Framework.
During the inspection day, our consultant reviews your policies, procedures, care plans, risk assessments, medication records, recruitment files, training matrices, and quality assurance documentation.
We also hold confidential conversations with frontline staff, team leaders, and managers to gauge their understanding of safeguarding, mental capacity, duty of candour, and person-centred care. Where your service supports people with a learning disability or autistic people, we assess compliance against the Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture framework.
At the end of the visit, we provide immediate verbal feedback to your registered manager and nominated individual.
Within five working days, you receive a written report that mirrors the format of a CQC inspection report, complete with ratings against each of the five key questions and a prioritised action plan with recommended timescales. This report becomes a working document that your leadership team can use to drive improvements and gather evidence for the real inspection.
The CQC replaced its Key Lines of Enquiry with the Single Assessment Framework in late 2023, and every mock inspection we deliver now maps directly to this updated methodology. Under the SAF, the CQC assesses services against 34 quality statements grouped under the five key questions. Each quality statement receives a score from 1 to 4 based on the evidence gathered across six evidence categories.
Understanding how these categories work matters because inspectors weight their judgements differently depending on the type of service.
For domiciliary care and supported living, the six evidence categories are: people's experience of care, feedback from staff and leaders, feedback from partners, observation, processes, and outcomes.
Our mock inspection assesses your service against every relevant quality statement and scores your performance using the same 1 to 4 scale, so you see exactly where your strengths lie and where targeted improvement will have the greatest impact on your rating.
The shift to the SAF also means that CQC can update your rating at any point, not just after a scheduled inspection. This continuous assessment model makes ongoing readiness more important than ever, and a mock inspection from Care Sync Experts gives you a clear snapshot of where your service stands right now.
Domiciliary care providers face inspection challenges that differ from residential settings. Your staff work in people's homes across multiple locations, which means inspectors focus heavily on how you manage remote working, lone working risks, medication administration in the community, and communication between office teams and care workers in the field.
Our mock inspections for domiciliary care examine how your electronic care planning system supports real-time recording, whether your visit scheduling allows adequate travel time and avoids rushed calls, and how you monitor staff performance when managers cannot directly observe every care visit. We review call monitoring data, spot-check records, supervision notes, and complaint logs to identify patterns that CQC inspectors would also flag.
We assess whether your statement of purpose accurately reflects how your service operates, whether your staffing model matches your declared capacity, and whether your risk assessments cover the scenarios your care workers encounter daily.
For domiciliary care services preparing for their first CQC inspection following registration, a mock inspection provides essential baseline data. If your service registered under the updated February 2026 requirements, where the CQC now routinely returns incomplete applications, a mock inspection confirms that your operational systems match the documentation you submitted during registration.
Care Sync Experts also reviews your staff recruitment files against Schedule 3 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, checking that DBS certificates, references, proof of identity, proof of address, right to work documents, and full employment histories from age 16 are present and correctly filed for every member of staff.
Maintaining CQC compliance after registration is an ongoing operational responsibility, not a one-off task.
The providers who achieve and sustain Good or Outstanding ratings treat compliance as a continuous process embedded in their daily operations rather than something they prepare for when an inspection is announced.
Care Sync Experts helps providers build quality management systems that maintain compliance as a matter of routine. This includes establishing regular audit cycles where you review your own performance against the CQC's quality statements, implementing governance meetings where your management team discusses incidents, complaints, and improvement actions, and creating feedback mechanisms that capture the views of the people you support, their families, and your staff.
Your policies and procedures form the backbone of your compliance framework, but they only deliver value if your staff understand them, follow them, and receive supervision that reinforces the standards they set. Care Sync Experts provides policies that are written in plain language, structured around the tasks your staff actually perform, and updated regularly to reflect changes in legislation and CQC guidance.
When the CQC does inspect, preparation makes the difference between a rating that reflects your hard work and one that misses what you have achieved. Our mock inspection service replicates the CQC inspection process so your team knows what to expect, your evidence is organised, and your registered manager can articulate your service's strengths with confidence.
Supported living services operate under additional regulatory expectations, particularly where people have a learning disability, are autistic, or have complex mental health needs. The CQC applies specific conditions to supported living registrations, and mock inspections for these services must reflect those conditions to be useful.
Our supported living mock inspections assess compliance with the Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture framework, which the CQC uses to evaluate whether people receive person-centred support that promotes choice, control, and independence. We examine how your service develops support plans that reflect each person's communication needs, preferred routines, and long-term goals rather than fitting people into a service model designed around staff convenience.
We also review restrictive practice governance, including how your service records, monitors, and reduces the use of physical interventions, environmental restrictions, and chemical restraint through medication. For services supporting people detained under the Mental Health Act or subject to Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, our mock inspection checks that your staff understand the legal frameworks and that your documentation demonstrates lawful practice.
The inspection covers tenancy arrangements and how your service respects the boundary between care and accommodation. Inspectors expect to see that people have genuine control over their living space, their daily routine, and who enters their home. Our mock inspection assesses whether your service delivers on these principles in practice, not just in policy.
We also assess whether your staff training records demonstrate that learning translates into practice. Skills for Care sets the benchmark for workforce development in adult social care, and our mock inspection checks that your training matrix covers mandatory topics including moving and handling, infection prevention and control, fire safety, first aid, safeguarding adults, mental capacity, food hygiene, and equality and diversity, with refresher dates that show ongoing compliance.
Staff performance during an inspection directly shapes the rating your service receives.
Inspectors speak with care workers, team leaders, and managers to assess their understanding of the people they support, the risks they manage, and the regulatory framework they operate within. A mock inspection from Care Sync Experts includes staff coaching that prepares your team for these conversations
We help staff articulate what they do every day in the language that inspectors expect to hear. This means moving beyond general statements like "we provide good care" to specific examples that demonstrate person-centred practice, such as:
Our staff coaching sessions cover the five key questions and explain what inspectors look for under each heading. We run scenario-based exercises where staff practise responding to the types of questions CQC inspectors ask, including questions about:
This coaching sits alongside the mock inspection itself and gives your team confidence that translates directly into stronger performance when inspectors arrive.
Every CQC inspection, whether real or mock, centres on five key questions that determine your overall rating. Understanding what each question covers helps your service prepare effectively and build an evidence portfolio that demonstrates compliance.
Safe inspectors assess how your service protects people from abuse, neglect, and avoidable harm. They examine safeguarding procedures, incident reporting, risk assessment processes, medication management, infection prevention and control, staffing levels, and the physical safety of the environments where care takes place. For domiciliary care, this extends to lone working arrangements and how your service manages risks in people's own homes.
Effective the focus shifts to whether people's care and support achieves good outcomes. Inspectors look at how you assess people's needs before starting care, how you develop care plans, how you involve people and their families in decision-making, how you coordinate with other services such as GPs, district nurses, and social workers, and how your staff receive the training and supervision they need to deliver effective support.
Under Caring inspectors assess whether your staff treat people with kindness, dignity, and respect. They observe interactions, read feedback from people who use the service, and speak with families and advocates. The evidence here comes largely from people's lived experience of your service.
Under Responsive The CQC examines whether your service meets people's individual needs and responds to their preferences. This covers how you personalise care plans, how you handle complaints, how you support end-of-life care, and how you adapt your service when people's needs change.
Under Well-led inspectors assess the quality of your leadership, governance, and management. They examine how you monitor quality, how you learn from incidents and complaints, how you engage with staff and stakeholders, and whether your service has a clear vision and strategy that your whole team understands and delivers.
Through delivering hundreds of mock inspections for domiciliary care and supported living providers across England, Care Sync Experts consistently identifies recurring compliance gaps that cost services their ratings. Knowing where other providers fall short gives your service the opportunity to check these areas before your next inspection.
Recruitment files remain one of the most common problem areas. Missing or incomplete DBS certificates, gaps in employment history, references that do not cover the required period, and missing proof of professional registration appear regularly. A single incomplete staff file can trigger a Requires Improvement rating under Safe, regardless of how strong the rest of your evidence may be.
Care plan quality represents another frequent gap. Inspectors expect to see care plans that reflect each person's current needs, preferences, and goals, updated regularly and written in accessible language. When care plans contain generic templates with minimal personalisation, or when they have not been reviewed despite a change in the person's condition, inspectors record this as a concern under both Effective and Responsive.
Medication management produces findings in a significant proportion of mock inspections. Common issues include medication administration records with gaps or errors, staff who cannot explain the "as required" protocols for specific medications, lack of competency assessments for staff administering medication, and poor audit trails where discrepancies go unresolved.
Governance and quality assurance gaps under Well-led are increasingly common as the CQC places greater emphasis on leadership. Services that lack a structured approach to auditing, learning from incidents, gathering feedback, and driving improvement will struggle to achieve a Good rating under this key question.
Care Sync Experts offers both announced and unannounced mock inspections, and the right choice depends on what your service needs at this stage of your compliance journey.
provides a more realistic picture of how your service performs on a typical day. Because staff do not know when the consultant will arrive, the findings reflect everyday practice rather than a carefully prepared presentation. Unannounced inspections are particularly valuable for services that have already achieved a Good or Outstanding rating and want to confirm that standards have not slipped, or for providers whose leadership wants an honest assessment of frontline performance
An announced mock inspection works well for services preparing for their first CQC inspection or those that want to use the mock as a training exercise for the whole team. With advance notice, your registered manager can ensure that key staff are available on the day, that documentation is accessible, and that the team understands the purpose of the visit. Announced inspections allow your service to demonstrate its best performance and identify the gaps between your current standard and what the CQC expects.
Many of our clients schedule both types across the year. An announced inspection at the start of the financial year establishes a baseline and creates an improvement plan, followed by an unannounced visit six months later to measure progress and identify any areas where standards have drifted. This approach creates a continuous improvement cycle that aligns with the CQC's own continuous assessment model.
Choosing the right provider for your mock inspection matters because the quality of the assessment directly affects the value you receive. Not all consultancies deliver mock inspections that match the depth and rigour of a real CQC visit, so understanding what to look for helps you make the right decision for your service.
Look for a provider whose consultants have direct experience of CQC inspection methodology, ideally former CQC inspectors or senior compliance professionals who understand the Single Assessment Framework, the 34 quality statements, and the 6 evidence categories. A consultant who has never worked within the CQC assessment process cannot replicate it accurately.
The written report should mirror the format of a CQC inspection report, with ratings against each key question and a structured action plan that tells you exactly what to do, in what order, and by when. Generic findings without specific recommendations do not help your service improve.
Ask whether the provider offers post-inspection support. A mock inspection identifies gaps, but closing those gaps often requires ongoing guidance, whether that involves rewriting care plans, restructuring your governance framework, coaching staff, or preparing your evidence folder. Care Sync Experts provides follow-up support through our wider guidance and support services, so your mock inspection connects to a pathway of sustained improvement rather than sitting as an isolated exercise.
Check that the provider has experience with your service type. The inspection criteria for domiciliary care differ from those for supported living, which differ again from residential care and nursing homes. A provider that specialises in your sector will deliver findings that are specific, actionable, and relevant to the regulatory expectations your service faces.
Care Sync Experts takes a structured, evidence-based approach to every mock inspection. Our process begins before we arrive at your service and continues after we deliver our report, because inspection readiness is not a one-day event.
During the planning phase, we review your most recent CQC inspection report, your statement of purpose, and any previous action plans to understand your history and focus areas. We agree the scope of the inspection with your registered manager and confirm whether the visit will be announced or unannounced
On the inspection day, our consultant follows the full CQC assessment methodology. We assess your service against the quality statements relevant to your registration, gather evidence across the six evidence categories, and speak with staff at every level. For domiciliary care services, this may include telephone calls with people receiving care and their families, alongside direct observation of office-based processes and electronic systems.
Our verbal feedback at the end of the day gives your leadership team an immediate understanding of the key findings. The written report arrives within five working days and includes a rating for each of the five key questions, a summary of strengths and areas for improvement, and a prioritised action plan with recommended timescales and responsible persons.
Every report we produce references the specific quality statements and evidence categories where improvements are needed, so your team understands exactly what the CQC expects and how to meet those expectations. Where gaps require additional support, we connect you with the relevant services within Care Sync Experts, including policy development, registration support, interview preparation, and safeguarding guidance.
Care Sync Experts brings a depth of CQC knowledge that comes from working with providers at every stage of their regulatory journey, from first registration through to post-inspection recovery and improvement. Our mock inspection service sits within a wider compliance support framework, which means the findings from your inspection feed directly into practical, actionable next steps.
Our consultants have a track record of helping domiciliary care and supported living providers across England move from Requires Improvement to Good and from Good to Outstanding.
We understand the specific challenges that community-based care providers face, including the complexity of managing remote teams, maintaining documentation standards across multiple locations, and demonstrating person-centred practice when inspectors cannot observe care delivery directly.
We stay current with every change to the CQC's assessment methodology, including the ongoing consultation around the 2025/26 business plan and any updates to the Single Assessment Framework. When the CQC changes how it assesses services, we update our mock inspection methodology to match, so your preparation always reflects the latest expectations.
Care Sync Experts operates across England, supporting providers of all sizes from single-location services to multi-site organisations. Whether your service has 10 people or 200, we scale our mock inspection to match your needs and deliver findings that are proportionate, specific, and directly applicable to your service.
Our CQC Inspection support
To book a CQC mock inspection, call 0333 577 0877 or email hello@caresyncexperts.co.uk. We respond to all enquiries within one working day.
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