Requesting advice before applying to register a care service

PDF Register a care service: Requesting advice before applying Published: 24 March 2021

We recommend that you seek advice before you submit your application to register a care service, particularly if you are planning to register a premises-based or outdoor setting service.

This may include reviewing plans for buildings, upgrading and refurbishments, or general advice, however does not include technical support with completing the form. Please note that planning permission may be required before applying.

Environments that do not meet best practice guidance will not be registered, therefore it is in your best interest to seek advice at an early stage.

Your draft application will be sent to the registration team along with your message entered below and a member of the team will be in touch within 10 working days to confirm we are in receipt of your application. We may arrange to discuss this further and to clarify what advice we are able to provide.

We may initially ask you to provide a range of additional or supporting information before we are able to provide support or undertake any site visit etc.

Submitting your request

To submit a request for advice you should create an account to allow you to log in to the online portal, or log in using your existing details where you already have them.

You should select the box ‘Register a care service and manage my applications’. You will then be presented with the registrations page where you should select the box ‘Apply to register a new service’.

The first part of the application form includes a navigation panel on the left that shows you the stages of the application form. You will be required to read the guidance pages under the ‘Before you begin’ section before the ‘Request advice’ option is made available to you. When you have finished reading these pages the option will be displayed as a purple button below the menu.

To submit your request for advice we need some basic details from you, this will allow us to direct your query to the relevant team.

The details include:

  • your name and contact details

  • the type of service you propose to register

  • information about the people who will use the service for example adults or children.

If you have not completed these sections, when you select the option to request advice, a warning message will display at the top of the page, indicating there is information missing.

You can navigate back to the application form to complete the relevant pages using the navigation panel which will remain on the left of the screen. You will also see that you cannot select the button to submit your request at this stage.

If you add any information in the text box on the ‘Request advice’ page before you have completed the required information, you will not be able to select the button to submit your request and any information you have entered will be lost when you navigate away from this page.

When you have completed the information required and selected the ‘submit for advice’ button, you will receive confirmation that your request has been sent. You can select the option to return to application which is available in the Actions menu and continue with your application in the meantime if you wish to do so.

Your request for advice will be responded to by email using the email address you have provided in the application form. There is also a communications section on the online portal which allows you to keep a record of communications sent and received by you. This can be found by visiting the main Registrations page and selecting ‘View application’ and then selecting the ‘Communications’ tab.