Resources
Everything we know, written for the person who has to do the thing.
Twenty free tools and a growing set of guides. No email address, no gated downloads, no sign-up. If it is useful, it is here.
Free · Nothing stored
The tools
Each one answers a specific question in about two minutes. None of them asks who you are, and none of them sends anything anywhere. Each card takes you straight to the tool on the page it belongs to.
Starting out
What are you registering for — and can you staff it?
Twelve things an application needs, split between CQC and Ofsted. Shows which gaps would stop the application on their own.
Check your applicationInspection
What would an inspection find?
Five judgements, three honest answers each — including the one that costs providers their rating: we do it, but we could not show it.
Rate your serviceEnforcement
Where are you on the enforcement ladder?
Two questions and you will know how serious your position actually is, and what to do first. CQC and Ofsted routes both covered.
Find out where you standMoney
What does an hour of your care actually cost?
Your own figures, by the hour or by the place. Where every pound goes, what your margin really is, and the point at which you stop making money.
Work out your marginBuying or selling
What is it worth, roughly, before anyone comes to look?
Eight questions from whichever side you are on. What is working for your price, what is coming off it, and how long each one takes to fix.
See the ledgerProperty
Could this building actually hold your service?
Five gates in the order they will stop you — use, capacity, access, fire and tenure — and which one you are standing at.
Check a buildingStarting out
Do you need to register — and with whom?
Three regulators’ worth of confusion, reduced to four questions. It asks what your staff will actually do, not what you would call the service, because those are two different answers.
Find your regulatorStarting out
Supported living, extra care, Shared Lives — or a care home?
Four models that are constantly confused with each other, and registered differently. It asks where people live, who holds the tenancy and what the care is.
Find your modelStarting out
Nursing care on the registration — or not?
Whether you are opening a care home or building a complex care agency, the question that decides most of the rest is the same: who is clinically accountable for the nursing, and is that person on your payroll?
Answer three questionsGrowing
Variation, new registration, or just a notification?
Three possible answers, and getting it wrong is expensive in opposite directions. An unnecessary application costs you months. A missed one is a criminal offence.
Find the right routeWorkforce
How exposed is your sponsor licence?
Eight questions on the duties that actually get licences revoked. Not the ones in the guidance you were sent when you applied — the ones the Home Office is currently acting on.
Check your exposureManagers
Are you appointable — and would you get through the interview?
The CQC and Ofsted tests side by side, a self-check you can do in ten minutes, and what the registration interview is actually testing.
Take the self-checkCompliance
Do you have to tell them about this?
Find what happened and get the regulation, the deadline and who else has to be told.
Look it upProperty
Do you need planning permission for it?
Planning and registration are two permissions, from two authorities, on two tests. Either can say no on its own. Answer for your building and your numbers, and see which of the five answers you get.
Check the planning positionDevelopers and investors
Will this scheme let?
Six questions on what you are proposing and where. It gives you a red, amber or green on whether there is a realistic operator market for it.
Show my resultDevelopers and investors
Which use class does this scheme fall into?
C2, C3(b) or sui generis, and what that means for your planning application. Four questions about how the accommodation and the care actually relate to each other.
Show the likely routeDevelopers and investors
Would the regulator accept this building as drawn?
Whether the building as drawn is likely to satisfy the regulator on premises, before you commit to the layout.
Check the buildingDevelopers and investors
How strong is this operator as a tenant?
Six things about a prospective tenant that change how much weight their signature carries. Rating, trading history, scale, accounts and enforcement position.
Score the operatorDevelopers and investors
What rent will this scheme actually cover?
Beds, weekly fee, occupancy and operating costs in. Earnings before rent, the rent cover ratio and an indicative sustainable rent out.
Calculate rent coverDevelopers and investors
Which tenure structure fits — and what does it cost you?
Four questions on your appetite, hold period and exit. It sets out which of the three common structures fits, and what each one costs you in return or in control.
Compare the structuresAnd one written for you rather than for your employer. The registered manager position check plots what you are accountable for against what you can actually decide. It is confidential, it stores nothing, and it is the one people forward to a colleague.
The guides
Plain English, written by people who have had to do these things. No gates and no downloads — they are web pages, so you can send somebody a link to the paragraph that answers their question.
Every guide here is written and published. They are web pages, not downloads, so you can send somebody a link to the paragraph that answers their question.
Starting
Registration
Inspection
Compliance and inspection
Enforcement
When it has gone wrong
Money
Pricing, funding and margin
Property
Buildings and consent
If a tool told you something you did not like, ring us.
Thirty minutes, no charge, no obligation. Bring the result if you have one — it makes the conversation much shorter and much more useful.
Text or WhatsApp
07426 919823If it is easier to write it down than say it out loud, send a message.