I run a day care centre for adults with learning disabilities, we are not CQC registered as we do not provide personal care. I have a young man that wants to come that may need help washing his hands after using the toilet. Would this be classed as personal care? Or is it changing of pads that is classed as help going to the toilet and therefore personal care?

Answered by Quality Compliance Systems (QCS)

Good to hear from you and hope that the huge challenges of managing the undoubted impact of COVID-19 on your day service hasn’t been too traumatic for you, and you feel ready to meet the ongoing issues you will encounter.

With regard to your question of whether providing assistance to wash someone’s hands classes as the provision of personal care a short answer is no, you wouldn’t need to register with CQC in these circumstances. This is because the CQC state that the regulated activity of personal care is only applicable when it is provided in the place where the person is living. And as you run a day centre this is not where the person lives. You could in fact provide more assistance that purely hand washing and still not need to register with CQC.

In addition with the increased need for infection control in services it may also be necessary to assist more people with increased hand washing or other hygiene control processes, which may be seen as physical assistance and an element of personal care. I think CQC will see the priority as supporting people to be healthy and for you to support the control any infection, and would not like you to be concerned about the registration implications of providing good hygiene to the people using your service.

Thanks for contacting QCS, and hope that your service is able to get back to normal in the near future, all the best