Legislation
Find out how the different rules about how to run a care service fit together and how you can use them to improve your service.
When running a care service there are certain things you have to do by law. These are explained in the relevant Acts and regulations. Find out about:
- Acts
- Regulations
- National minimum standards
- Guidance
- Good practice
- Key lines of regulatory assessment
You must agree to the terms and conditions before using the documents below. The legislation should be used as guidance only, and you should seek legal advice about the current position before you take any action that relies on this information.
Acts
Care Standards Act 2000
Download the Care Standards Act 2000 (PDF, 903KB, opens in new window)
Health and Social Care Act 2008
Download the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (PDF, 985KB, opens in new window)
Regulations
The Acts are followed by lots of regulations which go into more detail. There are regulations that apply to every type of service and others that are service specific. The regulations cover things like:
- registration – for example, how we determine if someone is fit to be a provider
- fees – how much it costs to register as a provider
- basic requirements of what you have to do to run a service.
Service-specific regulations
Care homes for adults (18 to 65) and older people (65+)
Care Homes Regulations 2001 (PDF, 200KB, opens in new window)
Domiciliary care (home care)
Domiciliary Care Regulations 2002 (PDF, 120KB, opens in new window)
Nurses agencies
Nurses Agencies Regulations 2002 (PDF, 110KB, opens in new window)
Adult placement schemes
Adult Placement Schemes Regulations 2004 (PDF, 187KB, opens in new window)
Regulations that apply to all service types
The link below goes to another government website. We cannot guarantee the information is up to date.
Fees and frequency of inspections regulations 2007 (opens in new window)
National minimum standards
To help you understand what's required by the regulations, there is a set of national minimum standards for each type of service. The national minimum standards set a minimum level of service for each element of providing a care service.
They are not enforceable by law but are important guidelines to help providers, inspectors and people who use services to judge the standard of service. They are designed to make sure everyone understands what's expected and so services can be measured against the same standards.
But it's not enough to just meet the minimum standards. To provide the best service you can, you have to look at how your service affects the lives of the people who use it.
Guidance
The national minimum standards can be open to interpretation. Not everyone will have the same understanding of what they mean.
Our guidance helps our inspectors judge if a service is meeting the minimum standard or exceeding it. You can use our guidance documents too. They can help you measure your own performance and improve it.
We have also published guidance logs which are our agreed interpretation on the minimum standards:
Good practice
There are lots of examples of good practice available from organisations which can help you learn from other people's experiences.
Visit the Social Care Institute for Excellence website (opens in new window)
We also give examples of good practice in many of our publications.
Key lines of regulatory assessment
To help you understand what we expect from a good service, we have written a set of guidelines called the key lines of regulatory assessment (KLORA).
You can compare your service to what our guidelines say a poor, adequate, good, or excellent service looks like. By going beyond the minimum standards, you can make a positive impact on the lives of the people who use your service.
In turn, this will benefit your business. If you are serving the people who use your service well we will reflect this in our inspection reports and in the star rating we give you.
Terms and conditions for using legislation listed on our website
The legislation listed on our website is reproduced by permission of Reed Elsevier Limited (UK) trading as LexisNexis Butterworths.
We provide the legislation to users of this site subject to their copyright terms, and subject to its use only for research purposes.
Users are not permitted to download the legislation for storage or manipulation at any other location, or to use the legislation in any way that will distort or alter its original intention or meaning.
The legislation is provided for reference only, and is not intended as a substitute for the exercise of professional judgement or legal advice.
