What the CQC's Business Plan Means for Care Home Providers

As the CQC embarks on its Business Plan for 2025/26, the landscape for residential and nursing care homes in England enters a new chapter. The regulator steps into this period with a clear emphasis on rebuilding its foundations, strengthening processes, renewing its regulatory approach and working more closely with providers and systems to shape what “good” care looks like.  

For care-home providers, this refreshed plan isn’t simply a regulatory update; it signifies heightened expectations, evolving inspection frameworks and an imperative to engage proactively with change. With Fulcrum’s experience supporting providers through compliance, inspection readiness and quality improvement, this insight unpacks the key shifts ahead and outlines what they mean in practical terms for care-home teams, leadership and governance.

In essence: the 2025/26 plan marks a transition from “regulation as usual” to a more collaborative, insight-driven regulatory regime, one that demands care homes not only maintain compliance, but also sharpen their focus on continuous improvement, evidence of outcomes and readiness for more intelligent scrutiny.

READ THE FULL DOCUMENT HERE...