Agencies Are Not Regulated.

Most People Don't Realise This.

In England, nursing and care staffing agencies are not regulated by the CQC. They are not inspected. There is no statutory oversight of their operations.

That doesn’t make agencies unsafe, but it does mean the responsibility to check falls to you.

If you use agency staff, this matters.

What This Means for Care Providers

When agency staff work in your service:

If something goes wrong, it is the care provider, not the agency, that must explain, evidence, and defend what happened.

The Questions Every Provider Should Ask

Before using any agency, you should be able to get clear answers to:

1. Can you evidence a valid Enhanced DBS for every worker?

2. How are DBS disclosures assessed and recorded?

3. How is Right to Work verified and rechecked?

4. Are you independently audited for compliance?

5. Can you share your compliance policies and evidence of use?

If the answers are unclear, defensive or vague, that’s important information.

Prefer something practical?

A practical checklist to help you review your agency arrangements with greater clarity and confidence.

Some providers want a simple way to sense-check their current agency use.

To support this, we’ve created a short, structured Agency Assessment Checklist to help you:

If you would value a structured way to review your agency arrangements, you can download the checklist below.

Free Resource. No obligation.