Fit and proper person requirements: adult social care services

The intention of the fit and proper persons regulation (FPPR) is make sure that people who have director-level responsibility for the quality and safety of care, treatment and support are fit and proper to carry out their role.

It does not apply to providers that are individuals or partnerships.

Providers are responsible for the appointment, management and dismissal of their directors and board members (or their equivalents). They must carry out appropriate checks to make sure directors are suitable for their role. Our role is to make sure providers have a proper process in place to make robust assessments to satisfy the FPPR.

FPPR information of concern

CQC may intervene where there is evidence that proper processes have not been followed, or are not in place for FPPR. While we do not investigate individual directors, we will pass on all information of concern that we receive about the fitness of a director to the relevant provider.

We notify providers of all concerns relating to their directors and ask them to assess all of the information received. This is done with the consent of the third party referrer, whose anonymity is protected wherever possible. There may be occasions when we are concerned about the potential risk to people using services, so we will need to progress without consent. The director to whom the case refers will also be informed, but their consent will not be sought.

Providers must detail the steps they have taken to assure the fitness of the director and provide us with a full response.

Action we may take

We will carefully review and consider all information. Where we find that a provider’s processes are not robust, or an unreasonable decision has been made, we will either:

• contact the provider for further discussion
• schedule a focused inspection
• take regulatory action in line with our enforcement policy and decision tree if a clear breach of regulation is identified.