The short answer: does your CQC plan need an accountant's signature?
No, not for the care home registration itself in the great majority of cases. CQC's own list of documents every new provider must send says you do not need to send a financial viability statement if you are a care home, a home care agency, a supported living service, a corporate provider or an NHS trust. A care home sits squarely on that list, so there is normally no requirement for an accountant, or anyone else, to sign off your registration figures before CQC will consider the application.
That surprises owners who have been quoted a few hundred pounds for a signed document on the understanding that CQC insists on it. The confusion is understandable, because CQC does assess financial viability at registration and does publish a statement template, but the assessment and the signed statement apply to the provider types that are not exempt. If you are registering a care home, the signed statement is not the thing standing between you and approval. We set up and run the finance function for care homes through our care home accountants service, and the registration figures are a job we handle often, so this guide reflects what CQC caseworkers actually come back and ask about.
The money question changes the moment someone other than CQC is asking. A bank funding the purchase, a landlord granting a lease, or an investor putting money in will often want a signed set of figures, and a different legal structure can take you off the exempt list. Those are real reasons to commission signed work. "CQC will reject us without it" usually is not.
Which providers are exempt from the financial viability statement
CQC's guidance on the documents every new provider applicant must send is explicit about who is excused. You do not have to send a financial viability statement if you are a corporate provider, an NHS trust, a care home, a home care (domiciliary care) agency or a supported living service. Read that list the way a caseworker does: it covers almost every mainstream adult social care applicant, which is why the signed statement rarely surfaces for the homes we work with.
The exemption exists partly because the largest and hardest-to-replace adult social care providers are monitored separately under CQC's market oversight arrangements, and partly because, for a single home or small group, CQC gets its financial comfort from the application and the statement of purpose rather than from a one-page letter. Whichever route applies, the outcome for a care home is the same: no mandatory signed viability statement. You can read CQC's position in its guidance on the documents every new provider must send (as at October 2026).
Use the path below to see where your own application lands before you agree to pay for anything.
A financial viability statement is not the same as a forecast review
These two things get sold as if they were one, and keeping them apart saves you money. A financial viability statement is a specific CQC document. Where it is required, CQC seeks assurance in the form of a statement letter from a financial specialist, which it says could be an accountancy, bank or financial services firm, and it has worked that way for new applications since 12 February 2018. It does not have to come from an accountant, and the template CQC provides is optional. CQC sets this out in its guidance on assessing the financial viability of providers applying for registration.
A forecast review is the work underneath the figures. It means building a cashflow forecast for the opening period, writing down the assumptions on occupancy, fee rates, staffing and agency cover, and checking that the numbers actually hold together when you stress them. A care home does not have to send CQC the statement, but it absolutely has to be able to show the service can pay its way, so the forecast and its assumptions are the part that carries the application. One is a signature on a letter. The other is the thinking the registration rests on.
Put next to each other, the cost tells the story. A signed statement letter is a modest one-off, but for a care home it answers a question CQC has not asked. A proper forecast and assumptions review costs more and does the job that matters.
If we are exempt, what does CQC still check on our finances?
Exempt from the statement does not mean exempt from scrutiny. Regulation 13 of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009 requires a provider to take all reasonable steps to carry on the regulated activity so that it stays financially viable, which it defines around having the resources needed to deliver the services in your statement of purpose and to keep delivering them. CQC must refuse registration if an applicant cannot satisfy it on that point, so the obligation has teeth even without a signed document attached.
In practice that means your management accounts and forecasting have to tell a coherent story: what the home costs to run, where the fee income comes from, how you cover the gap before occupancy builds, and what happens if a funder pays late. The detail CQC may ask of any particular applicant varies with the service and the people behind it, so treat the forecast as something you must be ready to defend rather than a form to file once. The requirement itself is set out in CQC's guidance on Regulation 13, financial position.
Alongside that sits the ordinary company obligation that applies whether or not CQC ever asks. A limited company must keep accounting records, and keep them for six years from the end of the financial year they relate to, under the company and accounting records rules. A home that keeps clean records from day one has most of its Regulation 13 evidence as a by-product.
What goes in a care home registration finance pack
This is the part worth spending on. A registration finance pack that satisfies Regulation 13 without a signed statement has a short, predictable spine, and each piece earns its place.
- A statement of purpose with the finances in mind. The service you describe sets the costs CQC expects to see covered, so the figures and the statement of purpose have to match.
- A cashflow forecast for the opening period. Month by month, covering the stretch before occupancy and fee income catch up with the cost base.
- Written assumptions. Occupancy ramp, fee rates by funder, staffing and agency cover, and the funding behind the launch, each stated so they can be questioned.
- Evidence of the funding. The cash, facility or investment that bridges the early months, shown clearly rather than asserted.
- Clean company records from the start. The accounting records a company has to keep anyway, which double as your Regulation 13 evidence.
Notice there is no "signed by an accountant" line in that list. The responsibilities sit as follows.
| Registration finance task | Who is responsible | Signature needed? |
|---|---|---|
| Statement of purpose and the service it describes | Applicant (provider) | No |
| Cashflow forecast and written assumptions | Applicant, usually built with an accountant | No |
| Financial viability statement (exempt providers) | Not required for a care home | N/A |
| Financial viability statement (non-exempt provider) | A financial specialist: accountancy, bank or financial services firm | Yes, where it applies |
| Signed figures for a lender, landlord or investor | Whoever that third party names | Depends on their terms |
The timeline matters too, because the figures feed the rest of the application. Expect to build the forecast and assumptions first, then finalise the statement of purpose so the two agree, then submit, then be ready to answer follow-up questions from the caseworker in the weeks after. Leaving the finances to the end, or treating a bought signature as the finance step, is what causes delays.
What this means for you: what to do before you pay for a signature
Our position is simple, and we give it to every care home owner who asks. Do not pay for a signed financial viability statement for a care home registration, because CQC does not require one from you. Put the same money into getting the forecast and the assumptions right, because that is the evidence CQC can actually test under Regulation 13, and it is the part that keeps the application moving.
That advice flips only when someone other than CQC is asking. If a lender funding the purchase, a landlord, or an investor wants signed figures, or if your structure is not one of the exempt provider types, a signed statement from a financial specialist earns its fee. The test is always the same: find out who is requesting the document and under which rule, then decide. Before you sign anything off, have someone check which side of that line your application sits on.
LOYALS is a King's Cross firm of accountants and business consultants that builds registration forecasts and runs the monthly finance function for care homes and small groups across London, and we would rather save you a fee you do not need than sell you a signature CQC never asked for. If you want the registration figures checked, or a forecast built that stands up to a caseworker's questions, that is exactly the work we do.
If you run or are opening a care home, our care home accountants page sets out how we handle registration figures, payroll, funder invoicing and monthly reporting for homes and small groups, so the finance side holds together long after CQC has approved you.