25 March 2020

An update for providers of health and social care on the development of a COVID-19 registration framework.

We want to support health and social care providers as they look to increase capacity as part of the ongoing effort to respond to COVID-19. To help ensure that registration does not act as a barrier to these different ways of working, we have developed a special COVID-19 registration framework for providers responding to Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) or Clinical Commissioning Group contingency planning. This framework covers both new registrations and changes to service that can be made by submitting a notification online.

A COVID-19 registration is any ‘application’ from a health or social care provider where they:

• Intend to deliver services which provide additional health and social care capacity in an area; or
• contribute to the control of the outbreak of COVID-19 or the treatment of people who have contracted the illness.

Some changes can be made by submitting a notification online and changing your statement of purpose, meaning that changes can be made as soon as we are notified. Other changes may need you to change your existing registration, in which case you will need to submit an application. All applications relating to COVID-19 will be prioritised. In urgent cases, for example to increase existing capacity, we can assess your application at the same time as you are making the changes.

What this means for providers

We expect that most changes will be managed via the notification process, however there are examples of common scenarios on our website, to help providers determine whether they need to make an application. These are not exhaustive, and many applications will need to be discussed with our team. If you have any queries about DHSC’s COVID-19 response or an application related to it, please contact us before you apply.

Registration applications should be sent to [email protected] and should include ‘COVID-19’ in the email so it is picked up by our systems. If the changes you are making do not require a registration, visit our website to notify us about changes to your statement of purpose.

Registration applications for new providers that are not related to COVID-19 are continuing as usual and will follow the process outlined on our website. We will determine whether a site visit will go ahead in discussion with the individual provider. We are working on further guidance and will share any updates.