Information for applicants

This information is for people who are applying to work for CQC.

Before you apply

Secondments

Seek your line manager’s permission before applying for secondments.

Continuous service 

We recognise continuous service for national and local government, NHS and Civil Service organisations. To confirm if your continuous service will count, email us at hrqueries@cqc.org.uk.

If you leave CQC to work for another public sector employer, including the NHS, it's important to be aware they may not have an agreement to recognise CQC service. We recommend checking with any potential future employer before you apply.

Fixed term contracts

We’re changing how we regulate to improve care for everyone. As part of this, we are creating a new target operating model. We offer some roles as fixed term contracts as part of the transition to our new operating model.  

The role you apply for may exist in the future structure. But, you should be aware that the following applies to fixed term contracts.

You will:

• have no automatic right to be considered for a permanent role, or deployment at the end of your contract.
• not be considered in any selection pool for redundancy. 
• have no right to any other mitigation of or compensation for redundancy. 

You may apply for advertised vacancies which arise during your employment with CQC. 

Your application and interview 

Breaks in employment 

Tell us about any break in employment in the employment history and references section of your application. Include the dates you were taking the break. 

Guaranteed Interview scheme 

You are eligible to apply under our Guaranteed Interview scheme, if you are a person with a disability. 

The scheme ensures you will progress to the next stage of assessment if you have the relevant essential skills and experience. This may be the interview, but it might also be a written task, test or other form of assessment.  

The job description will tell you the essential skills and experience needed for the role. 

You can tell us in your application form if you want to apply under this scheme.  

The interview panel 

There may be an Independent Panel Member (IPM) present as part of your interview. This depends on the role you are being interviewed for. 

An IPM works at CQC, but is not directly involved in the role you are applying for. They provide an impartial view and support our Diversity and Inclusion strategy. This ensures our recruitment process is open, fair and transparent. 

Expenses 

We do not pay travelling expenses for interviewees. This is in line with most government organisations.

There may be exceptional circumstances. We will need to agree these in advance.

Help throughout your application (individual adjustments) 

We want CQC to be a great place to work, where all our people can thrive, feel valued and make a difference.

We want our teams to reflect the communities we serve and welcome applications from everyone.

We can make individual adjustments to the recruitment process to support candidates who are disabled or neurodivergent. (These are also sometimes called 'reasonable adjustments'.) This might include things like:

• extra time for tests
• sending you documents in a different format
• changing the way we do your interview.

Find out more about individual adjustments we can make.

See our equality commitments in full.

After the interview

Successful candidates 

We aim to contact successful candidates as soon as possible after an assessment event takes place.

If you are successful, we will contact you via telephone.

All home workers must be based and working from within the UK. This is in line with our policies.

Unsuccessful candidates 

If you are unsuccessful, we will contact you via email.

We do not have a waiting period between applications. You are more than welcome to apply for as many roles as you would like. 

Feedback 

We receive a high volume of applications across all our vacancies. This means we cannot give individual feedback at the application stage. 

Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks 

Our operations roles are subject to a satisfactory DBS check. 

References 

Our HR Services Team will wait until your approval before approaching your referees. We will not ask for references before you hand in your notice.