Over 90% of care service providers met the deadline for registering with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in its first round of registrations, it has revealed.

The finding follows concerns that providers would struggle to meet deadlines after the CQC admitted it had made administrative errors with the process that delayed some providers in receiving notification to register.

The CQC closed the first group of registrations last Friday with 943 of 1,024 providers submitting their registration on time.

Around 24,000 providers are to be registered by the beginning of October this year under a system brought in by the Health and Social Care Act 2008. The CQC is calling providers to register in groups, each with a four-week window to submit their registration, and providers operating without being registered could face legal action.

Martin Green, chief executive of the English Community Care Association, said: “It’s a good sign that providers have understood what is required of them. And despite the degree of chaos there has been in this process providers seem to be able to navigate their way through it.”

Frank Ursell, chief executive of the Registered Nursing Home Association, pointed out that if the 92% compliance rate continued it risked leaving 1,920 providers not registered on 1 October.

Provider groups including RNHA have previously criticised the CQC for a lack of communication with providers over the process.

Linda Hutchinson, director of registration at the CQC, said: “It is encouraging that such a large proportion of providers have submitted their applications promptly. But we want to find out why a small number have missed the deadline. We’ve got a long way to go and we’re not complacent.”

The CQC stressed that no providers had missed their deadlines because of the CQC’s administrative errors, which involved sending letters of notification to service addresses, rather than to providers’ headquarters, where applications would be handled.

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