CQC Mock Inspection Template
A free, structured template for running a mock CQC inspection at your clinic. Forty-two evidence checks across the five CQC key questions, each mapped to the regulation behind it, with space to record what you actually produced and an action log for everything you could not.
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No form, no email address needed. The Word version is editable so you can add your own checks; the PDF is set up to print and write on.
Download Word template (.docx)
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5 pages · 42 checks · free to copy and use inside your clinic · version 2.0, September 2026
What is inside the template
The checks are written the way an inspector asks, as a request to be shown something rather than a yes or no question. The weighting is not a guess: Safe and Well-led carry the most checks because those are the two key questions where rated aesthetic clinics actually fell short, nine of 153 in each. Responsive carries the fewest because no rated clinic in the dataset fell below Good there.
The figures behind that weighting are on the mock CQC inspection toolkit page.
Safe
Emergency drugs in date with a dated check log. Adrenaline immediately available wherever toxin or filler is administered. Hyaluronidase stocked with a written pathway for vascular occlusion. Fridge logs, named-patient traceability, face-to-face prescribing, sharps and waste, cleaning sign-off, equipment and laser servicing, incident outcomes, risk register review, local action on MHRA alerts, safeguarding route.
Effective
Consent recording the specific risks discussed rather than a generic signature. Cooling-off period evidenced. Contemporaneous, attributable clinical records. Separate photography consent. Protocols and PGDs that match what staff actually do. Outcomes and complications reviewed. An audit programme with findings and actions.
Caring
Written pre-treatment information including risks and aftercare. Chaperone offered and the offer recorded. Feedback collected with at least one change you can point to. Privacy and dignity that work in the actual room layout.
Responsive
Complaints logged, acknowledged and closed within your stated timescale. A route to escalate beyond the clinic. Reasonable adjustments addressed with a real example. Out-of-hours aftercare that patients know how to reach.
Well-led
Registered manager matching CQC’s record. Current statement of purpose. Staff files with DBS, registration, indemnity and references, re-verified on a schedule. Minuted meetings with actions closed. In-date policies. Training records. Duty of Candour. Notifications. Rating display. And whether anyone other than the owner could find it all.
How to use it
- Block out half a day and treat it as a real inspection. Do not prepare the answers in advance, because the point is to find the gaps.
- Work through the five key questions in order. For each check, ask a colleague to actually produce the evidence rather than describe it.
- Record where the evidence lives, who produced it, and the date. “We do that” is not evidence. A dated record is.
- Mark each check using the key below, then transfer everything short of Evidenced to the action log at the back.
- Give every action a named owner and a date. An action log with owners and dates is itself evidence of good governance under Regulation 17.
The marking key
There is deliberately no score. CQC has confirmed it is removing scoring from its own assessment approach, in favour of rating judgements made “holistically using the professional judgement of our inspection teams”. A percentage would tell you less than an honest three-way mark.
Evidenced — a record exists, is current, and a member of staff could find it.
Partly evidenced — it exists, but it is out of date, incomplete, or only you know where it is.
Not evidenced — there is nothing you could show.
When a template stops being enough
A template tells you where you stood on the morning you filled it in. Six weeks later the training records have moved, two policies have passed their review date and a risk register entry is stale. Running it again means the same half day all over again.
INTENTIQ keeps the evidence current as the work happens, so the answer is ready whenever it is asked for. This supports inspection readiness and helps you evidence governance — it cannot guarantee a rating, and no software can.
See the mock CQC inspection software
Related resources
- Mock CQC inspection toolkit — the full toolkit, plus the register data on why inspection readiness matters now
- CQC compliance guide for clinics
- CQC audit tool and audit framework
Figures are derived from CQC’s public register and published ratings for aesthetic clinic locations in England, analysed by INTENTIQ in September 2026 (n=320 locations; n=153 with key-question ratings). Regulation references are to the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. General information for clinic owners and managers, not legal or regulatory advice.