Recruiting a care worker is hard enough. Losing them between the offer and the first visit is worse. The weeks in between are often a blur of chasing references, waiting for a DBS certificate, booking training and finding someone to buddy them. If nobody owns that stretch, a new carer can go quiet and take another job.
Onboarding is the plan that covers that stretch. For a home care agency it has a second purpose too. Under Regulation 18, CQC expects staff to get the induction, training and supervision their role needs, and its Regulation 18 guidance says providers "must ensure that they have an induction programme that prepares staff for their role". A good onboarding plan is how you show that you did.
This guide walks through onboarding in order, from the offer to the first visit a new carer does alone. It follows on from our guides on how to recruit care workers in the UK and safer recruitment in domiciliary care.
Stage 1: The offer, and what must still be finished
Most agencies make a conditional offer before every check is back. That is fine, as long as the offer says what is still outstanding and nobody forgets it.
Before a new carer delivers any care, the checks in Schedule 3 should be complete and on file. CQC's Regulation 19 guidance sets out what "fit and proper" means. In practice, the list to close off is:
- Right to work, using one of the methods on GOV.UK's check a job applicant's right to work page, done before employment starts.
- Enhanced DBS with adults' barred list, at the right level for the role. If the person already has a certificate on the DBS Update Service, they can give you permission to check whether anything has changed. Our DBS guide for care workers has the detail.
- References, including the reason previous care or health employment ended where you can get it.
- Full employment history, with gaps explained in writing.
- Health questionnaire, with any reasonable adjustments or occupational health follow-up noted.
The full list, with sources, is in our care worker recruitment checklist. The point for onboarding is simple: give one person the job of closing each open item, and give the new carer a date they can expect to hear by. Silence is what loses applicants at this stage.
Stage 2: Before day one
A short pre-arrival checklist saves a messy first morning. Skills for Care's induction toolkit suggests planning the first days in advance and having a named person to welcome the new starter, ideally someone they have already met during recruitment.
For a home care agency, pre-arrival usually means:
- The contract and written statement are ready to sign.
- Payroll details, bank details and emergency contacts are requested.
- Driving licence, insurance for business use and MOT are checked if they will drive between visits.
- Uniform, ID badge and personal protective equipment are ready.
- App or system logins are set up, so the carer is not waiting on IT during their first shadow shift.
- Induction training sessions and the first shadow shifts are booked, with named colleagues.
Stage 3: Day one
GOV.UK's page on the written statement of employment particulars says the employer must give the principal statement on the first day of employment. On day one the employer must also give information about sick pay, other paid leave and notice periods. The wider written statement must follow within 2 months.
Beyond the paperwork, Skills for Care's day one guidance recommends that new starters meet their supervisor on the first day. That first conversation should cover the first week's schedule, what is expected during induction, key policies, and access to the systems and equipment they need.
In home care, add the things that are specific to working alone in people's homes:
- How to log visits, and what to do if they cannot get in.
- Who to call out of hours, and how.
- Your lone working arrangements.
- How to raise a safeguarding concern on their first day, not their tenth.
- How travel time between visits is paid. Our guide to national minimum wage and travel time explains why this matters.
Stage 4: Induction training
Induction is where a new carer learns the knowledge and skills for the job. In England most agencies build it around the Care Certificate standards. Skills for Care says the standards were updated in March 2025 and there are now 16 of them, including a new standard on awareness of learning disability and autism. Our guide to the Care Certificate for home care agencies explains how sign-off works.
NICE's home care guideline, NG21, adds detail that suits domiciliary care. It recommends training as part of induction on what "safe" care is, on spotting and responding to abuse or neglect and to environmental risks, and on safe care policies and procedures. It also recommends stating explicitly in induction that raising safeguarding alerts is part of delivering a responsible home care service.
Alongside the Care Certificate, plan the topics in your mandatory training matrix, including the Oliver McGowan training on learning disability and autism. Do not try to fit everything into the first week. A plan with dates is better than a crammed induction nobody remembers.
Stage 5: Shadowing and observed practice
Shadow shifts are where onboarding in home care differs most from other jobs. A new carer sees real visits with an experienced colleague, meets the people they will support, and learns the small things that are in no care plan.
NICE NG21 says new home care workers should be "observed at work more than once during their induction period". There is no legal number of shadow shifts. Decide when someone is ready by what you have observed, not by how many shifts they have done, and write the decision down.
A simple pattern many agencies use:
- Watch. The new carer observes visits and reads the care plans first.
- Do, with support. They deliver parts of each visit while the experienced colleague watches and helps.
- Observed visits. A senior or field supervisor observes them delivering whole visits and records the outcome.
- Sign-off. The manager confirms they are competent to work out of sight of a more experienced colleague, for the type of visits they will be doing.
Medication, moving and handling, and any clinical tasks need their own competency sign-off before the carer does them alone. Our guide to medication management in home care covers the medication side.
Stage 6: The first solo visits
The first week of solo visits is when a new carer is most likely to feel overwhelmed. Some simple choices help:
- Start them on a smaller run, close to home, with people they have already met on shadow shifts.
- Avoid putting their first solo visits on a weekend or late evening when support is thinner.
- Make sure they know who to call, and that someone actually answers.
- Check in by phone after the first day, not only at the end of the week.
Stage 7: Early supervision and probation
Onboarding does not end at the first solo visit. Skills for Care's week one and month one guidance recommends an early supervision meeting to explain probation and review points, then regular supervision through the first month. It suggests month one is a good time to agree a personal development plan. The toolkit continues to months three to six.
Record each of these conversations. They are part of the evidence for Regulation 18, and our guide to supervision and appraisal for care workers sets out a structure. They are also when you find out, early, that someone is struggling with a particular person or a long run, while there is still time to fix it. Skills for Care's turnover figures show why this early stretch matters: first-year leavers drive a large share of turnover, which is why these check-ins sit alongside our practical care worker retention ideas.
A one-page onboarding checklist
| Stage | Done when |
|---|---|
| Offer | Conditional offer sent, with outstanding checks named and owned |
| Pre-employment checks | Right to work, DBS, references, employment history and health questionnaire complete and filed |
| Before day one | Contract ready, logins set up, uniform and PPE ready, first week booked |
| Day one | Principal written statement given, supervisor met, policies and out-of-hours process explained |
| Induction | Care Certificate and mandatory training plan in place with dates |
| Shadowing | Observed more than once, competencies signed off, decision recorded |
| First solo visits | Manageable first run, check-in after day one |
| Early supervision | Week one and month one supervision recorded, probation dates set |
How HomecareOS helps
The HomecareOS recruitment portal keeps the first half of this journey in one place.
- The agency invites an applicant by email. SMS invites are not built.
- The applicant completes an online /apply portal with their application, documents, right to work, two references, DBS details and a health questionnaire.
- The agency tracks each applicant through seven stages: application, documents, references, DBS, interview, offer and onboarding. You can see at a glance who is waiting on what. Our guide to applicant tracking for home care agencies explains why that matters.
- On hire, the applicant is converted into a carer record that is ready to be added to the rota, without retyping their details. They are not added to the rota automatically, so you still decide when shadowing ends and visits begin.
Agencies that sign up now get the portal £49 a month plus VAT. Start on the recruitment portal page, read the recruitment feature page, book a demo, or call Phil on 01905 674704.
Sources
- Regulation 18, Regulation 19 and Schedule 3, Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
- CQC guidance on Regulation 18, for the induction duty.
- CQC guidance on Regulation 19, for fit and proper persons employed.
- NICE NG21 recommendations, section 1.7 on training and development, and 1.6 on safeguarding in induction.
- Skills for Care induction toolkit, including the day one, week one, month one and months three to six pages.
- Skills for Care Care Certificate standards, for the 2025 update.
- GOV.UK: written statement of employment particulars, for day one obligations.
- GOV.UK: check a job applicant's right to work and the DBS Update Service.