Guide
Supported living vs domiciliary care: how CQC registration differs
A lot of new providers plan both: home care visits in the community, and support for people living in supported living houses. It’s natural to ask whether they’re two registrations, two sets of documents, or one.
The short answer from CQC’s guidance is that both come under the same regulated activity, personal care. The differences are in how the housing is arranged, which rules apply when someone’s liberty is restricted, and what CQC looks at to decide the service is really supported living and not a care home.
Same regulated activity: personal care
CQC’s scope of registration guidance says the regulated activity of personal care “includes personal care provided through domiciliary or homecare services, and housing with care or supported living services”. The care has to be provided “in the place where those people who need it are living at the time when the care is provided”.
Personal care itself is defined in Regulation 2 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, and includes physical assistance with eating or drinking, toileting, washing or bathing, dressing, oral care, and care of skin, hair and nails. It also covers prompting together with supervision with those tasks, where the person can’t make a decision about doing them without that prompting and supervision.
CQC’s scope page also says you don’t register for personal care if you “only” provide housing support or social support, such as help with shopping, or “only” support to administer, prompt or supervise medicines. That applies to supported living services too: a scheme that provides housing support but no personal care isn’t carrying on this regulated activity.
The key difference: separation between housing and care
For supported living, CQC’s scope guidance says “there must be a real separation between the provision of personal care and the accommodation agreements”.
If housing and care are a single package, CQC treats it as a different regulated activity. Its guidance on accommodation for persons who require nursing or personal care explains: a single package means the person “cannot choose to receive personal care from another provider while they are living in the accommodation”. That is the care home activity. Where people can choose a different provider for their personal care, “it may be a supported living or extra care housing service”.
CQC’s housing with care guidance (dated October 2015, still linked from CQC’s personal care page) lists indicators for genuine separation. It says they “are not conclusive in their own right” and won’t all apply in every case. They include:
- separate contracts for personal care and accommodation, with no overarching agreement restricting the person’s choice of care provider
- where the same legal entity provides both, separate agreements and a genuine choice of who provides care
- the person having unrestricted access to every part of their home apart from co-tenants’ private space
- equipment such as office equipment and files owned by the housing provider, unrelated to the person’s care, not kept in the person’s home
- decisions on occupancy agreements, rent and notice made by whoever controls the accommodation
- the person being able to stop receiving the care, or switch to another provider, without affecting their tenancy
The same guidance says having an occupancy agreement doesn’t settle the question on its own: accommodation and care “can still be provided as a single package”. It names the National Development Team for Inclusion’s “Real Tenancy Test” as a quick test some providers use.
A domiciliary care agency visiting people in homes they’ve arranged themselves doesn’t usually face this question. A supported living provider does, especially if it also has links to the landlord.
Restrictions on liberty: DoLS doesn’t cover supported living
This is a practical difference that affects your consent and safeguarding policies.
CQC’s housing with care guidance says Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) “can only be used to authorise the deprivation of someone’s liberty in a hospital or care home”. In other settings, “including supported living and extra care housing schemes”, it says the provider works with the commissioning body in applying to the Court of Protection for authorisation.
CQC’s consent policy guidance asks for “information about Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) or Community Deprivation of Liberty depending on your service type”, so the wording in your policy follows the setting you’ll work in.
Documents: the lists are the same
On CQC’s supporting documents pages, the extra documents for home care agencies and supported living services match: business plan and financial forecast, evidence of legal occupancy, service user guides, staff training plan, and the additional form for personal care providers. Both pages ask specialist services for autistic people and people with a learning disability to add a positive behaviour support policy, a restraint policy and an additional form. Both have the same keep-ready list.
Neither sends a financial viability statement, according to CQC’s all-providers list.
If you’re applying for both, both pages say to send all the documents for each service and include information about everything you’re applying for in your documents. CQC’s infection prevention and control guidance, for example, has one section that covers both home care and supported living: assessing infection risks in domestic environments and cleaning and waste in home settings.
Learning disability and autism services
Many supported living services support autistic people and people with a learning disability. CQC’s statutory guidance Right support, right care, right culture says CQC will only register providers whose services maintain dignity and privacy and facilitate person-centred care, and that services are not to “be developed as new campus or congregate settings”. CQC’s before you apply page says you must read the guidance before you apply, and offers a pre-application discussion.
SCIE’s supported living overview describes people in supported living as having their own tenancy agreement and being responsible for their own bills, with care and accommodation covered by separate agreements.
Quick comparison
| Domiciliary care | Supported living | |
|---|---|---|
| CQC regulated activity | Personal care | Personal care |
| Housing separation test | Not usually relevant | Central: care and housing kept separate |
| Liberty restrictions | Court of Protection route (not DoLS) | Court of Protection route (not DoLS) |
| Extra documents | Same list | Same list |
| LD/autism specialist extras | PBS, restraint, extra form | PBS, restraint, extra form |
The liberty row applies because both are delivered in people’s own homes, not hospitals or care homes, based on the housing with care guidance quoted above.
FAQ
Do I need two registrations for home care and supported living? Both are the personal care regulated activity. CQC’s home care page refers to supported living as another “service type” you may also register for, and asks you to send the documents for each (source).
Can the landlord and care provider be the same company? CQC’s housing with care guidance says they are “not usually” the same legal entity, but where they are, there has to be clear separation and a genuine choice of care provider.
Is the 2015 housing with care guidance still current? It’s dated October 2015 and still hosted and linked by CQC as of 30 October 2026. We didn’t find a newer version on CQC’s site when we checked.
Where OrCore fits
The OrCore policy pack interview has a supported living section and a section for services supporting autistic people and people with a learning disability. Your answers go into draft policies that you check, edit and sign off. Start the policy pack interview.
About us. OrCore Compliance is independent of CQC. We are not part of CQC and CQC has not endorsed us. We’re also new, so we don’t have a track record or success figures to show you yet, and we won’t invent any. We use AI to help draft and check our master policy templates. Your answers fill them in, and you confirm every policy matches how your service really works before you use it. The interview on our site uses fixed questions and fixed answers written by the OrCore team. No AI reads or replies to what you type there.
This article gives general information from CQC, SCIE and UK law, with a link for each point. It isn’t advice about your own service: CQC makes every registration decision, and for advice on your situation speak to your own specialist. OrCore offers registration support only, with no guarantee of outcome.