Who is responsible for equipment in supported living?

What CQC regulates in supported living

In England, where the housing and the care are under separate agreements, CQC says that “generally speaking” it registers and regulates only the provider of the care, for the regulated activity Personal care: physical help with eating and drinking, toileting, washing or bathing, dressing, oral care, or care of skin, hair and nails, or prompting with supervision for someone who can’t decide alone. CQC’s guidance says the personal care must be given where the person is living, and that there must be “a real separation between the provision of personal care and the accommodation agreements”. A provider that only gives housing support or social support, such as help with shopping, doesn’t need to register.

The home itself is not regulated by CQC. Its housing with care guidance says “only the care provided is regulated and potentially, inspected”, and that CQC “does not have powers to regulate accommodation where the service does not provide accommodation together with personal care as a package”. It goes on: “even if the personal care provider is not responsible for the premises, they are responsible for ensuring the care they provide there is safe. They must do all they reasonably can to work with people using the service and with other agencies and bodies to secure improvements when premises are unsafe.”

How Regulation 15 applies

• Premises. The Regulations define premises so that, for regulations 12, 14 and 15, they don’t include the person’s own home where it isn’t provided as part of their care.
• Equipment you didn’t supply. Regulation 15(3) takes equipment at the person’s home out of four of the six duties (secure, suitable, properly maintained and appropriately located), when the home isn’t part of their care and you didn’t supply the equipment. The duties to keep it clean and properly used are not in that list.
• CQC’s expectation. “Where the person using the service owns the equipment needed to deliver their care and treatment, or the provider does not provide it, the provider should make every effort to make sure that it is clean, safe and suitable for use.”
• Equipment you supply. Regulation 15 applies in full. Regulation 12 also requires the equipment you use for care to be “safe for such use” and “used in a safe way”.

The full text of Regulation 15 and CQC’s guidance on it are on CQC Regulation 15: what to keep on record.

Who does what

Each row is from the sources named in it. Where a source sets no record, the suggestion is ours and is marked as such. Your contracts may share the work differently: write down what you agree.

Gas: Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, which apply in England, Wales and Scotland. Electrics: England only, and Schedule 1 excludes some tenancies, including care homes and some hostels; since the 2025 amendments the rules also cover social landlords. Fire: the Fire Safety Order applies in England and Wales. It doesn’t apply to premises occupied as a private dwelling, and its duties also fall on anyone with control of the building to any extent, including through a contract or tenancy that makes them responsible for maintenance, repair or safety. How that works in a shared house depends on how it is let, so ask the landlord who the responsible person is.

Hoists and slings, by who owns them

LOLER applies to lifting equipment used at work. Whether it applies, and to whom, depends on who owns the hoist and why it is there. HSE’s guidance:

Sources: HSE, Care provided in people’s own homes; HSE, Equipment safety in health and social care; HSE HSIS4 and HSIS3; LOLER 1998 regulation 9; PUWER 1998 regulation 5; CQC, Regulation 15 guidance. HSE also says that under LOLER, anyone using lifting equipment should be able to check that it has been thoroughly examined and is safe to use. More in LOLER for hoists and slings in care homes.

Beds and bed rails

MHRA’s bed rail guidance is written for, among others, carers in the community and care-at-home staff, and community equipment stores and loan store managers. It says most reported bed rail injuries now happen in community settings, “both in care homes and in people’s own homes”, and that the people who should know how and when to arrange maintenance and report faults can include care staff, family members or the bed occupant. Where rails are used to reduce the risk of falls, they should be regularly assessed for suitability and correct function. MHRA sets no fixed interval: see how often bed rails should be checked.

What Hovermarks helps you record

• Each address as a site. Every home is a site under one account, with its equipment listed under it. Starter covers 5 sites, Professional 20, and Enterprise from 100. When you stop working at an address, an Admin archives the site: its records stay, and it stops counting towards the limit.
• Who owns each item. An Admin can add a field to a category, such as a choice of “The person”, “Equipment service” or “Us”, and a date field for the owner’s last examination. They show on the item’s record and in the CSV export. Every plan.
• Pre-use checks. An Admin or Site Manager writes a short checklist from the manufacturer’s pre-use checks. A care worker scans the item’s QR label and records the check on a phone. A failed answer marked to raise a flag opens a defect against that item. Recording a check needs a signed-in user, and each user needs a licence.
• Examinations of your own equipment. Where you own the hoist, your examiner can record each thorough examination in your account as a Contractor, with the LOLER report made from it. If their own company is on a paid Hovermarks plan, their own licence covers the work.
• Reports from someone else’s examiner. On Professional, a report the equipment service or the person’s examiner sends you can be added as a certificate on the item, with the document stored and reminders 30, 14 and 1 day before it expires.
• A copy of the landlord’s records. On Professional, a copy of the gas safety record or electrical report for an address can be added as a certificate on that site, so your managers are reminded to ask for the next one.
• A scan before use. Anyone who scans a label sees the item without an account. With the status panel on, they also see when it was last inspected in Hovermarks and when it is next due, and an Admin can add an in-date or overdue badge. With fault reports on, they can report a problem from the same page.

What it doesn’t do

• It doesn’t decide who is responsible for what. The law and your agreements do.
• It doesn’t carry out, book or chase a landlord’s gas safety check, electrical inspection or fire risk assessment. Storing a copy doesn’t move the landlord’s duty to you, or meet it.
• The scan page doesn’t know about examinations done outside Hovermarks: a certificate added for one doesn’t change its dates. Its “last examined” date is the latest inspection of any kind recorded on the item, so if you record pre-use checks there too, it shows the latest check, not the latest thorough examination. The badge reflects the next due date, not the item’s condition.
• It doesn’t hold tenancy agreements, care plans, support plans or handling plans.
• It doesn’t make a service compliant or decide what CQC will accept. It keeps the record.
• It needs a data connection to open, load your equipment and start a check.

More on the care home and supported living solution page.

Frequently asked questions

Does CQC regulate supported living accommodation?

Not where the housing and the care are separate, which is what makes it supported living. People live in their own homes and the personal care is provided under separate agreements from their housing. CQC registers the provider of personal care, and its guidance says people's own homes are not regulated under the regulated activity Personal care: only the care provided is regulated and potentially inspected. CQC says it does not have powers to regulate accommodation where the service doesn't provide accommodation and personal care together as a package. This is England only.

Does CQC Regulation 15 apply in supported living?

Partly. The Regulations' definition of premises leaves out the person's own home where it isn't provided as part of their care. For equipment, regulation 15(3) takes equipment at the person's home out of four duties (secure, suitable, properly maintained and appropriately located) when the home isn't part of the care and the provider didn't supply the equipment. Equipment the provider supplies is covered in full. CQC's guidance adds that where the person owns the equipment, or the provider doesn't provide it, the provider should make every effort to make sure it is clean, safe and suitable for use. Regulation 12, safe care and treatment, still covers the equipment the provider uses.

Who arranges the LOLER examination of a hoist the person owns?

LOLER puts no duty on the person: HSE says equipment a service user owns is not supplied for use at work. The care worker's employer still has to keep its staff safe, and HSE says it needs to decide whether to provide suitable other equipment or take adequate steps to make sure the person's equipment is properly maintained and safe to use. HSE says the responsibilities of everyone involved should be set out clearly in the care provision contract, so write down who arranges the examination and who keeps the report.

Who is responsible for a hoist loaned by the community equipment service?

HSE says LOLER places duties on equipment providers who own, operate or have control over lifting equipment, and that in practice LOLER will apply to most loan equipment, because the service may not be able to tell whether it is used only privately, and a loan for private use may last only a few weeks before the equipment goes to someone with paid carers. Where it is loaned only for the person, family or unpaid carers, the owner still has a general duty to provide and maintain it safely. The care provider's part is to check before each use that the hoist and sling are safe and in date, and to report faults.

Who does the gas safety check and the electrical inspection?

The landlord. The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 require landlords to have each gas appliance and flue checked at least every 12 months and give tenants a copy of the record within 28 days. In England, the Electrical Safety Standards Regulations 2020 require landlords to have the electrical installation inspected and tested before a tenancy starts and at least every 5 years, with some tenancies excluded. The care provider doesn't take these on by providing care, but a copy of each record tells you the checks were done.

Does this apply in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?

CQC and the Regulated Activities Regulations apply in England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own regulators: the Care Inspectorate, Care Inspectorate Wales and the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA). The gas regulation applies in England, Wales and Scotland; the electrical regulations quoted here apply in England only; the Fire Safety Order applies in England and Wales. Check the rules where your homes are.

Related: Hovermarks for care homes and supported living, CQC Regulation 15 records, how often bed rails should be checked, LOLER for hoists and slings, landlords and appliance testing, by nation.