We are trying to use our rented apartment for supported living unregulated. We have turned the living room to an office fully furnished with office equipment with CCTV camera installed. The company will roll on as soon as we finished paying for the insurance. The rooms are ready for YP. Do you think the company can still function without CQC involvement?

Answered by Barry Price

From the information provided my first thought is if you have turned the front room in to a fully functioning office then where do the tenants go instead.

It can be hard to advise on details that do not fully describe your business model and service user group and support needs, but I will try and offer some general pointers for you.

The CQC provide really good guidance about Registration, and you can check this out here https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-providers/registration/what-registration.

In a nutshell if you are not carrying out regulated activities then you do not need to register. The other point I gather is you do not own the property so any residents would have their own tenancy agreement separate from any care and support package which shows a separation between Landlord and Care Provider.

The question of CCTV is a complex one as this is now under the eye of the Information Commissioner’s Office and the UK General Data Protection Regulations and you should view the guidance they have produced specifically on this as well as completing the self-assessment to see if your business needs to register as a result of the data you will be collecting https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/domestic-cctv-systems-guidance-for-people-using-cctv/

You will also need to consider capacity to consent to CCTV if this is going to be in a communal lounge but more importantly someone’s home. Is this a condition of Tenancy / Support and what if people object to CCTV?

Is the Property owner happy for you to use this rented property as a business for supported living and is their insurance suitable? Other things you will need to factor in are safety and equipment checks that you will be responsible for.

As it is unlikely you will need to be registered if you are not carrying out regulated activities, can I suggest you contact your commissioning teams to ensure that your set up meets with local demand and commissioning teams requirements or you run the risk of setting up a service that is not needed and therefore could fail.

By speaking to your commissioning team it may be that they will want it to be registered even as an HMO depending on how many lettable rooms you have. They may have requirements on shared facilities. By engaging with those who deal with commissioning services and contracts they may even come up with suggestions for a specific area they are needing services for in your area.

So you will see there are more things to consider with your question than just registration with CQC and I hope we have given you some practical pointers to enable you to move forward and succeed in your venture.