Hi Sheila,
I have a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom house I’m renting at the moment and I’m considering offering respite services from my house. I’ve done some research and I’m aware of some of the stipulations, but I would like to be a proprietor in this sector. How would I know if my house is suitable for this? I would appreciate your input and knowledge on this.
Thank you,

Paul Atkin

Answered by Sheila Scott

Dear Paul,

Thank you for your question.

There isn’t a straightforward answer to your question.

This is an answer I gave to a similar question I received some weeks ago:

“If you are going to be providing personal care then you must register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

I am assuming that you live in England, if you live in another part of the UK then all Countries have the own regulator.

You could be providing  either a care home or shared lives but if it is respite care then it is likely to be a care home.

What I suggest you do first is go onto the CQC website and read their Scope of Registration publication.

https://www.cqc.org.uk/sites/default/files/20151230_100001_Scope_of_registration_guidance_updated_March_2015_01.pdf

What you are proposing would I believe need to be registered as a care home but you might also like to look at what the document says about “shared lives”.

In any case you would need to register if you are providing personal care and the information about registration is of course on the CQC website too.

Registration is complex so if you decide to go ahead then you need to proceed through the various stages of registration and budgeting will be a key part of this so I think you would need to take further advice from various people including the Fire Brigade about what protection they would expect to be in place, insurers to check what the cost of insurance would be and you would also need to look at things such as Health and Safety.

You might also like to speak to your Local Authority to find out what they think of your proposal and whether or not they would be in a position to recommend your service to service users.”

You would need to make significant changes to the house to comply with fire safety requirements and I believe that you would only want to do this if you were confident that the service would be used.

You or another person that you could employ would also have to be confirmed by CQC as the Registered Manager. You do not say whether or not you are an experienced Adult Social Care professional. If you are to be a Registered Manager you would be expected to have the appropriate experience and a condition of registration might relate to gaining an appropriate qualification if you don’t have one already.

I hope this is helpful and I would be pleased to answer further questions if you have any.

Best wishes.

Sheila