HIQA COMPLIANCE
HIQA compliance for home support providers in Ireland
HIQA compliance for a home support provider means being able to show, on the day an inspector asks, that the service meets the national standards HIQA sets and the regulations made under the Health (Amendment) (Home Support Providers) Act 2026.
Home support is not a registered service yet. The Act was signed into law on 1 July 2026 and is awaiting commencement, and the National Standards for Home Support Services are still in draft. HIQA has indicated that they will be published alongside the legislation. Nobody can be certified as HIQA compliant today. What a provider can be is ready, and readiness is evidence.
LAST CHECKED
24 September 2026
Checked against primary sources
Re-checked monthly. The national standards and the inspection framework have not been published in final form yet.
THE POSITION TODAY
Is home support regulated by HIQA yet?
Not yet. Until the registration provisions of the Act commence, there is no statutory registration system for home support services in Ireland, and no regulator holds a register of who is providing them.
The Health (Amendment) (Home Support Providers) Act 2026, Act No. 17 of 2026, was signed into law on 1 July 2026. Its provisions come into operation on dates appointed by the Minister for Health. No commencement order has been made.
During the Bill's passage through the Oireachtas, a commencement period of up to twelve months was envisaged, to allow the regulations and the national standards to be finished.
Once section 69C comes into operation, providing a home support service without being registered is an offence.
THE REGULATOR
Who will register and inspect home support providers?
The Health Information and Quality Authority holds the statutory register.
Registration is applied for to the Chief Inspector of Social Services, who maintains the register, collects information from registered providers, carries out inspections and enforces compliance.
Serious breaches found at inspection can lead to a registration being suspended or cancelled.
THE STANDARDS
What standards will home support providers be measured against?
The National Standards for Home Support Services, developed by HIQA, together with minimum regulatory requirements set by the Minister for Health. Neither has been published in final form yet.
HIQA published the draft standards in November 2024 and consulted on them until 13 December 2024. In its stakeholder involvement report of November 2025, HIQA set out how that feedback shaped the standards and indicated that they will be published along with the forthcoming legislation on home support services.
The standards remain in draft. No publication date has been given, and the final wording could still change. Everything below describes the draft.
The November 2024 draft sets out thirteen standards under four principles.
| Principle | Standards | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| A human rights-based approach | 1.1 to 1.4 | Rights, information, decision making, feedback and complaints |
| Safety and wellbeing | 2.1 to 2.5 | Assessment, care planning, safeguarding, risk, incidents and open disclosure |
| Responsiveness | 3.1 to 3.3 | Knowing the person, coordination, staff skills and supervision |
| Accountability | 4.1 | Leadership, governance and management |
Each standard is written twice: once in the voice of the person receiving the service, and once as arrangements the provider must have in place. The second half is the half a provider can act on.
WHAT AN INSPECTION LOOKS AT
What will a HIQA inspection of a home support service look at?
Nobody can answer that with certainty yet, because no inspection framework for home support has been published. What follows is CareReady's own view of where a provider should focus, drawn from the Act, the draft standards, and how regulated services are already inspected in Ireland. It is preparation advice, not a HIQA framework, and it will be revised as soon as HIQA publishes one. On that basis, four areas are worth getting right.
Governance that operates in practice
Systems that can be shown to work, not only to exist. Meetings, audits, incidents, complaints and the actions taken from them all need to leave a trail.
Staff who are trained and competent
Training delivered, competency assessed, and both recorded against the individual. Attendance on its own does not demonstrate competence.
Risk that is actively managed
Risks identified, acted on and reviewed, with a record of what was found and what was done about it.
Safe, person-centred care that is evidenced
Care that can be demonstrated across the organisation rather than asserted. Undocumented good practice is indistinguishable from no practice at all.
NOT THE SAME THING
Is this the same as HIQA compliance for a nursing home?
No. The two sit in different places, and the difference matters when a provider is reading advice written for nursing homes.
| Nursing homes | Home support | |
|---|---|---|
| Regulated by HIQA today | Yes, as designated centres | No, not yet |
| Register | In place | Created by the 2026 Act, awaiting commencement |
| Standards | Published and in force | Draft, not published in final form |
| Inspection framework | Published | Not published |
| What to do now | Maintain compliance | Build the evidence before registration opens |
Most of the HIQA compliance advice a home support provider will find online was written for nursing homes, or for the UK, where a different regulator and a different rulebook apply and the service is called domiciliary care. It is not wrong, it is simply about a different regime.
WHERE IT GOES WRONG
Where do providers tend to fall short?
More often on evidence than on care. A service can be doing the work well and still find it hard to show that it does.
Some common examples.
Training delivered but not assessed, or assessed but not recorded against the person who was trained.
Governance that happens in conversation and leaves nothing behind.
Policies written for a tender, describing a service that has since changed.
Practice everyone in the office knows about and nobody can produce a record of.
BEFORE REGISTRATION OPENS
What can a provider do before registration opens?
Four things, none of which depends on knowing the commencement date.
01
Start with a gap analysis
An honest look at the areas that will be assessed is more useful than a policy review, because it tells you what is missing rather than what is filed.
02
Fix the training record
Structured induction, ideally completed before staff begin delivering care, competency assessed in practice, and certification held in the governance file. This has the longest lead time of anything on a readiness list, because it depends on staff availability rather than on a decision.
03
Make governance visible
Meetings, audits, incidents, complaints and the actions taken from them need to leave a trail. A system that operates but leaves no record will not be assessable.
04
Rehearse it
A structured mock inspection with a written report and a prioritised action plan is the cheapest possible version of finding out.
THE SEQUENCE
What happens once the Act commences, and when?
The transitional deadlines for existing providers run from the day section 69C comes into operation, not from the date the Act was signed. Section 69C is the provision inserted into the Health Act 2007 that makes it an offence to provide a home support service without being registered, and the three month and two year deadlines in section 69ZD are both measured from it. The sequence matters more than the calendar.
| When | What |
|---|---|
| On commencement | The Minister for Health appoints the dates on which the provisions of the Act come into operation |
| Within three months of section 69C commencing | Existing providers notify the Chief Inspector that they are operating a home support service. This is a notification, not an application |
| Within two years of section 69C commencing | Existing providers must have applied for registration. They may continue to operate through the transitional period |
HOW WE HELP
How CareReady helps providers get ready
Three pieces of work. They can be taken separately, or in sequence.
01
Mock inspection
A structured review of the service against thirteen areas, using the evidence you already hold, with a written report and a prioritised action plan.
02
Compliance consultancy
Working through what the review found. Governance, policies, records and the evidence trail, so the service can show what it does.
03
Staff training and competency testing
Structured induction delivered on site, competency assessed in practice, and certification held in your governance file.
CareReady works with home support providers nationwide from a base in Wexford, and delivers staff training in nursing home settings as well. Compare the three services.
CareReady is an independent consultancy. Under the Home Support Providers Act 2026, HIQA holds the statutory register for home support services and registration is applied for to the Chief Inspector. Nothing CareReady does is carried out on behalf of, or endorsed by, HIQA or the HSE, and no third-party accreditation is implied.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Questions providers ask about HIQA compliance
No date has been appointed. The Act is signed but awaiting commencement, and the Minister for Health appoints the dates on which its provisions come into operation. A commencement period of up to twelve months was envisaged during the Bill's passage. The three month notification and two year application deadlines both run from the commencement of section 69C, not from the signing date.
No consultancy can promise that, and the standards are not published in final form. What a consultancy can do is prepare the service: review it the way an inspector would, and work through what is missing, so that when registration and inspection arrive you can show what you do rather than describe it.
No. The HSE approved provider list is a procurement arrangement for HSE-funded home support. The register created by the Act is a statutory register held by HIQA. Tender compliance builds a lot of what registration will ask for, but the two are separate, and being on one does not put you on the other.
The Chief Inspector of Social Services has responsibility for compliance, and the HIQA inspectorate carries out inspections. Inspection looks for what happens in practice, and for the record that proves it.
No. CareReady is an independent consultancy. Nothing CareReady does is carried out on behalf of, or endorsed by, HIQA or the HSE.
Nursing homes are welcome for staff training. The mock inspection and the consultancy work are built specifically for home support providers, because that is what the incoming regulation covers.
SOURCES
Where this page comes from
Everything on this page is taken from these documents, and the page is re-checked monthly.
Health (Amendment) (Home Support Providers) Act 2026, Act No. 17 of 2026, Oireachtas.
Draft National Standards for Home Support Services, HIQA, November 2024.
Public consultation on the draft standards, HIQA, 4 November to 13 December 2024.
Home Support Standards Stakeholder Involvement Report, HIQA, November 2025.
Bill Digest, Health (Amendment) (Home Support Providers) Bill 2025, Oireachtas Library and Research Service, February 2026.
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