The HIQA home support standards are the benchmark your agency will be measured against once home support is regulated. HIQA published them in draft in November 2024. This article turns the draft into a plain-English checklist, standard by standard, with the kind of evidence you should be able to show. It is a preparation tool, not legal advice.
A caution first. The draft was open for public consultation from 4 November to 13 December 2024, according to HIQA. We have not found a final published version. The numbering and wording below follow the November 2024 draft, and may change.
How the HIQA home support standards draft is built
The draft rests on four principles: a human rights-based approach, safety and wellbeing, responsiveness, and accountability. Under them sit 17 standards. Each standard has two halves. The first says what a person should expect, written in the first person ("I can access these services without experiencing any form of discrimination"). The second says what the provider must do to make that true.
HIQA says the framework will sit alongside primary legislation and secondary legislation, which is why our overview of the Home Support Providers Act 2026 is the right companion read.
The standards ask one question again and again: could the person in the bed or the chair tell you this is how it feels?
How to use this checklist
For each standard below, ask three questions. Do we have a written arrangement? Can we show it working in practice? Would a client or family member agree? Where the answer to any is no, you have found your next job.
Principle 1: A human rights-based approach
1.1 Rights. Do clients understand their rights in a way that suits them, and do staff treat them with dignity and respect?
Evidence to keep: a plain-language rights leaflet, induction content, examples of adapted information.
1.2 Information and access. Can people find out what you offer, how to apply and what it costs, without discrimination?
Evidence to keep: your service guide, your website, versions in other formats, referral and eligibility criteria.
1.3 Involvement in decisions. Are clients supported to take part in planning their care?
Evidence to keep: care plans with the client's own goals, signed reviews, notes of conversations.
1.4 Feedback and complaints. Do clients have regular chances to give feedback? Are concerns, complaints and compliments listened to, recorded and managed in a timely way?
Evidence to keep: your complaints policy, the complaints log, survey results, examples of changes made after feedback. The practical side is covered in our guide to home care satisfaction surveys.
Principle 2: Safety and wellbeing
2.1 Needs identified and assessed. Is every client's need assessed, and does the care help maintain their health and wellbeing?
Evidence to keep: initial assessments, review dates, links to the HSE or other referrers.
2.2 Tailored care. Is care based on the person's own needs, strengths and preferences, and delivered in a timely way?
Evidence to keep: individual care plans, rota records, evidence of changes when needs changed.
2.3 Safeguarding. Are people protected from harm and abuse?
Evidence to keep: safeguarding policy, staff training records, a log of concerns raised and actions taken.
2.4 Risk. Are risks to people identified and reduced?
Evidence to keep: risk assessments for the home and the person, lone-working arrangements, escalation rules.
2.5 When something goes wrong. Does the service respond appropriately and quickly, review what happened, learn and stay open and honest with the person?
Evidence to keep: incident log, review notes, open disclosure to the family, trend analysis.
Principle 3: Responsiveness
3.1 Getting to know the person. Do staff take the time to understand the person and respond to their needs in a timely and sensitive way?
Evidence to keep: continuity measures such as how often the same carer attends, notes on preferences.
3.2 Communication and joint working. Do all staff involved in a person's care communicate and work together, within the service and across services?
Evidence to keep: handover notes, call logs, contact records with GPs, public health nurses and families.
3.3 Skilled staff. Are staff trained, experienced, supported and clear about their role?
Evidence to keep: training matrix, supervision records, competency sign-offs, induction.
Principle 4: Accountability
4.1 Leadership and governance. Is the service well led and managed, with policies and procedures that people follow?
Evidence to keep: governance structure, named person in charge, policy review dates, meeting minutes.
4.2 Resources. Does the provider plan and organise its resources, including its workforce, so care is consistent and coordinated?
Evidence to keep: rota planning, recruitment and retention data, contingency plans for sickness.
4.3 Joined-up services. If someone needs support from more than one service, is it planned so they know who is in charge and experience no gaps?
Evidence to keep: shared care plans, named contacts, records of referrals and responses.
4.4 Improvement. Does the service regularly look at how to improve, taking people's views into account?
Evidence to keep: quality improvement plan, audit schedule, minutes showing decisions made on feedback.
4.5 Information. Does the service use high-quality information to make decisions with people and share important information with others at the right time?
Evidence to keep: records management policy, access controls, data protection documentation, examples of timely sharing.
Where your phone and records show up
Read the list again and notice how often the evidence you need is a record of a conversation. Standard 1.4 expects complaints to be recorded. Standard 2.5 expects incidents to be reviewed. Standard 3.2 expects communication to be traceable. Standard 4.5 expects information to be shared in time. For many agencies, the weakest link is the evening and weekend call that is answered in a hurry and never written down.
If you want a quick test, pick three calls from last month at random. Can you show who rang, what was said, who acted and what the outcome was? If not, you have found a gap in your records. Our article on counting missed calls in home care shows a one-week method to find those gaps.
A communications service can help here by producing a record by default, and our security page explains how we handle that data. The same standard applies to any tool. It should make the evidence easier to produce, and it should leave decisions with your people.
How to grade yourself
Give each standard one of three marks.
- Green. You have a written arrangement, you can show it working in the last three months and you have asked clients whether it feels right to them.
- Amber. You have the policy, but little evidence that people follow it, or no client view.
- Red. There is no arrangement, or staff cannot describe it.
Count the marks. The aim is to see where to start, so resist the urge to rate generously. A red on a standard you already know about is useful information.
Questions an inspector might ask
We cannot say how HIQA will inspect home support, because the regulations and final standards are not out. The draft does tell us the kind of question that fits its outcomes. Try these on your own team.
- To a client: "Do you know who to ring if something is wrong, and do they answer?"
- To a carer: "What do you do if you find a client on the floor, or if a client tells you they are being treated badly?"
- To a coordinator: "Show me the last complaint you received and what happened to it."
- To the person in charge: "How do you know that care plans are followed, and what changed last time you found a problem?"
- To anyone: "What happens when a client rings at 10pm on a Saturday?"
Practising the answers is useful in itself. It shows who knows the process and who relies on one colleague's memory.
What to do in the next month
- Print the draft standards and give each standard to the person closest to it. The nurse takes 2.1 to 2.5. The coordinator takes 3.1 to 3.3. The owner takes principle 4.
- Score yourself red, amber or green against each standard. Be harsh.
- Collect evidence in one folder, with a short index. Do it while you are calm, not the week before an inspection.
- Pick three gaps and close them. Start with feedback, incident review and call records, because they are cheap to fix and visible to inspectors.
- Review when HIQA publishes the final text. Update the folder and share the changes with staff.
If you hold or want HSE-funded work, align this exercise with the HSE's own requirements. The HSE home support authorisation scheme asks providers to meet specifications aligned to HIQA standards, so the evidence you gather will serve both audiences.
A note on tone
Standards written in the first person can feel soft. Read closely, they point an inspector to the client's own view of whether the service is working. The best preparation is therefore to ask your clients. Ring ten of them this week. Ask what it is like to contact you, whether anyone listens and what they would change. Write down what they say and act on it.
Sources
- HIQA: Draft National Standards for Home Support Services (November 2024)
- HIQA: Public consultation on draft National Standards for Home Support Services (4 November to 13 December 2024)
- William Fry: Home Support Providers Act signed into law
- Medical Independent: HSE meeting raises reliance on private providers for home support services (20 April 2026)
Frequently asked questions
Are the HIQA home support standards final?
Not as far as we could find. HIQA consulted on a draft from 4 November to 13 December 2024. Check HIQA's website for the current status before you rely on any wording.
Do the standards apply to us today?
Not legally. The registration regime under the Health (Amendment) (Home Support Providers) Act 2026 has not commenced. HIQA has said providers can adopt the standards voluntarily in the meantime, and preparing now saves effort later.
Which standards are hardest for small agencies?
On a reading of the draft, the ones that need consistent records: complaints (1.4), incidents (2.5), joint working (3.2) and information (4.5). They do not need expensive systems. They need a habit of writing things down and reviewing them.
