Supported Living, Learning Disabilities and Autism: What CQC Expects for Young Adults

Supported living, learning disabilities and autism: CQC treats this as a specialist service. It expects more of you than it does of an ordinary home care agency. Planning to support young adults aged 18 and over? This covers what CQC registers, the extra documents it asks for, and the guidance it will hold you to.

What CQC registers in supported living, and what it does not

In supported living, the housing and the care are separate. CQC describes "separate contractual arrangements to provide personal care and the housing aspects".

CQC regulates the care. You register for the regulated activity of personal care, which CQC lists as covering supported living. The tenancy and the building are not what CQC registers.

Not everyone in supported living receives personal care. Where a service only helps someone take their own medicines and gives no personal care, CQC says that support "does not fall into the scope of registration".

Supported living, learning disabilities and autism: the guidance CQC applies

Services for autistic people and people with a learning disability are assessed against Right support, right care, right culture. It is statutory guidance under section 23 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008, and it applies to "children and young adults, working age adults and older people".

It rests on three principles:

• Right support: the model of care and the setting maximise people's choice, control and independence.

• Right care: care is person-centred and promotes people's dignity, privacy and human rights.

• Right culture: the ethos, values and behaviour of leaders and staff help people lead confident, inclusive and empowered lives.

Size and setting

CQC refers to NICE guidance that describes small services as having "no more than six people". It is clear this is not a hard cap: "CQC has never applied a 6-bed limit". What it will not register is a new campus or congregate setting. It also says it is unlikely to register a service that does not look like ordinary housing.

Plan the service around ordinary homes in the community, and be ready to explain how your model gives people choice and control.

Talk to CQC before you apply

CQC runs a pre-application process for these services. You complete a pre-application questionnaire, and CQC puts you in touch with a registration specialist who arranges a discussion with you.

Use it. It is the earliest point at which you can find out whether your model is likely to be registered.

The extra documents CQC asks for

As well as the documents every applicant sends, a supported living application needs:

• A business plan and financial forecast

• Evidence of legal occupancy

• Service user guides

• A staff training plan

• The additional form for personal care providers

For services for autistic people and people with a learning disability, CQC also asks for:

• A positive behaviour support policy

• A restraint policy

• The additional form for providers of services for autistic people and people with a learning disability

If you are new to registration, start with the documents every CQC applicant needs.

Supported living policies and procedures CQC may ask to see

CQC also lists documents it may request while it assesses your application. You do not send these at the start, but have them ready, because "if you cannot provide them when asked, your application may be delayed":

• Duty of candour policy

• Freedom to speak up or whistleblowing policy

• List of risk assessments

• Person-centred care planning policies

• Reportable incidents policy

• Risk management policy

• Sample care contract and sample care plan

• Staffing structure and rotas

Two things decide whether these hold up. They have to describe your service, including how the housing and the care arrangements are kept separate. They also have to say how staff support someone who communicates distress through their behaviour. That is where your positive behaviour support policy and your restraint policy must agree.

The same consistency applies to your statement of purpose: if it says you support autistic young adults, every policy you hold has to work for them.

Staff training is a legal requirement

Since 1 July 2022, the Health and Care Act 2022 has required this of every CQC-registered provider. You must train staff in learning disability and autism, at a level that suits each person's role. The Oliver McGowan Code of Practice, which started on 6 September 2025, sets out the standards that training has to meet.

CQC says it will use the code when it checks Regulation 18 on staffing. It will also look at whether trained staff are competent, and whether they use what they learned. The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training is the government's "preferred and recommended" training, although the law does not name a specific course.

Build this into the staff training plan that goes with your application.

Medicines support

Where you are registered for personal care, CQC treats medicines support as part of that care. NICE guideline NG67 covers adults aged 18 and over who receive social care in the community, including in supported living.

CQC expects providers to:

• support people to manage their own medicines where it is safe and they want to, using a self-management plan

• follow the Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice where someone may lack capacity to make decisions about their medicines, including any covert administration

• keep records in line with NG67, including reminding someone, giving a medicine, and recording whether it was taken or declined.

Where HeroDocs fits

HeroDocs holds your policies in one place, with the version, owner and review date on each. You can send a policy to your team for sign-off and keep a timestamped record of who has read it, which is the evidence behind a staff training plan and a positive behaviour support policy that staff follow.

Sources

• CQC, Supported living services: extra documents for registration.

• CQC, Right support, right care, right culture, statutory guidance under section 23 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

• CQC, Pre-application for services for autistic people and people with a learning disability, page last updated 23 March 2026.

• CQC, Personal care.

• CQC, Training staff to support autistic people and people with a learning disability, page last updated 8 September 2025.

• CQC, Managing medicines in supported living, page last updated 20 February 2023.

• Department of Health and Social Care, Oliver McGowan code of practice.

Last checked: 22 September 2026.

---