iLarna - In-Home Care Matching Platform
Helping iLarna move from a quick-build MVP to a platform ready to grow, stay compliant, and get smarter over time.
Published 2026
Services
Platform Rebuild
Compliance & Verification
Matching & Session Management
Payments & Payroll Automation
Timeline
8 months
About iLarna
iLarna is a UK-based platform that helps people live well at home by connecting them with independent, self-employed Personal Assistants (PAs) who provide everyday in-home support, alongside a growing offering for NHS professionals. Within the platform, the people receiving support are called Support Seekers, and everything is built around that relationship: matching Support Seekers with PAs who get to know their routines and what matters to them, backed by technology that quietly keeps families informed and reassured.
The Problem
iLarna came to us with a clear goal: rebuild the platform behind PA onboarding, verification, matching, and payments so it could support tens of thousands of users without slowing down, stay fully compliant with UK safeguarding rules, and be ready to support smarter, AI-powered features further down the line.
This wasn't a simple build. The solution needed to:
Move away from the original quick-build version of the platform, which risked slowing down once usage passed around 30,000 users, onto something built to grow with the business
Make PA verification as smooth as possible, identity and right-to-work checks, a DBS background check, and supporting documents, while keeping a clear, auditable record of every check for UK safeguarding standards
Give staff, Support Seekers, and PAs three separate, easy-to-use apps that always stay in sync with one another
Support both a manual way of taking payments and a fully automated invoicing process through Stripe and Xero, without ever losing payment information if either service hiccups
Give iLarna's team fine control over how PAs and Support Seekers are matched, tagged, and filtered, across a platform with several different types of users and strict regulations to follow
What Made This Project Complex
What made this hard wasn't any single feature, it was the combination. Compliance checks like DBS and identity verification can't be fully automated by law, so the process had to stay quick and simple for PAs filling it in and for iLarna's team reviewing it, even with a real person checking every case and a third-party identity service built into the middle of the flow. Moving years of PA and Support Seeker information out of the old system had to happen gradually, step by step, rather than in one risky move. And every decision had to work for the business today while also setting iLarna up for the smarter, AI-powered matching it wants to introduce in future.
Our Approach
1. One connected system for everyone
Support Seekers, Personal Assistants (PAs), and iLarna's own staff each get their own app, built around how they actually work day to day. But behind the scenes, all three draw on the same up-to-date information, so a change made in one place, like a Support Seeker's care needs being updated, shows up everywhere else straight away. Nothing falls out of sync between teams.
2. A guided path to becoming an approved Personal Assistant (PA)
PA registration moves through a clear, guided process, from identity and right-to-work verification through to a DBS check, skills, rate setting, and a finished profile. Every step shows real-time status, so PAs always know exactly where they stand, and nothing moves forward until iLarna's onboarding team has reviewed and approved it.
3. Capturing what really matters about each Support Seeker
Support Seeker accounts can be set up directly by iLarna's team, which gives them the chance to capture a much fuller picture than a simple sign-up form ever could: who needs care, who holds the contract, emergency contacts, specific care needs, and notes from the initial screening conversation. Keeping all of this organised and consistent, rather than scattered across notes and spreadsheets, is what makes good matching possible.
4. Matching that's visual, distance-based, and built around real fit
Finding the right PA for a Support Seeker starts with a simple search: location, type of support needed, tags like mobility or dementia support, and preferences such as live-in or live-out care. The results come back as a map, with every nearby approved PA plotted and sorted by distance, alongside their relevant tags, hourly rate, and a clear 'best match' flag for the strongest fit. Staff can shortlist as many PAs as they like and send a job request straight from the platform, as a ready-to-personalise message that goes out to every selected PA at once.
5. A clear record of every visit, from clock-in to clock-out
Once a PA and Support Seeker are matched, the platform tracks each visit in detail: scheduled versus actual arrival time, live status while a visit is in progress, and any expenses the PA logs as they clock out. Staff can see at a glance which sessions are live, starting soon, or completed, without having to chase anyone for an update.
6. Wellbeing insight reports that turn a visit into reassurance
At the end of a visit, PAs work through a short wellbeing check covering mood, appetite, mobility, sleep, pain, skin, toileting, and social engagement, marking each as as expected, minor decline, or significant decline, with the option to add a note or photo. That report is available to the Support Seeker and their family straight away, alongside a running summary of how things have been trending over the past week, so small changes get noticed early rather than missed.
7. Payments that keep working, even when something goes wrong elsewhere
We built two ways to handle payments: a manual option, where authorised staff can top up a Support Seeker's account directly, and an automated one, where staff generate an invoice, the Support Seeker pays online through Stripe, and the payment is recorded in Xero automatically. Because both of those services sit outside iLarna's control, we made sure that if either one has a brief outage, the system simply keeps trying until it goes through, rather than the payment getting lost altogether.
8. Turning visit data into accurate payroll automatically
Every completed session, along with any expenses logged at clock-out, feeds straight into payroll. The finance team gets a running total of sessions, hours, payments, and expenses for each PA, can filter the whole list by date range or by individual PA, and export everything to a CSV file ready for the bank, work that used to mean reconciling timesheets by hand.
9. Keeping a regulated platform secure and easy to oversee
Every PA moves through a clear status, from new applicant to pending to approved, so staff always know who's ready to be matched. Every person who logs in, whether they're a Support Seeker, a PA, or a member of staff, only ever sees the information relevant to them, with built-in messaging so any of the three can reach each other without leaving the platform. Senior admins control who has staff access at all, and every important action is permanently recorded, so there's always a clear, time-stamped trail of who did what and when.
Results and Impact
1h → 3min
Matching that took an hour now takes minutes
Matching a Support Seeker with the right PA used to mean an hour of manual searching and phone calls. The platform now does most of that automatically. Staff go from a search to a shortlist of nearby, approved, best-fit PAs in about three minutes, then send a job request to all of them at once.
2h → 13min
Fully digital PA onboarding
Bringing on a new PA used to be a run of meetings and manual paperwork. It is now one guided digital flow covering identity, right-to-work, DBS, skills, and rates, with every check logged for compliance. Onboarding is down to around thirteen minutes per PA, saving close to two hours of manual work each time.
3x more choice
More choice and faster care for Support Seekers
Because onboarding and matching are so much quicker, iLarna can put more approved PAs in front of each Support Seeker. Families get up to three times the choice, a match built around real needs like mobility or dementia support, and care that starts sooner.
These outcomes translate to real business value:
Lower operational cost as onboarding, verification, and invoicing move from slow, manual processes to structured, automated workflows
Reduced compliance risk through systematised, auditable identity, DBS, and right-to-work checks for every PA
Room to grow PA and Support Seeker numbers without a matching rise in operational headcount
A clean, structured data foundation ready to support smarter, AI-powered matching and wellbeing insights in future versions
This is the difference between a platform that proved an idea and one that can carry a business: iLarna's validated care-matching model, now engineered to scale, stay compliant, and grow smarter over time.
Timeline
This project was delivered over the course of 8 months, covering everything from early discovery and prototyping through to rigorous testing and full deployment.
Tech Specs
Platform Architecture
Architecture style – Built on a more powerful, modern technical foundation than the original quick-build version, designed to keep performing as more PAs and Support Seekers join
Applications – Three dedicated apps — one for staff, one for Support Seekers, one for PAs — all sharing the same up-to-date information
Frontend framework – React + TypeScript + Vite + Nx monorepo
Data model – One organised, central source of information, designed to carry over cleanly from the old system and to support smarter features in future
Backend & Integrations
Identity verification – Vouchsafe: embedded identity and right-to-work checks during PA onboarding
Payments – Stripe: secure online payment for Support Seeker invoices
Notifications – Text message (Twilio) and email updates to Admins, PAs, and Support Seekers
Database – MSSQL
Data & Logic
Matching engine - Map-based, distance-sorted PA search with tag filtering (e.g. mobility, dementia support) and a highlighted best-match recommendation
Mapping - Google Maps
Search & filtering - Easy-to-search lists for PAs, Support Seekers, Sessions, Payroll, Invoices, and Tags, with flexible filtering
Reliability - Automatic retries that keep payments and messages from being lost during a brief outage with Stripe, Xero, or Twilio
Infrastructure & Compliance
Hosting - Azure
Auth - Secure login with role-based access, so people only see what's relevant to them, Azure MSAL, Microsoft/Azure AD auth
Compliance - GDPR and UK Data Protection Act alignment; signed data agreements with every third-party service; systemised right-to-work, DBS, and identity verification checks
Monitoring - Centralised monitoring that helps the team quickly spot and track down any issues across the platform
Dev Experience & Tooling
Language - TypeScript
CI/CD - Automated checks and testing before every release, with safe, zero-downtime deployments and a 5-minute automatic rollback if anything goes wrong
Testing - Jest and Vitest 4
Code quality - ESLint 9 + typescript-eslint , Prettier Husky + lint-staged — pre-commit hooks
