Built with partners

ilarna

A rebuilt care-matching platform for UK in-home support.

Helping ilarna move from a quick-build MVP to a platform ready to grow, stay compliant, and get smarter over time.

Partner: ilarnaUK-based platform connecting people with self-employed Personal Assistants for in-home support
Sector: In-home care
Users: Support Seekers, Personal Assistants and ilarna staffPlus a growing offering for NHS professionals
Services: Platform Rebuild
Compliance & Verification
Matching & Session Management
Payments & Payroll Automation

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1h → 3minto match a Support Seeker with the right PA

2h → 13minto onboard a new PA, fully digitally

3xmore choice of approved PAs for Support Seekers

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.

The people receiving support are called Support Seekers, and everything is built around that relationship: matching them with PAs who get to know their routines and what matters to them, backed by technology that quietly keeps families informed and reassured.

Laptop showing ilarna's matching results: a map of nearby Personal Assistants beside a shortlist with rates and tags

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 for smarter, AI-powered features further down the line.

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.

Years of PA and Support Seeker information had to move out of the old system gradually, step by step, rather than in one risky move. And every decision had to work for the business today while setting ilarna up for the AI-powered matching it wants to introduce in future.

Built to growMove away from the original quick-build version, which risked slowing down once usage passed around 30,000 users, onto something built to grow with the business.

Smooth, auditable PA verificationIdentity and right-to-work checks, a DBS background check and supporting documents, with a clear, auditable record of every check for UK safeguarding standards.

Three apps, always in syncSeparate, easy-to-use apps for staff, Support Seekers and PAs that always stay in sync with one another.

Payments that never lose dataSupport both manual payments and fully automated invoicing through Stripe and Xero, without ever losing payment information if either service hiccups.

Fine control over matchingLet ilarna's team control how PAs and Support Seekers are matched, tagged and filtered, across several user types and strict regulations.

Older man reading at home, with callouts on the old platform's problems: it couldn't scale with business growth, PA onboarding was slow and fragmented, and managing and matching users was inefficient

One connected system, guided onboarding

One connected system for everyoneSupport Seekers, PAs and ilarna's own staff each get their own app, built around how they actually work day to day. 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.

A guided path to becoming an approved PAPA 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 where they stand, and nothing moves forward until ilarna's onboarding team has reviewed and approved it.

PA registration screen, 'Begin your journey as a Personal Assistant', with name, phone, email and password fields

Work preferences step with hourly rate and type of support, beside a mobile identity and right-to-work verification screen

Richer profiles, visual matching

Capturing what really matters about each Support Seekerilarna's team can set up Support Seeker accounts directly, capturing a much fuller picture than a sign-up form could: who needs care, who holds the contract, emergency contacts, specific care needs, and notes from the initial screening conversation. Keeping this organised and consistent, rather than scattered across notes and spreadsheets, is what makes good matching possible.

Matching that's visual, distance-based and built around real fitA search starts with location, type of support, tags like mobility or dementia support, and preferences such as live-in or live-out care. Results come back as a map, with every nearby approved PA plotted and sorted by distance, alongside their tags, hourly rate and a clear 'best match' flag. Staff can shortlist as many PAs as they like and send a ready-to-personalise job request to every selected PA at once.

Find Matching PAs search panel with a map of nearby PAs, each card showing tags and hourly rate

Visits and wellbeing reports

A clear record of every visit, from clock-in to clock-outOnce 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 at clock-out. Staff can see at a glance which sessions are live, starting soon or completed, without chasing anyone for an update.

Wellbeing insight reports that turn a visit into reassuranceAt the end of a visit, PAs complete a short wellbeing check covering mood, appetite, mobility, sleep, pain, skin, toileting and social engagement, marking each as expected, minor decline or significant decline, with the option to add a note or photo. The Support Seeker and their family see the report straight away, alongside a running summary of the past week, so small changes get noticed early rather than missed.

Laptop showing the PA home screen with a weekly calendar and upcoming sessions

Mobile session details with planned and actual arrival times, next to the insights report asking 'How is the current condition?'

Completed wellbeing insight report with category ratings, a written note and a photo

Payments and payroll

Payments that keep working when something goes wrong elsewhereTwo ways to handle payments: a manual option, where authorised staff 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 services sit outside ilarna's control, if either has a brief outage the system keeps retrying until it goes through, rather than losing the payment.

Turning visit data into accurate payroll automaticallyEvery completed session, with any expenses logged at clock-out, feeds straight into payroll. Finance gets a running total of sessions, hours, payments and expenses for each PA, can filter by date range or individual PA, and export everything to a CSV ready for the bank, work that used to mean reconciling timesheets by hand.

Payroll dashboard with totals for sessions, hours, payments and expenses, and a per-PA table

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 a Support Seeker, a PA or a member of staff, only 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, giving a clear, time-stamped trail of who did what and when.

Staff admin view listing PAs with status and tag filters

Results and impact

Matching a Support Seeker with the right PA used to mean an hour of manual searching and phone calls. Staff now 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.

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.

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.

ilarna's validated care-matching model is now engineered to scale, stay compliant and grow smarter over time.

Lower operational costOnboarding, verification and invoicing move from slow, manual processes to structured, automated workflows.

Reduced compliance riskSystematised, auditable identity, DBS and right-to-work checks for every PA.

Room to growPA and Support Seeker numbers can grow without a matching rise in operational headcount.

Ready for AIA clean, structured data foundation ready for smarter, AI-powered matching and wellbeing insights in future versions.

Tech stack

Architecture: Modern, scalable foundationMore powerful than the original quick-build version, designed to keep performing as more PAs and Support Seekers join
Applications: Three dedicated appsOne each for staff, Support Seekers and PAs, all sharing the same up-to-date information
Frontend: React + TypeScript + Vite + Nx monorepo
Data model: Central data modelOne organised source of information, designed to carry over cleanly from the old system and support smarter features in future
Identity verification: VouchsafeEmbedded identity and right-to-work checks during PA onboarding
Payments: StripeSecure online payment for Support Seeker invoices
Notifications: Twilio (SMS) + emailUpdates to admins, PAs and Support Seekers
Database: MSSQL
Matching engine: Map-based PA searchDistance-sorted, with tag filtering (e.g. mobility, dementia support) and a highlighted best-match recommendation
Mapping: Google Maps
Search & filtering: Filterable listsPAs, Support Seekers, Sessions, Payroll, Invoices and Tags
Reliability: Automatic retriesKeep payments and messages from being lost during a brief outage with Stripe, Xero or Twilio
Hosting: Azure
Auth: Azure MSAL, Microsoft/Azure ADSecure login with role-based access, so people only see what's relevant to them
Compliance: GDPR and UK Data Protection Act alignmentSigned data agreements with every third-party service; systemised right-to-work, DBS and identity verification checks
Monitoring: Centralised monitoringHelps the team quickly spot and track down issues across the platform
Language: TypeScript
CI/CD: Automated checks and testing before every releaseZero-downtime deployments with a 5-minute automatic rollback if anything goes wrong
Testing: Jest and Vitest 4
Code quality: ESLint 9 + typescript-eslint, Prettier, Husky + lint-stagedPre-commit hooks

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