How Accessible Trades reviews supporting evidence

1. Purpose and scope

Supporting evidence gives users an additional, traceable reason why a registered company may be relevant to accessible home adaptation work. It is considered separately from broad Companies House activity codes, company-supplied profile content and paid enhanced presentation.

The review is evidence-led rather than company-led. Payment, profile claiming or sponsorship cannot create supporting evidence, change its status, increase its score or remove an unfavourable limitation.

2. Sources we consider

Sources are prioritised according to their authority, specificity and connection to the company.

1. Official council or government sources, including contractor lists, contract awards, procurement notices and Disabled Facilities Grant material.
2. Official public-sector or housing sources, including home improvement agencies and housing providers naming a company in connection with adaptation work.
3. Official company sources, where the company’s own website explicitly describes relevant disability, accessibility, older-person or independent-living adaptations.
4. Other reliable public sources, used cautiously where legal-entity attribution and the adaptation claim are sufficiently clear.

Directory listings, social-media profiles, search snippets and similarly named businesses are not normally sufficient on their own.

3. Matching evidence to the legal company

Evidence is stored against the Companies House company number, which is the primary identifier used across Accessible Trades. A company name alone is not treated as a reliable match.

Reviewers look for one or more strong identifiers:

• The exact company number shown by the source.
• The exact legal company name.
• A registered or operating address that matches other reliable records.
• A clearly documented trading-name, subsidiary, parent or group relationship.
• Other first-party information that makes mistaken identity unlikely.

Where the connection appears plausible but cannot be confirmed strongly, the evidence may be recorded as possible or excluded from publication.

4. Assessing adaptation relevance

The source must explicitly connect the company with work that supports disabled people, older people or independent living at home. Relevant examples include:

• Accessible bathrooms, mobility bathrooms, wet rooms and level-access showers.
• Accessible or height-adjustable kitchens.
• Ramps, widened doorways, accessible entrances, grab rails and handrails.
• Stairlifts, through-floor lifts, domestic platform lifts and hoists.
• Disabled Facilities Grant work or named home-adaptation contracts.
• Occupational-therapy-led or housing-association adaptation programmes.

Generic plumbing, bathrooms, kitchens, building work, commercial lifts or property maintenance do not qualify unless the source explicitly connects them to accessible or disability-related home adaptation work.

5. Evidence status and freshness

Freshness is assessed separately:

• Current, the stated evidence period has not ended.
• No end date, the source is verified but does not state when the evidence stops applying.
• Historic, the stated period has ended or the source is explicitly expired.

Historic evidence can show previous relevant experience, but it is not presented as proof of a current council appointment or current service.

6. Evidence scoring

A score helps order qualifying evidence consistently. It describes the strength and specificity of the stored source, not the quality of the company or its workmanship.

8, focused evidence

A clear source for one or more relevant adaptation services, such as accessible bathing, ramps, rails or domestic lifts.

9, broad evidence

A clear first-party service offering covering several types of accessible home adaptation work.

10, authoritative evidence

Exceptionally strong evidence, such as a named council adaptation contract, DFG framework or similarly authoritative public record.

Lower-confidence, rejected or historic-only records do not receive the same ranking treatment as qualifying current or undated verified evidence.

7. How evidence affects search results

Qualifying evidence-backed companies are shown before other companies matching the same search. Within comparable groups, the service may consider evidence status and score, available enrichment, distance and stable company ordering.

Evidence may also allow a company to appear in selected broad adaptation searches where its registered SIC codes do not describe its specialist work accurately. This does not apply to unrelated narrow trade searches.

Paid enhanced profiles remain separate. Payment does not alter standard evidence ordering or evidence status.

8. What supporting evidence does not prove

• That Accessible Trades approves or recommends the company.
• That the company currently serves the searched location.
• That it is available, insured or qualified for a particular project.
• That past work was completed to an acceptable standard.
• That a council currently appoints or endorses the company.
• That a user will qualify for a grant or that the work will be funded.

Users should confirm services, coverage, experience, insurance, quote scope, payment stages, guarantees and grant requirements directly.

9. Review, correction and updates

Evidence can become outdated. Accessible Trades records review dates and, where available, source publication dates and validity periods. Evidence should be reviewed when a source changes, expires, is replaced or is credibly challenged.

Companies, councils and members of the public can submit a correction or a new public source. Submissions are reviewed under the same identity and relevance rules. A submission is not published automatically.

Material methodology changes will be reflected on this page and the last updated date will be changed. Previous evidence decisions may be reviewed where a change affects their interpretation.