Sector
IT support for care homes, built around CQC evidence and resident data
Care homes carry a heavier IT burden than almost any other business of their size: resident records under UK GDPR, CQC evidence that has to be produceable on request, care planning systems running twenty-four hours a day, and staff turnover that makes account management a permanent job rather than an occasional one.
The software a care home actually runs
Most homes we work with run a digital care planning system: Nourish, Person Centred Software, Log my Care or similar, usually on tablets or handhelds carried by staff on shift. Alongside it sits a rostering package, a medication system, NHSmail for clinical correspondence, and an office estate handling payroll, invoicing and the home’s own admin.
The failure that hurts is not the office. It is the handheld that will not sync at handover, or the Wi-Fi dropping in the far wing so care notes are being written on paper and typed up later, which is both an operational problem and, if an inspector asks about contemporaneous recording, a regulatory one.
Wi-Fi coverage in a care home is genuinely difficult and it is where we spend a disproportionate amount of time. Thick walls, long corridors, extensions built in three different decades, and a requirement that coverage works in every resident room rather than just the areas staff congregate in. It needs surveying on site rather than guessing, and it is exactly the sort of job a remote-first provider will not do properly.
The care planning system itself is a specialist product and stays where it is. What tends to be missing is everything around it: the admission enquiry, the rota, the agency booking made at seven in the morning, and the folder the evidence lives in.
What is worth building around the care system, and in what order, is covered under software for care homes.
Compliance, plainly
CQC does not audit your IT directly, but several of the things it does audit depend on it entirely: records being accurate and contemporaneous, information being available to the people who need it, and personal data being handled properly under Key Question 5. If your care notes are written on paper because the tablet would not connect, that is a records problem with an IT cause.
The Data Security and Protection Toolkit is the more direct requirement, and it is an annual self-assessment covering access control, training, incident handling and, the one that catches most homes, being able to demonstrate that your backups actually restore. We prepare that evidence as part of the work rather than treating it as a separate consultancy exercise.
Access control deserves particular attention in care, because staff turnover is high and shared logins are common for entirely understandable practical reasons. Fixing that without making a busy shift harder is a real design problem rather than a policy one, and it is worth doing properly.
The technical controls behind that sit in cyber security for small businesses.
What downtime costs a home
A care home cannot pause. If the care planning system is unavailable at 7am handover, the shift runs on paper and every note has to be retyped later, which costs hours of registered nurse time and introduces exactly the transcription errors an inspector will find. If NHSmail is down, clinical correspondence stops. If the roster system is unavailable when someone calls in sick, filling the shift becomes a series of phone calls made from memory.
None of that shows up as a line on an invoice, which is precisely why it gets tolerated. It is also why on-site visits being included matters more here than in most sectors: a home that hesitates before calling ends up running on workarounds.
Proof
Who we work with
We built and support the website and enquiry system for Queenswood Care Home, and we work with care providers elsewhere in Nottinghamshire on the IT underneath: network coverage, device management, backup and the access control that goes with high staff turnover.
Read the Queenswood Care Home case studyGet in touch
Tell us how your care homes business runs
A few lines is enough. We will tell you straight whether we can help, what it would cost and how quickly we can be there. No hard sell, and no follow-up sequence if you decide against it.
- We reply within one working day
- A straight answer, including when it is no
- Free process review available, before any money changes hands
Would rather just ring? 01623 354250, Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm.
Questions we get from care homes
If the answer is not here, ask us. You will get a straight one, from someone who does the work.
Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm
Do you understand CQC requirements?
We understand the parts that depend on technology: contemporaneous records, availability of information to staff who need it, and personal data handling under Key Question 5. We are not a compliance consultancy, but we make sure the IT side does not become the reason a record was late or incomplete.
Can you help with the Data Security and Protection Toolkit?
Yes. Access control, staff training records, incident handling and demonstrable backup restores are the areas homes most often struggle to evidence, and we gather that evidence as part of ongoing support rather than as a separate project.
Our Wi-Fi does not reach every resident room. Can that be fixed?
Almost always, and it needs a site survey rather than guesswork. Thick walls, long corridors and extensions from different decades make care homes genuinely difficult, which is why it needs someone physically walking the building with a meter.
Do you work with Nourish, Person Centred Software or Log my Care?
Yes. We support the devices, the network and the accounts around those systems and liaise with the vendor when the issue is inside the application itself, so you are not stuck between two suppliers.
How do you handle shared logins?
Carefully, because they exist for practical reasons on a busy shift. The answer is usually individual accounts with fast, genuinely usable sign-in on shared devices rather than a policy that staff will work around within a week.
What happens if the care planning system goes down at handover?
That is the scenario worth planning for in advance rather than during. We look at where the single points of failure are: connectivity, the devices, the accounts, and make sure the ones we control have a fallback, so a shift never ends up on paper because of something preventable.