A carer app is the phone app your care workers use on their rounds. It tells them where to go next and what the person needs, and it is where they record what happened: arrival and departure, tasks, medicines, notes and anything they noticed. For most home care agencies, it is where the bulk of the care record is written.
That makes choosing one a bigger decision than it looks. The office software is used by a handful of people at desks. The carer app is used by everyone else, standing up, often with one hand, sometimes in a stairwell with no signal and four minutes before the next call. A good one makes the record better. A poor one gets worked around, and the workaround is usually a WhatsApp group and a note written up from memory at the end of the day.
This guide is for registered managers and owners of UK home care agencies. It covers what the record has to show, what the app needs to do on a real round, and the questions to ask a supplier.
What the record has to show
No regulator requires you to use an app. What they require is a good record. In England, CQC's guidance on Regulation 17 says providers must securely maintain accurate, complete and detailed records for each person using the service. The regulation itself asks for a record that is contemporaneous, which in home care means written at or near the time of the visit, not reconstructed later.
The same applies to medicines. NICE guideline NG67 says care workers must record the medicines support they give for each medicine on every occasion, and CQC's page on medicines administration records in adult social care sets out what that record should contain. Our medication management guide covers NG67 in more detail.
So the first test of any carer app is simple. At the end of a visit, does it leave a record that is complete, made at the time, attributed to the person who made it, and impossible to quietly rewrite? Everything below follows from that.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own regulators and standards, and the principle of an accurate record made at the time is common to all of them. The differences are in home care compliance in the four UK nations.
What a carer app needs to do on a visit
Show the right visit, with the right information
Before the carer knocks, the app should show who they are visiting, the address, the time, and the access notes they need. Sensitive details such as key safe codes should not sit on the screen for anyone looking over a shoulder. The tasks and medicines shown should be the ones for this call, not the whole care plan, so a carer on a lunchtime visit is not scrolling past the morning medicines.
Record arrival and departure honestly
Councils often require electronic call monitoring in their contracts, and what they want is a defensible account of the visit. Most apps offer some mix of GPS, an NFC tag in the home, a QR code, or an entry made by the office. What matters is that the record says which method was used, and that an office entry is never shown as a verified doorstep arrival. The electronic call monitoring guide explains what commissioners look for.
Ask what happens when GPS is poor, as it often is in rural areas and tower blocks. An app that blocks the carer from clocking in teaches them to work around it. An app that records the visit and flags it for the office to review keeps the carer working and keeps the record honest.
Record medicines properly
An electronic MAR on the phone should list the medicines due at this visit, with the dose and instructions, and show allergies on the same screen. Outcomes should be specific. A person refusing a dose and a carer deciding not to give one are different events, and the record should say which happened. Corrections should be possible, but they should carry a reason and keep the original. The eMAR software guide goes through this in depth.
Capture what the carer noticed
Much of the value of a visit record is in what the carer saw: a new bruise, a change in mood, a meal not eaten, a fall. Look for structured recording of observations such as fluids, food and repositioning, a body map that dates and attributes each mark, and a quick way to report an incident. Free-text notes still matter, but a structured record is easier for a manager to review and easier to show an inspector or a safeguarding team.
Keep working with no signal
Every carer has a street, a block of flats or a village where the phone shows no bars. "Works offline" can mean anything from reading the rota to recording the entire visit. Ask the supplier to list exactly which actions can be done with no connection, and what happens when the signal returns. The answer you want is that the visit is held on the phone and sent in the right order without the carer having to remember to upload it.
Handle the rest of the working day
Carers also want to see their rota, their hours and what they will be paid, request leave and message the office. These are not care records, but they decide whether carers like the app. Two things are worth checking:
- Hours and pay. In home care, time spent travelling between visits counts as working time for the National Minimum Wage. GOV.UK's minimum wage guidance gives a care worker driving from one client to another as an example. If the app shows hours, they should come from the same figures as the pay run. Our travel time guide covers the rules.
- Messaging. Messages about the people you support are part of how you manage the service. A messaging tool owned by the agency stays with the agency when a carer leaves. A personal WhatsApp group does not.
Support carers who work alone
Most home care visits are done by one carer on their own. The HSE's lone working guidance sets out employers' responsibilities for people who work by themselves. An app cannot replace a lone working policy, but late or missed clock-ins showing up in the office as they happen are one of the ways an agency notices a carer may need help. The lone working guide covers the policy side.
Data security on carers' phones
A carer app holds health information about the people you support, and in many agencies it runs on carers' own phones. The ICO's guide to data security sets out what UK GDPR expects of organisations that handle personal data. Organisations with access to NHS patient data and systems must complete the Data Security and Protection Toolkit, the online self-assessment against the National Data Guardian's data security standards.
In practice, ask a supplier:
- Does the app require a sign-in, and does it support Face ID or a fingerprint so carers are not tempted to share passwords?
- Are photos taken during a visit kept inside the app, rather than in the phone's camera roll?
- What happens to the records on the phone when a carer leaves, or loses their phone?
- Can you see who recorded what, and when, for every entry?
Questions to ask before you choose
- Which actions work with no signal, exactly, and how are they sent when the signal returns?
- How does the app record which method was used to clock in, and how are office entries labelled?
- What happens when a carer's GPS position is some distance from the address?
- Does the eMAR show only the medicines due at this visit, and does it separate refused from withheld?
- Can a saved care note or MAR entry be changed, and if so, is the original kept with a reason?
- Does the app run on the phones your carers already have, on both iPhone and Android?
- Do carers see their own hours, and do those hours come from the same figures as payroll?
- Is there a charge for each carer who installs the app?
- Can you try it on a real round, in your area, before you commit?
The last question is the most useful. A demo in an office with good Wi-Fi tells you very little about how the app behaves on a Tuesday morning round. The 12-point software checklist covers the wider choice of system.
How the HomecareOS carer app works
The HomecareOS carer app is on the App Store and Google Play. Carers sign in once, then use Face ID or a fingerprint. Each visit shows the person, the address, the time and the access notes, with key safe codes hidden behind a tap.
Carers can clock in by GPS, NFC tag or QR code, and the office can make a manual entry. The method used is stamped on the visit. Each GPS, NFC and QR clock-in and clock-out is checked against the person's registered address, and one more than 150 metres away is flagged for a coordinator to review rather than blocked.
The eMAR shows the medicines due on the call the carer is on, with allergies on the same screen. Carers can also record observations, mark a body map, update care goals, add notes and photos, and report incidents. Thirteen actions work with no signal, including clocking in and out, recording a medicine and adding a care note, and they are sent in order when the phone reconnects. Carers can also see their hours, message the office and request leave.
The full list is on the carer app feature page, and how carers and families sign in is in the login portals guide.
Sources
- CQC: Regulation 17, Good governance, for the requirement to securely maintain accurate, complete and detailed records.
- NICE NG67: Managing medicines for adults receiving social care in the community, for recording medicines support on every occasion.
- CQC: Medicines administration records in adult social care, for what a MAR should contain.
- GOV.UK: Working hours for which the minimum wage must be paid, for travel between assignments counting as working time.
- HSE: Lone working, for employers' responsibilities to people who work alone.
- ICO: A guide to data security, for UK GDPR security expectations.
- NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit, for the self-assessment required of organisations with access to NHS patient data and systems.