Your Care and Support
Adrian Taylor, Registered Manager
Choosing a care management software supplier has become a fundamental step in establishing a modern home care provider. Whether an agency is digitising for the first time or looking to move to a more innovative technology partner, making the right decision is critical to future success. We spoke to experienced Care Coordinator and Registered Manager Adrian Taylor about why CarePlanner has been his first choice for software, five times in a row.
Saved £700 a month
The Problem
Every home care provider is different, its personality is formed by the people who make it tick, from the owner, through to all the care staff, to the family of the individuals who receive care. To be an effective software solution a system needs to be robust enough to meet the varying needs of home care providers, while being customisable enough to fit the unique way those needs present for each service.
“Previously we had used three or four different systems, [and] we were looking for a CRM [Customer Relationship Management System] that worked best for us to be able to run multiple sites,” explained Adrian Taylor. “We’ve got a branch in Ipswich, one in Norwich, and one in Northampton. So, it was [necessary] to have an overall view of all of them.
“There are other [software solutions] that say they do everything, and then they don’t. They’re not user friendly and they don’t do everything that they say they’re going to do.”
“Previously we had used three or four different systems, [and] we were looking for a CRM”
CarePlanner cannot guarantee that we will meet your every need, but we can guarantee we will take the time to get to know your service, and give you an honest appraisal of how your needs align with our software solutions. For Your Care and Support, Adrian realised they had a few key problems that needed addressing.
“I was shopping around and it was the NFC tags that sold it for me on the first one [Your Care and Support]. Specifically, because of the [call monitoring]. So once I saw the NFC tags, and also the fact that it’s got the GPS [call monitoring].
“At Care and Support they got to a point that they couldn’t afford to have three members of staff in the office. So okay, if you can’t afford to have three members of staff in the office then we need to move one, but we need to automate something.”
““Once you get the rotas in there, and you’ve got it as a rolling rota, it saves masses of time,”
The Solution
After having honest and in depth conversations with our team Adrian came to the conclusion that CarePlanner could offer the right solutions for his service.
“We could set up the one system and then it was able to monitor the carers because obviously they’re all over the place. So we brought that in and we had the NFC tags for the system. That was the first one that we started with and I just found it so useful. It’s so much better than anything I’d used previously.
“We were able to track that a person was at that place at that time, and the CQC love that. If you can say that somebody was definitely at a place at a definite time, they’re all over that, they love it.
“’How do you know that’s been done?’, the inspector might ask. And we can say, ‘We’ve got an email.’ We know that it’s been delivered at that time, and it’s got a picture of the client, so we know it’s the right person, and we can GPS pinpoint that the person is there. So, we know that they were there at the right place at the right time. Perfect. So CQC are just like; ‘great!’.”
Along with setting up call monitoring, Adrian also worked with his account manager to ensure that CarePlanner was being used as effectively as possible.
“[CarePlanner] helped to integrate the old system. So, they help to do some of the data transfers so that we weren’t stuck for weeks and weeks trying to data transfer. It was really nice to have a team there that support you. You’re given a designated manager for your company, so you’re working with one person, and you know that if there’s any problem, you can just phone them. And then they’d phone you randomly, just checking everything was alright. Which is a nice touch, you know, it’s a little bit more personal.”
By working with his dedicated account manager, Adrian was able to come up with direct solutions through specific application of CarePlanner’s features. One of the most prominent of these solutions was the use of CarePlanner’s ‘scheduled rota’ feature.
“Once you get the rotas in there, and you’ve got it as a rolling rota, it saves masses of time, like, ridiculous. If you can set your carers into that rolling rota, the scheduled rota, it makes it so much easier for the carers, they get a guaranteed day off, they know which days they have enough, they can plan things. The Care Coordinator themselves, they’re literally just covering for sickness and holidays. And if you actually programme it right, you don’t have to do the holidays. Because it automatically goes, well, ‘that person’s on holiday, the next best person is this’, and then just automatically throws that off as a ‘Do you want to give it to this person? They’re available.’”
The Result
Adrian was blown away with the results of implementing CarePlanner into Your Care and Support.
“So the automated thing was for the rotas, then we haven’t got to worry about that. And CarePlanner essentially automated that role which helps to streamline the business. That was a saving of about £700-odd a month.”
On top of the money that CarePlanner helped Your Care and Support to save, Adrian was also impressed with the way our software helped him improve the monitoring and reporting capabilites of his service.
“You can pull off reports, and those reports would be able to just transfer straight to CQC. You’ve got all of your missed visits, all of your late visits, all of your incidents. If you’ve had phone calls about any complaints, it’s all there. So, when it comes to doing that report, at the end for the CQC, you are literally pressing a few buttons, and you’ve got all the information. The CQC love paperwork, and evidence. You can email it, you don’t even have to print it! You know, you can just download that into a PDF format and off you go. Which also came in useful when it comes to clients knowing who’s coming to the visits, you can just take an email, you can email the rota for the next month, and it’s there.”
“So that’s why when I then moved to the next place, which was Headway, I made sure that we integrated and we got CarePlanner there. Then I moved again, and every time I’ve moved, it’s like, yes, we’re getting rid of this CRM, and we’re going with CarePlanner because I work with them and I don’t work with anyone else.”
Adrian was so impressed by his initial experience with CarePlanner that the system was always at the top of his list of necessities when moving to take over a new care provider. From his first provider, Your Care And Support through the next four; Headway, All Well, See You Support and The Care Advantage, CarePlanner is always an essential part of Adrian’s plans. If you want to see CarePlanner for yourself and ask questions about how we would work with your service you can contact us here, and we would be happy to connect you with Adrian as well so he can share his experience with you directly.
“So that’s why when I then moved to the next place, which was Headway, I made sure that we integrated and we got CarePlanner there. Then I moved again, and every time I’ve moved, it’s like, yes, we’re getting rid of this CRM, and we’re going with CarePlanner because I work with them and I don’t work with anyone else.”
