The care software market uses a dozen names for the same thing and one name for a dozen things. This glossary defines each term the way a registered manager would, notes the other names it goes by, and says where the feature lives in Carelo. Use it to translate a tender, a brochure or a commissioner's question.
Also called: care management system, care management platform, care agency software, care provider software, care business software, care operations software, all in one care software, digital care platform, digital care system.
The single system a care provider runs on: the rota, the visits, the records, the medication, the compliance evidence and the pay, on one record that the office, the carers and the families share. The phrase covers both home care and residential care; ask which a vendor actually builds for. In Carelo: the whole product, priced by active carers with every module included. The facts page.
Also called: home care software, homecare management software, domiciliary care system, domiciliary care management, home care management, digital home care, home care technology.
Care management software built specifically for care delivered in people's own homes: visits at set times, carers travelling between them, proof of attendance for commissioners, and a family who is not in the building. The rota, travel time and call monitoring are the parts a residential system does not have. In Carelo: the only thing it is built for. The platform.
Also called: adult social care software, UK care software, care software UK, care technology UK, care management UK.
The wider family of systems used across adult social care in the UK — local authority case management, residential care, supported living and domiciliary care. Home care providers need the domiciliary branch of it. In Carelo: built for UK adult social care delivered at home, in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Running the agency as a business, not just the care: staffing bands, active carers, branches and regions, office roles, and the reports an owner reads on a Monday. In Carelo: branches, regions, runs, unlimited office logins with owner, manager, co-ordinator and view-only roles. Features.
Also called: carer rota software, staff rota software, care rota management, home care rota, domiciliary care rota, care rostering software, care rostering system.
The tool that turns each service user's weekly care package into calls and places a carer on every call. A good rota shows the week by carer and by service user, handles runs and double-handed calls, and never silently puts two calls on one person. In Carelo: the rota where the newest decision wins and a displaced call moves to the Unassigned row in plain sight. Rota planning guide.
Also called: carer scheduling software, staff scheduling software, shift scheduling software, care scheduling system, home care scheduling, domiciliary care scheduling, care shift management.
The repeating pattern behind the rota: which calls happen on which days at which times, generated weeks ahead, with respite, hospital stays and cancellations applied to the pattern rather than fixed by hand. In Carelo: the schedule generates visits from each package; bulk edits move hundreds of calls at once. Features.
The co-ordinator's working screen: today's gaps, sickness cover, who is nearest, what moved and what is still unassigned. In Carelo: the carer roster, the service-user roster and the Unassigned row, with drag-and-drop and bulk reassignment.
Each carer's weekly working pattern — the hours they can and cannot be given — recorded so the rota only offers realistic cover. In Carelo: availability patterns per carer with the history of every change.
Also called: care staff management, care team management, care worker management, lone worker management.
Everything about the people delivering care other than the rota itself: their profiles, documents, training, supervision, availability, and — for lone workers — knowing where they are and that they arrived safely. In Carelo: carer profiles, the compliance Matrix, GPS check-in and the live monitor.
Also called: call monitoring software, care call monitoring, care visit verification, care attendance software, care visit tracking, care visit management.
Recording electronically that a care call happened: who arrived, when, and when they left, usually so a council can pay on actual time rather than planned time. Most contracts now require it. In Carelo: GPS check-in and check-out on the carer app, planned-versus-actual reports for commissioners. ECM guide.
The two timestamps at the door. A GPS check-in proves the carer was at the address; the check-out closes the visit and fixes the actual duration. Both should work with poor signal and sync later. In Carelo: GPS-stamped, with a geofence radius per service user.
Also called: care tracking software, carer tracking software, care alerts software, care notification system.
The office's live view of the day: calls in progress, running late, missed, and alerts fired while there is still time to act. In Carelo: the Live Monitor and the Care Map, with late and missed alerts and a punctuality dial.
Also called: digital care records, care record software, care documentation software, care document management.
The person's whole record held digitally instead of in a folder: care plan, assessments, notes, medication, incidents, reviews and uploaded documents, each entry carrying a name and a time. NHS England's Digital Social Care Records (DSCR) programme uses this meaning. In Carelo: every service user's record, exportable as branded Word, Excel and PDF. CQC evidence guide.
Also called: digital care planning, electronic care planning, care plan management, care assessment software, care assessment management.
Writing and maintaining the care plan and the assessments behind it — needs, risks, preferences, outcomes — with review dates so nothing quietly goes out of date. In Carelo: care plans, assessments and documents with review cycles, visible to the carer at the door.
Care planned around the person's own wishes, routines and outcomes rather than a task list. In software terms it means the plan records what matters to the person, and the visit shows the carer that, not just what to do. In Carelo: requirements, risks and preferences per service user, favourite and blocked carers, and outcomes tracked over time.
Also called: digital care notes, carer notes software, care forms software, digital care forms.
The note written at the end of each visit, and the structured forms — body maps, incident reports, welfare checks — completed on the phone. Notes written at the door are worth more than notes remembered at the office. In Carelo: case notes and handovers from the carer app, guided forms for incidents and body maps.
Also called: care plan reviews, care outcomes tracking, care progress tracking.
Periodic reviews of each person's care plan, with the outcomes measured against what was planned and the review itself evidenced. In Carelo: care reviews live in the compliance Matrix with due and overdue tracking.
Also called: eMAR care software, electronic MAR software, digital MAR chart, medication recording software, medication administration software, medication management software.
The digital replacement for the paper MAR chart: what is prescribed, what is due at this call, and whether each dose was given, refused or missed, with the amount, the time and the carer's name. In Carelo: due-this-call at the top of the visit, every outcome timed and named, straight onto the MAR. eMAR guide.
Checking the MAR for gaps, late doses and patterns of refusal, and producing the evidence an inspector or pharmacist asks for. In Carelo: medication reports and exports from the reports library.
Also called: compliance management software, care governance software, staff compliance tracking, care quality compliance, care policy management.
A register of everything that must be done on a cycle — supervisions, appraisals, training, spot checks, reviews, right-to-work and DBS checks — showing who is done, due and overdue. In Carelo: the Matrix: nine desks on one register. Features.
Also called: CQC care software, CQC evidence software, CQC audit software, CQC management software.
Software whose records answer the Care Quality Commission's five key questions — safe, effective, caring, responsive, well-led — under the single assessment framework. The CQC does not approve or endorse any software; what counts is the evidence yours produces. In Carelo: exports of every record, and the Matrix as the well-led evidence. Which records answer which question.
Also called: quality assurance software, care audit software, digital care audits.
Planned quality checks — QA visits, file audits, unannounced spot checks, welfare calls — recorded with findings and actions. In Carelo: quality assurance, spot checks and welfare calls each have their own desk in the Matrix.
Also called: care incident management.
Reporting a fall, an injury, a medication error or a near miss from the scene, with the questions the office will ask already on the form, and then an action plan and a status until it is closed. In Carelo: incidents from the carer app with guided questions, answered by the office with an action plan.
Also called: care risk assessment.
Recording the risks around a person — moving and handling, environment, behaviour, medication — and making sure the carer sees them before the visit, not after. In Carelo: risks per service user, tied to the calls where they apply and shown on the visit.
Also called: care safeguarding software.
Raising, tracking and evidencing safeguarding concerns, including body maps of skin concerns and the trail of who was told what and when. In Carelo: body maps, incidents and audited messages; every entry carries a name and a time.
Also called: staff supervision software, care appraisal software, carer appraisal software, carer performance tracking.
Regular one-to-one supervisions and annual appraisals, recorded against a question bank on a quarterly or yearly grid, so a manager sees at a glance who is overdue. In Carelo: supervision and appraisal desks in the Matrix, plus an open care score and Carer of the Week and Month awards.
Also called: staff training software, care certificate tracking.
Which mandatory courses each carer has completed, when each expires, and the Care Certificate for new starters. In Carelo: the training matrix with expiry tracking.
Also called: care recruitment software.
The employment side of a care team: profiles, documents, right-to-work and DBS records, start dates, leavers, sickness and absence. Recruitment — advertising and applicant tracking — is usually a separate tool. In Carelo: carer profiles and documents, applicant status, sickness and SSP guidance; Carelo does not run job advertising.
Also called: digital care timesheets, care payroll integration.
Turning actual check-in and check-out times into paid hours, with travel time and cancelled-call rules applied, in a decimal format payroll software can import. In Carelo: timesheets in payroll-grade decimal hours from the call-monitoring times. Timesheets and payroll guide.
Also called: carer mileage software.
Distance and travel time between one call and the next, for travel pay and for the minimum-wage calculation. In Carelo: travel time between calls on the roster and the Care Map's routed journeys, with travel-pay settings per company.
Also called: staff leave management.
Requests, approvals, allowances and a team calendar that shows which days are already thin before another request is approved. In Carelo: a traffic-light holiday calendar with requests from the carer app.
Also called: care billing software, care finance software.
Invoicing councils, the NHS and private clients for care delivered, from actual or planned hours by funder, with double-handed calls counted as two carers' time. In Carelo: funding per service user, invoices from delivered hours, finance reports.
Also called: client management software.
The service user's profile: personal, contact and care tabs, funders, care package hours, preferences, respite and documents. In Carelo: the service-user record with favourite and blocked carers, requirements, risks, respite, funding and invoices.
Also called: mobile care app, care worker app, care staff app, home care app, care provider app, care agency app.
The carer's phone app: today's calls in order, what each visit needs, GPS check-in and check-out, medication, notes and handovers, and holiday and availability requests. It must work with poor signal. In Carelo: free on iPhone and Android for every carer, authorised by the office and PIN-secured. The apps.
Also called: care family portal.
A window for relatives into one person's care: the schedule, who came, the notes, the medication log, incidents, and a way to message the office. In Carelo: the family app, included free on every plan; each family sees one person only.
Also called: secure care messaging.
Messaging between the office and carers, and between the office and families, kept inside the care record so it is audited and never on personal WhatsApp. In Carelo: office-to-carer and office-to-family messages; no carer-to-family channel, by design.
Also called: care reports software, care analytics software, care dashboard software, care performance software, care KPI software.
The numbers behind the service: calls delivered, on time, late and missed, hours by funder, medication outcomes, incidents, compliance due and overdue, each by date range, carer or person. In Carelo: the Live Monitor's day stats, Progress & Awards, and a reports library in four columns — general, service users, carers, finance. Features.
Also called: care task management, care automation software.
Tasks per visit, handovers to the next carer, reminders when a review or a supervision is due, and repeating patterns that generate the work without re-keying. In Carelo: visit tasks, handovers, due and overdue chips across the Matrix, schedules that generate visits.
Software run by the vendor on the internet rather than installed on an office PC: nothing to install, updates arrive by themselves, and the office, the carers and the families reach the same record. Ask where the data is held. In Carelo: hosted in AWS London (eu-west-2), each company at its own address. Trust & security.
Also called: AI care management, smart care software.
Using an AI assistant inside care software — to fill unassigned calls, draft paperwork from real records, or answer questions about the company's own data. The honest version proposes and a human approves; it never writes to the record on its own. In Carelo: Carelo AI, an optional add-on scoped to one company's data. Carelo AI.
Carelo is care management software for UK domiciliary care, with every term above built in and public pricing from £59 a month. How to choose home care software gives you the checklist; a demo takes twenty minutes.