A missed call is the single event most likely to harm someone, lose a contract and end up in a complaint or a safeguarding referral at the same time. Most are not caused by a carer who did not care; they are caused by a rota that did not know, an office that found out too late, and a record that cannot show what happened. This guide covers the definitions, the causes, the procedure and the evidence.
A missed call is a planned visit that did not take place at all and was not cancelled in advance by the service user or the office. A late call is one that started outside the agreed tolerance. Tolerances are set by the contract, commonly 15 or 30 minutes either side of the planned time, sometimes wider for lunch calls. A call that started 45 minutes late is late, not missed; a call where a carer arrived, found nobody in and left is neither, provided it was recorded as a no-access with the steps taken.
The definitions matter because commissioners measure them, because a missed medication call may have to be reported, and because "the carer was a bit late" and "the carer never came" are different conversations with a family. Write both definitions into your policy, with your tolerance, and use the same words in the software.
Every one of these is a rota or information failure before it is a carer failure. That is good news, because rota and information failures can be designed out.
The office should know a call is late while it is still possible to do something about it. That means electronic call monitoring with a live view: each planned call turns amber when its start passes without a check-in and red when the tolerance passes, and someone in the office is watching that screen or receiving those alerts. A late-call alert at 08:20 gives you time to phone the carer, phone the service user and send cover. A report on Monday of Friday's misses gives you a complaint.
Agencies without live monitoring rely on the service user or family phoning in. Vulnerable people often do not.
A missed call becomes a safeguarding concern when it caused or risked harm: a person left without medication, food, fluids, personal care or supervision they depend on; a fall or deterioration found at the next visit; or a pattern of misses for one person. Neglect through omission is a category of abuse. The threshold and the referral route are set by the local safeguarding adults board; your policy should name them and the office should not hesitate at the margin. A referral you did not need to make is a conversation; one you failed to make is a finding.
Commissioners typically want monthly figures for missed calls, late calls and the percentage of calls within tolerance, backed by the electronic call monitoring record, and they will ask what you did about each miss. Inspectors ask the same under "safe" and "well-led": can you show the missed calls, the actions, the pattern and what changed? An agency that can produce a list of its missed calls with the cause and action against each looks well-led. One that says "we don't really have missed calls" and cannot show a record does not.
The evidence is the call-monitoring record, the incident record and the rota history. All three need to agree.
Carelo is built so that the causes in section 2 cannot hide. Unassigned calls sit on their own row on every rota view; a move that displaces another call puts the displaced call on that row rather than losing it; a double-up with an empty seat shows half-filled; travel time is on the roster. Carers work from the live app, and a cancellation carries its reason. The Live Monitor turns each call amber when its start passes without a check-in and red past the tolerance, with the day's late and missed counts at the top and the whole day on the Care Map. A missed call is recorded as missed, with the incident raised from the same screen, and the call-monitoring report, the incident and the rota history are one record for the commissioner and the inspector. See the features or book a demo.
A missed call is a planned visit that did not happen and was not cancelled in advance. A late call started outside the tolerance the contract sets, commonly 15 or 30 minutes. A carer who attended, found no access and recorded the steps taken has not missed the call.
It can be. If the person was left without medication, food, fluids, personal care or supervision they depend on, or came to harm, or there is a pattern, it meets most local safeguarding thresholds as neglect by omission and should be referred. A single miss with no harm, acted on promptly, is usually an incident rather than a referral, but record it and be ready to explain the decision.
Make every unassigned call visible in one place and own it before the day starts, use a rota that never silently double-books, roster double-handed calls as one visit with two seats, plan travel time, give carers a live rota on their phone, and watch a live call-monitoring screen so lateness is caught while cover is still possible.
Yes, promptly and honestly, along with what you did about it. Families find out anyway; hearing it from the office first is what keeps trust. Many agencies give families a live view of visits precisely so there is nothing to discover.