For care homes

Care home rota software: long days, nights and cover that holds

A care home rota has one job: the right number of people on every shift of every day, with a senior among them, whatever happens at six in the morning. InShift is rota software for care homes built around that job: it keeps days and nights as rows on one rota, counts a night that crosses midnight as one shift, fills a call-off with an open shift or a swap from the phone, and shows every carer their hours before payroll runs.

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A number that has to hold 24 hours a day, and the six in the morning phone call

A 40 bed home runs on a staffing number: say three carers and a senior on every long day, two on every night, plus the nurse, the kitchen and the domestics. That is 28 day shifts and 14 night shifts a week before anyone is sick or on holiday, and every one of them has a name against it or the number does not hold. A rota for a home is a coverage problem first and a calendar second, which is why it is usually a grid of Ds and Ns on the office wall.

The grid has two enemies. The first is the night: a shift from 19:30 to 07:30 starts on one date and ends on the next, and a spreadsheet that counts by calendar day either splits it or loses it, so the night carer’s hours are argued over every month. The second is the call-off. Someone rings at six to say they are not coming, the senior on duty rings down a list, and by half seven either an agency worker is on their way or the number is not met.

The rest is money. Carers on hourly rates, nights and bank holidays at a premium, bank staff who worked four shifts one month and none the next, and a payroll that has to be right because the people on it are watching it closely. Below is how a home of thirty people looks in InShift.

Days and nights as rows

The week by department, with the count for every day in the header

In the week view every person is a row inside their department, care, nursing, kitchen, domestic, and every day is a column with the number of shifts in its header. A long day and a night are two shift types with their own colour, so the pattern reads at a glance and a day with two Ns instead of three shows itself before the week is published. The demo location on the frame has its own departments and types; a home names its own.

  • A shift type crosses midnight: “Night 19:30–07:30” is one shift on the date it starts, twelve hours
  • The rows “Open shift” and “Substitution” sit inside the week, where the gaps are
  • The month view shows who has done four nights in a row and who has had none
  • “Copy last week” carries the pattern forward as drafts; the manager swaps the lines and presses “Publish”
The admin panel screen by screen

A week on the care rota of a 40 bed home

Long days 07:30–19:30 and nights 19:30–07:30. Three carers and a senior on every day, two carers on every night, three or four twelve hour shifts each.

CarerMonTueWedThuFriSatSun
Senior ADD··DD·
Senior B··DD··D
Carer 1DDD··D·
Carer 2D··DD·D
Carer 3·DDD·D·
Carer 4D·D·D·D
Carer 5·D·DDDD
Night 1NNNN···
Night 2····NNN
Night 3NN··NN·
Night 4··NN··N

Every day has a senior and three carers, every night has two. The second week swaps the lines so weekends rotate. Carer 5 is on five days this week and three the next; the alternative is a sixth carer at 36 hours. The nurse, the kitchen and the domestics are separate departments on the same rota.

The call-off

Sickness, swaps and open shifts on one page, decided in one tap

A carer who is ill sends “Sick leave” from the app at six with a note. It arrives on “Requests” in the panel and in the manager’s app, and the manager approves it and offers the shift to the team as an open shift with the position and the shift type. Everyone with a matching position sees it on the “Open shifts” tile and taps “I want it”; the manager picks one, and the number holds without a list of phone numbers.

  • “Time off”, “Swaps” and “Open shifts” as tabs, each request with “Approve” and “Reject”
  • A swap between two carers goes through “Substitute” in the app; “Request rules” decides whether you approve it or a colleague’s acceptance is enough
  • Bank staff with “Available for substitution” on their card are candidates in every home of the group
  • The push about the open shift goes only to people whose position matches
Swaps and open shifts in the app

Hours before payroll

Every carer sees their shifts, hours and pay for the period on the phone

The “Stats” screen in the app adds up the period from the published rota: shifts, hours and what is accrued at the person’s rate, day by day. They are the same numbers the manager sees in “Payroll”, so a night carer knows what the month looks like before the payslip, and the conversation at the office door is about a shift that is missing, if there is one, and never about arithmetic. Rates sit on the person; nobody sees anyone else’s.

  • Pay terms per person: an hourly rate for carers and bank staff, a salary for the manager
  • “Night hours” and “Holiday work” on the “Premiums” tab, applied to everyone from a date you pick
  • “Payroll” shows what is accrued, paid and owed per person, and “Export to Excel” gives the file to the accountant
  • A twelve hour long day is a normal shift: the daily norm for the overtime rule is yours to set

Moving a care home onto InShift

An afternoon for a home of thirty, the team joining included.

  1. 1

    Sign up and the home

    Email or Google. The home is a location; a second home is a second location with its own team and managers, and bank staff can be available in both.

  2. 2

    Departments, positions, shift types

    Care, nursing, kitchen, domestic. Shift types “Long day 07:30–19:30”, “Night 19:30–07:30”, “Early 07:30–14:00”, “Kitchen 07:00–15:00”, each with its days of the week.

  3. 3

    The team, the rates, the rules

    “Add multiple” pastes the names, each with a position, a department and an hourly rate. “Night hours” and “Holiday work” on “Premiums” from the first day. “Invite team” gives the QR code and the invite code.

  4. 4

    The first fortnight and publish

    Nights first, then the seniors, then the carers to the number, then “Publish”. From then on it is “Copy last week”, the pattern swapped, the holidays and “Publish” again.

Frequently asked questions

Do twelve hour shifts and nights that cross midnight work?▾

Yes. A shift type can be any length and can cross midnight: “Night 19:30–07:30” is one shift of twelve hours on the date it starts. The “Over the daily norm” rule on the “Premiums” tab uses the norm you set, so a twelve hour long day is paid as a normal shift unless you decide otherwise, and the hours inside the “Night hours” window get the night premium.

Does it warn me when a shift is below the staffing number?▾

There is no automatic minimum yet. What there is: the number of shifts under every day in the week view, the month view where a thin night stands out as a pattern, and the “Open shift” row inside the week for the gaps you have decided to fill. The care home rota template for Excel on our templates page has coverage rows that turn red below the minimum, if you want that check on paper.

How fast can a call-off be covered?▾

The manager approves the sick leave and creates an open shift with the position and the shift type; everyone who matches gets a push and taps “I want it” in the app, and the manager picks one. Or the carer offers the shift themselves through “Substitute” and a colleague takes it. Bank staff marked “Available for substitution” are candidates in every home of the group.

Can bank staff be on the rota without a fixed pattern?▾

Yes. A bank carer is a person with a position and an hourly rate, without regular shifts. They see the open shifts that match their position, take what they want, and their hours for the period add up in “Payroll” like everyone else’s. A person who should never be offered a shift is marked “Not scheduled” on their card.

Can carers check their hours before payroll?▾

Yes, on “Stats” in the app: shifts, hours and what is accrued for any period, day by day, from the published rota. The manager sees the same numbers in “Payroll”, with what is paid and what is owed, and exports the period to Excel for the accountant.

What does it cost for a home of thirty?▾

Free for one location and up to 10 people. Beyond that it is a subscription per active person on the “Employees” list, with locations, payroll and the team app included. The numbers are on the pricing page.

Get the whole home on one rota

Departments, shift types and the first fortnight take an afternoon, and carers, nights and the kitchen see the rota in the app the same day.

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