Domiciliary care rota software for visit runs, verified visits and fair pay

Running a home care branch is a daily puzzle. Forty clients, some needing two carers, visit times that people rely on for breakfast and medicines, care workers spread across a town on foot or in their own cars, and a coordinator trying to fit it all together while the phone rings with sickness and hospital discharges.

The software most agencies use was built for big providers: heavy, expensive, often sold on 12-month or longer contracts. Smaller branches end up on spreadsheets, a whiteboard and WhatsApp, which works until a visit is missed and nobody knew until the client's daughter rang.

What home care scheduling software needs to do

• Runs, not shifts. Each care worker's day is a sequence of visits at different addresses, in an order that makes sense on the map.
• Realistic travel time. If the run doesn't allow for getting from one client to the next, carers rush visits or arrive late, and travel time goes unpaid.
• Proof the visit happened. A check-in and check-out at the client's address, with the time and whether the carer was there.
• Early warning. The office needs to know a visit hasn't started before it becomes a missed visit, not at the end of the day.
• Safety for people working alone. Care workers visit homes alone, often early mornings and evenings.
• Planned versus actual. What you scheduled, what happened, and what your commissioners or clients are paying for.
• Pay that adds up. Travel time between visits counts towards the minimum wage, and a run that looks fine on a rota can still underpay.

How ShiftComplete runs home care

ShiftComplete for care runs in the browser on any phone, tablet or computer. Office staff and care workers use the same app; nothing to install.

Clients and visit patterns

Add each client with their address and access notes a carer needs to get in ("ring twice, side door"). No key safe codes, no care details: those stay in your care-records system. Set up visit patterns (days, time, length, how many carers) and ShiftComplete creates the visits.

Visit runs with travel time

Build each care worker's run for the day by putting visits in order. ShiftComplete estimates the travel time between each visit and highlights runs where the gaps are too tight, before anyone sets off.

Check-in and check-out at the client's address

On the day, each care worker sees "My run" on their phone: visits in order, addresses and a map link. They check in when they arrive and check out when they leave. A check-in near the client's address is recorded as verified; one away from the address asks for a reason, so the office can see what happened.

Late and missed visit alerts

If a visit hasn't started 15 minutes after its time, the office gets an alert, and a missed visit shows in red. Coordinators can ring the carer or arrange cover while there's still time to help.

"I'm safe" lone-worker check-ins

HSE says employers must monitor lone workers and keep in touch with them, including a reliable way to know a lone worker has finished safely. Care workers can confirm "I'm safe" at set intervals, and a missed check-in alerts the office.

Planned versus actual and the pay check

Reports show planned against actual time by client and by care worker, with late and missed visit rates. The minimum wage check adds paid time, including travel between visits, and compares pay with the National Living Wage using the hourly rate you enter. Our guide to travel time and the minimum wage in home care explains the rules and the sums. Mileage is recorded too, so you can reimburse it; HMRC's approved mileage rate for cars is 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles from 6 April 2026.

In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

The minimum wage rules on travel time are UK-wide. The care regulator and some scheduling rules are not:

• Wales: Care Inspectorate Wales regulates domiciliary support services, and the Welsh regulations spell out how runs must be scheduled. Regulation 41 of the Regulated Services (Service Providers and Responsible Individuals) (Wales) Regulations 2017 requires a schedule of visits for each domiciliary care worker, given to them, that separates travel time, visit time and any rest breaks. Travel time must be sufficient for the distance, traffic and parking; visits must be long enough for the person's plan and not less than 30 minutes unless one of the exceptions in section 8 of the 2016 Act applies; and you must keep a record of the time each worker spends travelling, on visits and on breaks. Regulation 42 says that after three months on a non-guaranteed hours contract with regular hours, a domiciliary care worker must be offered the choice of a contract reflecting their average hours. Care workers register with Social Care Wales.
• Scotland: care at home is registered with the Care Inspectorate, and the staffing duty in section 7 of the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019 applies to every care service. Care at home workers register with the SSSC, and the Care Inspectorate's notification guidance includes missed or late visits that have a significant impact on someone.
• Northern Ireland: domiciliary care agencies are regulated by RQIA under the Domiciliary Care Agencies Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007, and care workers must be registered with NISCC.

ShiftComplete's runs show estimated travel time between visits and record check-in and check-out times, which helps with this. In Wales, check that the schedule you give each worker shows everything Regulation 41 asks for, including rest breaks.

A morning at a small branch

Picture a branch with 40 clients and 22 care workers, run by a registered manager and one coordinator.

• By Thursday, care workers have marked availability for the week after next. Two are on holiday; one can only do mornings.
• The coordinator builds Monday's runs. A new client discharged from hospital needs a double-up call at 08:00 and 21:00. ShiftComplete shows that adding it to one run leaves only five minutes' travel between two visits across town, so she moves a visit to a neighbouring run instead.
• At 07:45 on Monday, care workers open "My run" on their phones and set off.
• At 08:20, an alert: a breakfast visit due at 08:00 hasn't started. The carer's car won't start. The coordinator moves the visit to a carer two streets away, and the client gets breakfast 25 minutes late rather than not at all.
• At 13:30, a carer on a split run misses an "I'm safe" check-in. The office rings: she's fine, her phone had died. It's noted.
• At month end, the manager pulls planned versus actual by client for the council, and checks the minimum wage report for anyone whose travel time has crept up.

The rest of the branch, in the same app

• Staff compliance file: DBS certificate number, date and Update Service status, right to work, visa and sponsorship dates, with expiry warnings. If you sponsor overseas care workers, read our guide to sponsor licence duties.
• Training matrix with refresh dates and certificate photos (see our training matrix template).
• Supervisions and appraisals, signed on the phone, with overdue alerts. Spot checks in clients' homes can be recorded the same way. See our supervision guide.
• Incidents with the client recorded by initials only, and a prompt when one may need a CQC statutory notification.
• Complaints and compliments log, care audits with action lists, and an inspection pack grouped under CQC's five key questions.

What it doesn't do

ShiftComplete sits alongside your care-records system. No care plans, no eMAR or medication records, no daily care notes, no invoicing councils and no payroll. It gives you the schedule, the verified visits and the evidence. Data is hosted in the UK (London).

What it costs

£2.49 per active staff member per month. No minimum, no contract, every feature included. A branch with 25 care workers and office staff pays £62.25 a month. Free for 60 days, no card needed, and a free 15-minute set-up call if you'd like help loading your clients and runs.

Who it's for

• Independent home care agencies and single branches moving off spreadsheets.
• Registered managers who want to see late and missed visits as they happen, not in next week's report.
• Coordinators who build runs every day and want the travel time and pay to add up.

See how it works for domiciliary care on our home care page.