So, you’re looking to introduce a care business management software solution into your organisation. The first question you’ll likely be asking is ‘what software solutions are available for my type of care service?’.
We don’t blame you. Residential providers have different needs to domiciliary care, supporting living will have different priorities to extra care services. And your tech needs to be designed for your specific care needs and service size.
With more and more options available, it can be difficult to figure out which solution fits your requirements the best. Let’s look at the key things you need to consider when choosing the right software solution.
What questions you need to be asking when choosing social care software
1. Does it meet my key objectives?
When looking at your current processes, you can more than likely pin point exact operations that you are missing. For example, you might have a care planning solution but you’re still manually creating the daily roster or outsourcing your payroll to a third party.
You will want to think about what your current drivers are for needing a new solution; what issues do you want it to solve, what additional features does it offer, how will it benefit your staff and service users?
2. Is it easy to use?
You won’t reap the reward of a highly versatile software solution if your team struggle to use it. It doesn’t matter how advanced the software is, if the technology isn’t user-friendly or intuitive then your staff just won’t warm to the idea of digitising their current processes.
Technology needs to relieve your organisation of its current burdens, making complicated tasks into manageable ones. Therefore, you should look for a software provider that can spend time training some of your users on a solution that is easy to use, whether your team are working from home, on the go or at the point of care.
3. Does it offer reporting tools and business intelligence?
Business intelligence can help you translate complex information into manageable insights. And when you have reporting tools or visual dashboards, you can better understand the specifics that you use to make decisions and plan for the future.
Software solutions may provide business intelligence visibility for things like Care Quality and Regulatory Compliance, recording safeguarding events or mandatory training renewals so you can keep on top of the sorts of things you need to evidence during an inspection.
4. Is it flexible to my needs?
Every care provider is different. Your organisation will have different staff levels, service user needs and focus points that you need your technology to keep up with.
You should look for a software solution that is it scalable to your organisation, being flexible to your changing demands (especially if you are looking to grow your business in the future). You might want to ask how your software provider is looking to develop their solution to keep up with the needs and demands of the sector and how they can support you for your short and long term digital goals.
What features you need to be looking for in your social care software
Software that helps support your service users
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Care assessments and planning
Many providers looking for social care software will need a solution that facilitates care assessment and care planning.
You may want to choose a flexible and modern software solution that helps you keep track of client referrals, measure care outcomes and quality or allows family members to access certain information about their loved one.
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Safeguarding / Regulation compliance
Digital tools may also include functionalities that help your team record and monitor regulation compliance, so you can ensure your organisation is aways delivering the best care it can.
This may include seeing when mandatory training is due to be refreshed or being able to record safeguarding ‘events’ in line with your organisation’s internal policy
Software that helps support your staff
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Recruitment and training
Struggles with recruitment and retention is widely recognised throughout the social care sector. Therefore, you may want to implement software that helps you manage your new recruits.
From applicant management and recruitment compliance to induction training and shadowing, better oversight of this challenging area can help you keep excellent candidates in the pipeline, rather than losing them.
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Mobile working
Whether your staff are working on-site or on the road, you may want a digital tool to keep your team connected.
Mobile applications and cloud-based solutions give your staff the opportunity to access the software at the point of care, viewing and updating records in real-time.
Software that helps support your business
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Finance and Payroll
Finance processes in social care can be complex at the best of times. Move away from manual spreadsheets and data silos by digitising all your finance and payroll processes.
Software can help simplify these time-consuming tasks. You can keep your processes internal, become more efficient and help keep your staff happy when they get paid correctly and on time.
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Dashboards and Business Intelligence
You may want to look for a single digital solution that encompasses all your care and business management requirements.
With all your key information in one place, a digital tool can translate this raw data into visual dashboards and business intelligence, helping you make decisions and predict future need.
‘What software solution is available for my type of care service?’
What if we told you that one software solution can meet all your requirements, no matter the size or type of your social care organisation.
Care Cloud is our optimised cloud-based, care business management solution, designed for any type of care provider. Whether you provide domiciliary, residential, supported living, retirement living or extra care, Care Cloud has got you covered.