Precinct Care

Why Precinct Care is different

We read what care staff, managers, inspectors and care leavers say publicly about the recording systems in use today, then built Precinct Care to fix each problem.

Book a demo All of Precinct Care

Before designing Precinct Care, we gathered every public complaint we could find about the recording systems children's homes use: app store and Trustpilot reviews, suppliers' own help pages and service alerts, Community Care surveys, ICO enforcement notices and research with care-experienced adults. A Responsible Individual with over 20 years in children's homes, who has used the market's leading systems, reviewed it with us.

We found 26 recurring problems. Below is each one, and what Precinct Care does about it. We don't name other suppliers: the point is what homes should expect from any system.

Where we are: Precinct Care is in final development, shaped with registered managers, Responsible Individuals and Reg 44 visitors. We are booking demonstrations now and taking a small number of pilot homes. The snippets on this page are from the working system, filled with made-up people and records.

The short version

Records stay on the home's devices

Most systems open in any web browser, on any phone. Precinct Care opens only on devices the provider owns and has registered.

Nothing lost

Entries save on the device as you type and survive a locked screen, a dead battery or no internet.

Record once

A daily log feeds the handover, chronology and reports. No retyping into incident forms, emails and trackers.

The rules come built in

Regulatory deadlines and reminders work from day one. Nothing depends on a manager setting them up.

Written for the young person

Their own words on every log, and records written as if they will read them, because one day they may.

Your records stay yours

Export everything at any time, and keep records for the full retention period whatever happens to the contract.

1. Files opened on personal phones and home computers

This is our biggest concern. With most systems a member of staff can sign in from any web browser, so a young person's file can be opened at home, on a device the provider doesn't own, can't secure and can't wipe. Several suppliers say so on their own websites: "from any device", "from anywhere with an internet connection".

UK GDPR requires security appropriate to the risk (Article 32). The National Cyber Security Centre points out that with personal devices the organisation owns the data but not the device. Looking at records without a reason is a criminal offence under section 170 of the Data Protection Act 2018, and the ICO has prosecuted council staff for browsing children's records.

What Precinct Care does: it opens only on registered, encrypted devices the provider owns. A tablet registered to one home opens only that home's records. Staff sign with their face, not a shareable password. Every record opened is logged, and a refused sign-in alerts the manager. Reg 44 visitors and inspectors use the home's device with a one-day, read-only pass. More on security.

2. Outages, lost work and bugs

What people report	What Precinct Care does
Whole-service outages, and sites failing to load after an expired security certificate.	Every entry is written to two UK data centres, with automatic failover. Certificates renew automatically and are monitored.
Notes deleted when a phone locked, or lost after a failed sync.	Entries save on the device every few seconds. Nothing is removed from the device until the server confirms it has it.
Whole assessments lost to timeouts, and staff going back to paper.	Works fully offline and syncs when the connection returns. A timeout locks the screen but keeps the draft.
Bugs in incident and safeguarding forms.	Every form is covered by automated tests that must pass before any release.
Systems that feel dated, with apps that are rarely updated.	Designed with care workers, tested on real shifts, and updated regularly.
Poor phone and tablet apps, with no search.	Built for the home's tablets first, with search on every screen.

3. Forms and workflow

What people report	What Precinct Care does
Forms the regulations require are missing, so homes build their own. Some products' standard forms are written for adult care.	A complete form set from day one, mapped to the Children's Homes Regulations 2015, with separate rules for supported accommodation, adult care, Scotland and Wales.
The same event written up several times: daily log, handover, incident form, email and tracker.	Record once. A daily log feeds the handover, the chronology and the reports. An incident started from a log carries its details across.
Automations work only if a manager sets them up.	Reminders, deadlines and escalations based on the regulations come set up as standard.
Work stalls waiting for a manager's sign-off.	Every sign-off has a deadline. When the manager is away it passes to the deputy or area manager.
Weak reports that don't show a young person's progress.	Progress tracked against each young person's plan, and packs for Reg 44, Reg 45 and inspection built from the records, not retyped.
Logs written hours later, vague, and rarely read.	Quick entries during the shift, timed as they are made, with short prompts. Staff can speak instead of type.
Staff dislike using the system.	Short-form entries designed with care workers, with voice, read-back and spell-check for staff with dyslexia.

4. Support, training and leaving a supplier

What people report	What Precinct Care does
Support only in office hours, in a service that runs 24 hours a day. Calls unanswered and long chat waits.	Support in the evenings and at weekends, with a named contact for each provider.
Rushed group training, paid extras, and training that doesn't match the live system.	Training included, a practice area with example data, and short how-to videos inside the app.
Staff not asked before a system is chosen.	Designed with an experienced Responsible Individual and registered managers, with a feedback button on every screen.
Records hard to get back when a provider leaves.	Export every record at any time, in open formats. Sealed archives keep records for the full retention period whatever happens to the contract.

5. What inspectors check

What people report	What Precinct Care does
Every entry signed and dated by the person who made it (reg 36).	Every entry is signed with the author's face and timed automatically. Changes create a new version; the original is kept.
Restraint recorded within 24 hours, signed by the manager within 48, and the child spoken to within 5 days (reg 35).	The three clocks start when the restraint is recorded, with reminders to the manager and then the area manager. See restraint and incidents.
Searches recorded with the reason, any consent and manager oversight.	The search form asks for each before it can be saved, and goes to the manager.
A return home interview offered within 72 hours of a missing episode.	The clock starts when the young person comes back, and the missing profile is kept ready in advance. See missing from care.

6. What care leavers say about their records

Children's home case records are kept until the young person's 75th birthday, and many are read later by the young person as an adult. Research with care-experienced adults, such as UCL's MIRRA project, found records focused on risk and compliance and left out the child's own view. Care leavers describe cold language, misspelt names, missing files and lost photos.

What people report	What Precinct Care does
The young person's own voice is missing.	An "in their own words" space on every daily log, and the young person's own app to have their say. See the young person's app.
Cold, judgemental or minimising language, and names spelt wrong.	Prompts to write as if the young person will read it. Names come from their profile and are never retyped.
Files missing when finally released.	A sealed archive with integrity checks, so nothing goes missing.
Photos and achievements not kept.	A photos tab in every file, and a memory book the young person keeps.

How we gathered this

We searched suppliers' own websites and help centres, Trustpilot, the App Store and Google Play, Capterra and G2, Reddit, Community Care, BASW, UCL, legislation.gov.uk, gov.uk and the ICO, and checked every source in October 2026.

Public reviews of children's home software are few, and many are positive about support teams. Some evidence comes from social workers using council systems, and some from single accounts. Suppliers may have fixed problems since they were reported. We have kept to what each source says, and the full evidence, with links, is available to providers on request.

Questions we're asked

Which systems did you look at?

The recording systems most used by children's homes in England, Scotland and Wales, and newer products launched since 2020. We don't name them here, but we're happy to talk through the evidence when we meet.

Can we move our records from our current system?

Talk to us about what you use now. We'll explain how your records can be brought across, and what your current supplier lets you export.

See Precinct Care for yourself

Book a 30-minute demonstration. We'll show you the screens your staff, managers and inspectors would use.

Book a demo