Published: 24 October 2026

Choosing children’s home software is one of the biggest decisions a provider makes. The system you pick holds every daily log, incident and plan for each young person, it is what an Ofsted inspector reads, and the records in it must be kept until the young person’s 75th birthday. Many of them will be read years later by the young person as an adult.

This guide is for registered managers, Responsible Individuals and directors of children’s homes in England, with notes for Scotland, Wales and supported accommodation. It sets out what the regulations expect from your records, the features that make a difference on shift, how pricing usually works, the questions to ask every supplier and how to move systems without putting children’s care at risk. It does not name or compare suppliers: the point is what any system should do.

The short version

Start with the regulations, not the feature list. Good children’s home software follows the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the Quality Standards from the first day, without a manager having to set up every reminder.
Watch staff use it. Most of what an inspector reads is written on shift, often late at night. If recording is slow or hard, the records will be thin, late or written by someone else.
Ask where records can be opened. A system that opens in any web browser lets a young person’s file be read on a personal phone or a home computer.
Ask how you would leave. Records must be kept for decades. Find out in writing how you get every record back, in what format, and what happens if the supplier closes.
Get the whole price in writing, including set-up, training, moving your records and any modules you will need later.

What the regulations expect from your records

Children’s home software is not general care home software with a different logo. Adult care systems are built around CQC and care plans for adults, and a children’s home has a different legal framework, a different inspector and very different records. For homes in England, the main requirements are:

Every record signed and dated (regulation 36). Each entry must show who made it and when. Changes should keep the original, not overwrite it.
Restraint (regulation 35). A record within 24 hours, the registered person speaking to the staff involved and signing within 48 hours, and the child given the chance to talk about it within 5 days. Read our guide to regulation 35 after a restraint.
Notifications (regulation 40). Serious events must be notified to Ofsted and others without delay.
Independent visits (regulation 44). An independent person visits every month, inspects the records and reports to Ofsted. Read what a Reg 44 visit is.
Quality of care review (regulation 45). At least every six months, with the report sent to Ofsted within 28 days.
The nine Quality Standards. Inspectors look for evidence, from quality and purpose of care to care planning, in what staff record every day.
Missing from care. A return home interview offered within 72 hours, and in many police areas a Philomena Protocol profile kept ready in advance. Read our guide to the Philomena Protocol.
Retention. Case records kept for 75 years from the young person’s date of birth, or 15 years from death if before 18.

Inspections are unannounced, so the records have to be ready every day. Our guide to preparing for an Ofsted inspection lists what inspectors read and ask for.

Scotland and Wales have their own rules. In Scotland the Care Inspectorate uses its own eForms and the Health and Social Care Standards, and there are no Reg 44 visits. In Wales, Care Inspectorate Wales expects reg 60 notifications, Responsible Individual visits at least every three months and a quality of care review every six months, and records pass to the placing authority when the young person leaves. If you run homes across the border, check the system changes its forms and reminders with the home’s country, rather than asking staff to work around English forms.

Supported accommodation for 16 and 17 year olds has been registered by Ofsted since October 2023, under the Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations 2023 and four quality standards. If you run both, check the software can run them side by side with the right words and forms for each. Read our guide to the supported accommodation quality standards.

What good children’s home software does

A file that puts the important things first

A bank worker on their first shift needs to know about allergies, family time restrictions, missing risk, what upsets them and what helps, before anything else. Look at how a young person’s file opens. Then check the rest is there: contacts, daily logs, keywork, health and medication, plans with every version kept, education, photos and a chronology. The chronology should build itself from significant entries, not be typed again by a manager.

Recording that works on a shift

This is where most systems succeed or fail. Ask to see a daily log written on a tablet, start to finish, by someone who is not a trainer. Things worth looking for:

Quick ticks for mood, school, meals and family time, with space for what happened.
Speech to text, read-back and a spelling check, so staff who find writing hard, including staff with dyslexia, can record well.
A space for the young person’s own words.
Recording that carries on when the internet drops, and a draft that survives a locked screen or a flat battery.
Accessibility to WCAG 2.2 level AA, so it works with screen readers, keyboard-only use and zoom.

Record once

The same event is often written up four or five times: the daily log, the handover, the incident form, an email to the social worker and a tracker for the manager. Good software lets one entry fill every record that needs it. A daily log should feed the handover, the chronology and the reports, and an incident started from a log should carry its details across.

Deadlines that come built in

Ask what happens after a restraint is recorded. The system should set the regulation 35 steps with named people and deadlines, remind them, and tell the manager, then the area manager, if one is missed. The same goes for return home interviews, Reg 40 notifications, risk reviews and Reg 45. If every reminder has to be set up by a manager, it will not happen in a busy home.

Safeguarding that joins the dots

Serious case reviews rarely turn on one missed event. They turn on small worries recorded in different places that nobody put together. Look for concerns, incidents, missing episodes and risks in one place, a triage list for the designated safeguarding lead, and allegations against staff kept apart and visible only to the right people. If the system suggests patterns, such as incidents that follow family time, make sure it leaves the decision with the DSL and records the reason.

Oversight for managers and the Responsible Individual

A registered manager needs to see their home at a glance: who is on shift, today’s tasks, logs not started and sign-offs due. An area manager and Responsible Individual need every home on one screen, with a risk register, open incidents and overdue reviews. Ask to see the reports you produce every month, such as Ofsted Annex A, the Reg 45 review and the monthly safeguarding report, and how long they take.

Controlled access for inspectors and Reg 44 independent persons

When Ofsted arrive, managers can lose hours printing files. Ask how an inspector or Reg 44 independent person would see the records: whether they get read-only access, whether it ends on time, whether they can download or print, and whether every page they open is recorded.

Staff, training and the rota

Many providers also want rotas, clocking in, timesheets, a training matrix, supervision and policies in the same system. Check how clocking in is verified, because GPS on its own can be faked with an app, and whether approved hours go to your payroll without being typed again.

The young person’s voice

Care-experienced adults describe records written about them, not for them, with cold language, misspelt names and lost photos. Ask how the system helps staff write as if the young person will read it, how a young person can see their plans and have their say, and whether photos and achievements are kept for them.

Security and data protection

Children’s records are some of the most sensitive data there is, and UK GDPR requires security appropriate to the risk. Looking at records without a reason is a criminal offence under section 170 of the Data Protection Act 2018. The questions that matter most:

Where can records be opened? If staff can sign in from any browser, files can be opened at home on devices you don’t own, can’t secure and can’t wipe. Ask whether the system can be limited to devices the provider owns and has registered.
How do staff sign in and sign records? Shared or written-down passwords mean entries can be signed by someone else.
Is there an audit trail nobody can edit? Every sign-in, record opened and change should be logged, and nothing should be deletable, including by managers.
Who can see what? A care worker should see the young people in their own home, not the whole company.
Where is the data held? Ask for the hosting locations, the backup arrangements and the full list of sub-processors.
What paperwork do you get? You are the controller of your records, so you need a data processing agreement that covers UK GDPR Article 28, and a DPIA, because children’s special-category data needs one.
What independent checks are done? For example Cyber Essentials Plus, penetration tests and how often backups are restored to prove they work.
Is your data used to train AI? Get the answer in writing.

How pricing usually works

Suppliers price children’s home software in different ways, so put them on the same footing before comparing. Common models are a price per home, per place or young person, or per member of staff, usually charged monthly or yearly. Ask about everything else that can be added:

set-up and configuration
training, and whether new staff are trained later at no extra cost
moving records from your current system or paper
modules sold separately, such as rotas, medication or HR
support out of office hours
price rises during the contract, and the notice period
the cost of getting your records back when you leave

Ask for the total for your homes for three years, in writing, before anything starts.

Questions to ask every supplier

Take this list to every demonstration:

Which regulations does it follow for each of our homes, and do the forms and reminders change with the country and type of service?
Can we watch a care worker write a daily log on a tablet, start to finish?
What happens to an entry if the internet drops or the screen locks halfway through?
After a restraint is recorded, what does the system do next, and who is told if a step is missed?
Which records does one incident entry fill?
Can records be opened on a personal phone or a home computer? Can we stop that?
How do staff sign their entries? Can a colleague sign for them?
Can anyone, including a manager, delete a record? What does the audit trail show?
How do we give an Ofsted inspector or Reg 44 independent person access, and when does it end?
Where is our data hosted, who are the sub-processors, and will you send us the data processing agreement and DPIA before we sign?
Which reports are ready-made, and how do we build our own?
What support is there at night and at weekends, when our homes are working?
Is training included, and is there a practice area with example data?
How do we export every record, in what format, and what happens to our records if you close or we leave?
What is the full price for our homes over three years, in writing?

Moving systems without putting children’s care at risk

Switching systems is a project, not a weekend job. A few things make it safer:

Ask both suppliers early what can be moved. Your current supplier decides what can be exported. Find out before you give notice.
Keep the old records readable. Whatever is not moved still has to be kept for the full retention period and produced for an inspector or a care leaver’s request.
Start with one home. A pilot home finds the problems before every home depends on the new system.
Train everyone before the switch, including bank staff and night staff, with time to practise on example data.
Pick a clear start date and don’t run two systems side by side for long, or records end up split between them.
Tell your Reg 44 independent person so the next visit is not spent learning a new screen.

Mistakes to avoid

Choosing on the demonstration alone, without staff trying it on a real shift.
Buying the cheapest per-home price and paying later for training, modules and exports.
Leaving out the people who will use it every day.
Signing without reading how you would get your records back.
Using a system built for adult care and working around the forms.

Where Precinct Care fits

We built Precinct Care, our children’s home software, with sister company Precinct Software Ltd, after gathering what care staff, managers, inspectors and care leavers say publicly about the systems in use today. We found 26 recurring problems, and much of this guide comes from that work.

Precinct Care opens only on devices the provider owns and has registered. Staff can speak their daily logs instead of typing and sign them with their face, and recording carries on offline. One incident entry fills every record it needs and sets the regulation 35 steps. Ofsted inspectors and Reg 44 independent persons get read-only, time-limited access. Records are hosted in the UK, and every provider gets a data processing agreement and a ready-made DPIA. It is priced per home, per month, with a fixed price in writing before anything starts.

Precinct Care is in final development, and we are taking a small number of pilot homes. Book a demonstration and bring the questions above.

Common questions

What is children’s home software?

Children’s home software, sometimes called children’s home management software or residential childcare software, is a system for keeping a children’s home’s records: young people’s files, daily logs, incidents, safeguarding, plans, medication, Reg 44 and Reg 45, and often staff rotas, training and timesheets. It replaces paper logs, spreadsheets and shared drives.

Is digital record keeping allowed in children’s homes?

Yes. The regulations say what must be recorded and for how long, not that it must be on paper. Records must be signed and dated, kept securely and available to inspectors.

Can we use adult care home software in a children’s home?

You can, but you will be working around it. Adult care systems are built for CQC and adult care plans, not the Children’s Homes Regulations, the Quality Standards, Reg 44 visits or missing from care.

How long does it take to change systems?

It depends on how many homes you run and what can be moved from your current system. Starting with one home, and training staff before the switch, is safer than moving every home at once.

Does the same software work for supported accommodation?

Some systems run children’s homes and supported accommodation side by side. Check that supported accommodation uses its own words and forms, built around support plans, pathway plans and the four quality standards.

Sources

The Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 (legislation.gov.uk)
Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations including the quality standards (Department for Education)
Social care common inspection framework (SCCIF): children’s homes (Ofsted)
The Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations 2023 (legislation.gov.uk)
UK GDPR guidance and resources (ICO)

This guide covers children’s homes in England, with notes for Scotland and Wales. It is not legal advice.

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Choosing Children's Home Software: A UK Buyer's Guide