Resources
The UK care-operations library.
Honest comparisons, free tools, and primary-source-cited guides for the people running UK home care. No fluff, no gated PDFs — the best answer we can write for each question, free to read.
Search is coming as the library grows.
Comparisons
Honest, side-by-side breakdowns of UK care-management tools — scope, price, and what actually differs.
VircareOS vs Birdie: an honest comparison (2026)
A fair, side-by-side comparison of VircareOS and Birdie for UK home care agencies — pricing, how you buy, features, where each is stronger, and who should choose which.
Read the comparisonVircareOS vs CarePlanner: an honest comparison (2026)
A fair, side-by-side comparison of VircareOS and CarePlanner for UK home care agencies — pricing, how you buy, finance, compliance, ownership, and who should choose which.
Read the comparisonVircareOS vs OnCare: an honest comparison (2026)
A fair, side-by-side comparison of VircareOS and OnCare for UK home care agencies — both prize affordability and ease of use, so this looks at price transparency, what each is built around, and who should choose which.
Read the comparisonTools
Free interactive calculators and checkers built for UK domiciliary care operations.
True Cost of Care Calculator (UK, 2026/27)
A free, in-browser calculator for your true cost per contact (care) hour once on-costs (employer NI, pension, holiday pay, travel and overheads) are included, with a National Minimum Wage travel-time risk check. Nothing is stored or sent anywhere.
Open the toolCQC Readiness Self-Check (free, in-browser)
A free, ungated self-check for UK domiciliary agencies: 19 questions across CQC's five key questions, an instant readiness picture with a prioritised gap list linking to resources that help close each gap. Nothing stored or sent anywhere; a self-reflection tool, not a CQC assessment.
Open the toolGuides
Practical, primary-source-cited walkthroughs of the work — CQC, care planning, safeguarding, rostering.
How to write a CQC-defensible care plan (2026)
A practical guide, written with a working carer, to care plans that stand up to a CQC inspection in 2026 — what 'defensible' means under the Single Assessment Framework, why scripting carers backfires, and a checklist tied to the five key questions.
Read the guideSwitching to VircareOS: how to move your agency’s data (2026)
A practical guide to moving your agency onto VircareOS with the built-in Migration Assistant: what imports into live records (clients, carers, visits, incidents), what is preserved for your review instead (medications, care plans), how the dry run, review, reconciliation and rollback work, and a step-by-step switching checklist.
Read the guideComing soonHow to start a domiciliary care agency in the UK (2026)
A practical, primary-source-cited guide to starting a UK home care agency — business set-up, CQC registration and the registered manager, the policies you need, insurance, DBS-checking carers, choosing systems, winning your first local-authority and private clients, realistic cost ranges, and a printable starter checklist.
Read the guideTemplates
Ready-to-use, CQC-aware templates you can adapt — care plans, risk assessments, audits.
Free care plan template for domiciliary care (2026)
A free, editable care plan template for UK home care, built on our CQC-defensible checklist: person-centred sections, an explicit latitude statement, and a fixed-boundaries vs judgement-space split. Download as Word, no email required.
Get the templateFree falls risk assessment template for domiciliary care (2026)
A free, editable falls risk assessment template for UK home care: a structured multifactorial prompt set completed with professional judgement, with the home environment and lone-working post-fall plan as first-class sections. No scoring system, no thresholds. Download as Word, no email required.
Get the templateGlossary
Plain-English definitions of UK social-care terms, regulations, and acronyms.
What is domiciliary care?
A plain-English, operations-focused explanation of domiciliary (home) care: what it includes, how it differs from residential and nursing care, who provides it, how it is regulated across the UK, and what an agency actually does day to day.
Browse the glossaryWhat is a MAR chart?
A plain-English, operations-focused explanation of MAR charts (Medication Administration Records): what they record, how they work in domiciliary care, paper vs electronic (eMAR), the recording errors inspectors flag, and what CQC expects.
Browse the glossaryWhat is the CQC Single Assessment Framework?
A plain-English, operations-focused explanation of the CQC Single Assessment Framework (SAF): what replaced the KLOEs in late 2023, quality statements and evidence categories, continuous assessment, and what it means for a domiciliary agency in practice.
Browse the glossary
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