Homecare is being asked to do more with less
Homecare providers are delivering more visits, over wider areas, on tighter margins than ever. Commissioners want more data, CQC expects you to evidence quality against its assessment framework, and NHS England’s direction of travel is clear: every provider on an assured digital social care record. All of that puts your homecare software under the spotlight.
Yet many providers pay a premium for homecare software that only does part of the job, then fill the gaps with spreadsheets, paper and workarounds. This blog looks at how Builda’s no-code platform helps providers cut that cost, simplify day-to-day running and stay inspection-ready, with examples from organisations already doing it.
The hidden cost of working around your software
Off-the-shelf care software is built for the average provider. If you run several service lines, cover rural rounds or report to more than one Integrated Care Board (ICB[LH1] ) or local authority, you will know exactly where it stops fitting.
The result is familiar: a care planning system, a separate rostering tool, an HR system, a training spreadsheet, incident forms on paper, and someone in the office re-keying data between them. Every extra system is another licence, another login and another place for evidence to go missing before an inspection.
Workarounds never appear in a budget, but they are expensive in practice. They cost hours your registered managers could spend on supervision, quality and the people you support. And when the software needs to change, that usually means a change request, a day rate and a wait.
Five ways Builda helps homecare providers
1. Spend around 60% less on systems
Builda replaces costly, restrictive or disconnected software with one flexible platform, built around how your service actually runs. Supportive SRC, a County Durham care, patient transport and ambulance charity, cut its annual platform cost from £120,000 to £40,000. That is around £80,000 saved every year, and for a national homecare brand, a saving like that repeats in every branch.
2. Put the money back into care
£80,000 a year is not just a smaller line in the budget. It is front-line capacity: more care hours, better support for carers, and more investment in training and quality. In a sector where recruitment and retention never stop being a challenge, that matters.
3. Simplify day-to-day running
Builda brings rostering, staff records, training and competency, absence, incidents, complaints and audits into one system with one login. Visits spread across rural areas, several service lines and reporting to more than one ICB all become easier to manage when the information sits in one place.
Dashboards and automated reports mean less time pulling figures together for commissioners. Every system is fully responsive, so carers can record information on a phone or tablet in the field. And when your service changes, your team can add a field, change a workflow or build something new in-house, without waiting on a supplier.
4. Retain CQC rating
For Good and Outstanding providers, the risk is rarely the care itself. It is evidence scattered across paper, spreadsheets and separate systems when an inspector asks for it. With audits, incidents, safeguarding, complaints and training records in one place, each with a full audit trail, you can show evidence against the quality statements quickly. Digital compliance becomes a strength rather than a risk.
5. Protect your NHS future
NHS England wants every CQC-registered provider using an assured digital social care record, and commissioners increasingly expect it. Providers without a clear route face real commercial and contract risk ahead of 2029. Builda is actively working towards a place on the NHS Assured Solutions List for digital social care records, giving providers a clear route forward on a platform they control.
Proven in health and social care
Supportive SRC: annual platform cost cut by 67%
This County Durham care, patient transport and ambulance charity replaced a market-leading accredited platform with Builda’s homecare software solution. Its annual platform cost fell from £120,000 to £40,000, freeing around £80,000 a year for front-line services.
Durham County Council Care Connect: invoicing from four weeks to near-instant
Care Connect uses Builda for case management across more than 11,000 customers. It went live in three months, and invoice calculations that once took a four-week manual cycle are now near-instant.
Aura Infection Control: five systems to one
Aura brought CRM, orders, stock, service desk, scheduling and invoicing into one homecare software platform with one login. The system supports rapid growth, provides batch traceability for NHS supply and pushes invoices straight to Xero.
“Partnering with Builda has been transformative. Staff now work within a single, integrated homecare software system rather than multiple disconnected platforms, giving us more streamlined processes, faster turnaround times for customers, and a noticeable reduction in human error.” Laura Edgar, Managing Director, Aura Infection Control
Nacro: from fewer than 400 incidents reported to over 3,000
Nacro opened incident reporting to frontline staff. Reported incidents rose from fewer than 400 to more than 3,000 in the first year. In safeguarding services, under-reporting is the risk, not the incident count, and CQC looks for exactly this kind of open reporting culture.
Twenty years of NHS change
Builda has supported systems for patient data, clinical operations and regulatory reporting across multiple NHS hospitals and trusts. They have come through mergers, reorganisations and changes of leadership, and are still live today.
Secure, assured and quick to get started
Care records are among the most sensitive data there is, so security is built in from the start. Builda’s homecare software solution is hosted in the UK on Azure with a UK failover site. It holds ISO 27001, ISO 9001, Cyber Essentials and IASME, with CHECK-accredited penetration testing. Cyber Essentials Plus and ISO/IEC 42001 are in progress.
You are never locked in. Your data can be exported at any time to CSV, Excel, SQL views or via REST API, with guaranteed erasure at the end of a contract. Unlimited UK-based support is included in the licence, and AI features are governed by a documented AI policy and can be switched off entirely.
Getting started does not mean a long project. Builda’s Quick Start Solutions cover rostering, HR, absence, training and competency, risk, complaints, GDPR and RIDDOR. They are pre-configured, running in days and editable from day one. A tailored quotation follows within a week of your first conversation with our team. Councils and NHS bodies can also buy directly through G-Cloud 15, without a full tender.
Spend less on systems and keep your NHS future secure
If your team is juggling several systems, paying too much for software that does not fit, or worried about evidence ahead of your next inspection, we would like to show you what Builda could do for your service.
Book a demo or call us on +44 (0)1325 375 930.
Frequently asked questions
How can homecare providers prepare evidence for a CQC inspection?
The most effective preparation is keeping audits, incidents, safeguarding, complaints and training records in one system, so evidence can be produced against each quality statement in CQC’s Single Assessment Framework as soon as an inspector asks. Builda brings these records into a single homecare software platform with a full audit trail on every entry. This removes the risk of evidence being scattered across paper, spreadsheets and separate systems, which is often where Good and Outstanding providers are most exposed.
Do homecare providers need a digital social care record?
NHS England wants every CQC-registered provider using an assured digital social care record, and commissioners increasingly expect it. Providers without a clear route face growing commercial and contract risk ahead of 2029. Builda is actively working towards a place on the NHS Assured Solutions List for digital social care records, giving homecare providers a route forward on a homecare software solution they control and can adapt in-house.
How can homecare providers reduce their software costs?
The biggest saving usually comes from replacing several separate licences, such as rostering, HR, training and incident tools, with one flexible homecare software platform. Supportive SRC, a County Durham care, patient transport and ambulance charity, cut its annual platform cost from £120,000 to £40,000 after replacing a market-leading accredited homecare software platform with Builda. That freed around £80,000 a year for care hours, carer support and training, and for multi-branch providers a saving like that repeats in every branch.
Can one system manage rostering, HR, training and compliance for a homecare provider?
Yes. Builda brings rostering, staff records, training and competency, absence, incidents, complaints and audits into one system with one login. It is fully responsive, so carers can record information on a phone or tablet during visits, and dashboards produce commissioner reports automatically. Providers running several service lines, rural rounds or reporting to more than one ICB or local authority can adapt fields and workflows themselves, without a change request or day rate.
How secure is Builda for care records, and how quickly can a provider get started?
Builda is hosted in the UK on Microsoft Azure with a UK failover site, holds ISO 27001, ISO 9001, Cyber Essentials and IASME, and uses CHECK-accredited penetration testing, with Cyber Essentials Plus and ISO/IEC 42001 in progress. Quick Start Solutions covering rostering, HR, absence, training, risk, complaints, GDPR and RIDDOR are pre-configured and running in days. A tailored quotation follows within a week of the first conversation, and data can be exported at any time with no lock-in.
