Domiciliary care and supported living are often lumped together as 'community care', and many software products are sold for both. But the two services work differently, are commissioned differently and are inspected for different things, so the system that suits one can be a poor fit for the other. This guide explains what each type of service needs from software, what electronic call monitoring is and when commissioners ask for it, and how to choose if you run both.
The short answer
Domiciliary care software is built around visits: a schedule of short calls, rostering with travel between them, and electronic call monitoring to prove each visit happened and how long it lasted. Supported living software is built around the person and their tenancy: longer blocks of support, shared and one-to-one hours delivered against a funded package, and records that show choice, control and progress towards goals. If you only provide home care visits, buy for rostering and call monitoring. If you provide supported living, buy for support plans, hours against packages, behaviour support and the evidence CQC looks for in learning disability and autism services. If you do both, check that one system genuinely handles both models rather than forcing supported living into visits.
How the two services differ
| Domiciliary care | Supported living | |
|---|---|---|
| Unit of support | A visit, often 15 to 60 minutes | Hours of support, often in long blocks, sometimes 24-hour |
| Where staff are | Travelling between many homes | Based in one house or scheme for a shift |
| Main operational risk | Missed or late calls | Hours not delivered as funded, restrictive practice, placement breakdown |
| How funding is evidenced | Visit times, often by electronic call monitoring | Hours delivered against the commissioned package, including shared hours |
| What CQC focuses on | Reliability, safe care, medicines, staffing | Choice and control, least restrictive practice, Right support, right care, right culture |
| Typical records | Visit notes, tasks, medicines, body maps | Support plans, PBS plans, ABC charts, goals, communication passports, tenancy and finances support |
What domiciliary care software needs
- Rostering with travel. Scheduling calls across carers, with realistic travel times between visits and alerts for clashes or gaps.
- Electronic call monitoring. Recording when each carer arrives and leaves.
- Missed and late call alerts. So the office knows within minutes, not the next day.
- Visit notes and tasks on a phone, with medicines recorded at the visit.
- Invoicing and payroll inputs based on actual visit times, including travel time for pay.
What is electronic call monitoring?
Electronic call monitoring, usually called ECM, records the time a care worker arrives at and leaves a person's home. Older systems used a free phone call from the person's landline. Most now use the carer's phone, checking in with GPS location or by tapping an NFC tag or reading a QR code fixed in the home.
Many local authorities require ECM from the home care providers they commission, and some pay providers on the basis of the monitored times rather than the planned ones. Before you choose a system, check what your commissioners require: some specify the method, some want data in a particular format, and some use their own system that providers must log into.
ECM has limits. It proves a carer was there, not that the care was good. Commissioners and providers have also been criticised for using minute-by-minute monitoring in ways that push carers to rush. Use it to spot missed and late calls and to pay staff and invoice accurately, not as a substitute for supervision.
Care monitoring systems in homes and supported living
'Care monitoring' also describes systems that have nothing to do with visit times: acoustic monitoring that alerts night staff to unusual sounds, sensor mats and door sensors, and digital night checks. In a care home or supported living service, these can reduce unnecessary disturbance at night and catch falls or seizures sooner. They are also a potential restriction on privacy, so each use needs to be assessed for the individual, agreed with the person or made as a best-interests decision, and reviewed. Our guide to restrictive practice covers how to record that.
What supported living software needs
- Support against the funded package. Delivered hours recorded and totalled against commissioned hours, including shared hours across a house and one-to-one hours for an individual.
- Tenancy-aware records. The person is a tenant in their own home, not a resident, and the record should reflect their choices and their life.
- Positive behaviour support. PBS plans linked to ABC charts and daily logs, so the plan can be reviewed against what actually happens.
- Communication and easy-read. Communication passports, easy-read plans and health action plans.
- Restrictive practice records, counted and reviewed.
- Goals and outcomes, because commissioners and families increasingly ask what has changed in someone's life.
- Multi-funder invoicing, for packages split between the local authority, the NHS and personal contributions.
Our supported living software page goes through each of these.
Why visit-based software struggles in supported living
When a supported living service is run on domiciliary care software, the same problems appear. Long shifts are chopped into artificial 'visits'. Shared hours across a house cannot be shown properly. There is nowhere sensible for a PBS plan or ABC chart, so they live in a folder. The evidence of choice and control that CQC looks for is not captured as part of the daily record. And when the commissioner asks whether funded hours were delivered, the answer comes from a spreadsheet kept alongside the system. Our guide to fee negotiation using your own data shows why that matters.
Why care home software struggles in domiciliary care
The reverse is also true. Software built for a care home assumes everyone is in one building on one shift pattern. It usually has no rostering with travel, no electronic call monitoring and no missed-call alerts, which are the core of running home care. A domiciliary agency should not choose a care home system unless it has a genuine home care module.
If you run both
Many providers run home care and supported living, sometimes alongside registered care homes. A single system is attractive, but check honestly that it handles each model properly. Ask the supplier to demonstrate:
- a home care run with travel, ECM and a missed call alert;
- a supported living house with shared hours and two people on one-to-one, showing delivered hours against each package;
- a PBS plan linked to ABC data;
- an invoice for a person with split funding.
If one of those is weak, it is better to know before you sign. Some providers choose a specialist system for each service and accept two logins, because forcing one model into the other costs more in workarounds.
Where Kiwi fits
Kiwi is built for care homes and supported living, especially learning disability, autism and mental health services. It records support against funded hours, links PBS plans to ABC charts, and handles multi-funder invoicing. It does not provide domiciliary rostering with travel or electronic call monitoring, so a home care agency running short visits would need a system built for that. We would rather say so than sell you the wrong thing.
Worked example: a provider with both
A provider runs a home care branch with 60 clients and a supported living service for 14 people with learning disabilities. Both were on the same visit-based system. The supported living manager kept a spreadsheet of delivered hours for the council, the PBS plans were PDFs, and an annual review found that one person's funded one-to-one hours had been under-delivered for months without anyone noticing.
The provider kept the visit-based system for home care, where ECM worked well, and moved supported living to a system built around tenancies and packages. Delivered hours became a report rather than a spreadsheet, PBS plans were linked to ABC charts, and the next funding review used the provider's own data to secure an increase for one person whose needs had grown.
Common mistakes
- Choosing a system on the strength of one service and forcing the other into it.
- Not checking what ECM method and data format the council requires.
- Using ECM data as a performance stick rather than a safety and payroll tool.
- Recording supported living as visits, so shared hours disappear.
- Keeping PBS plans and ABC charts outside the system.
- Using monitoring sensors without an individual assessment and review.
What good looks like
In the home care branch, the office sees a missed call within minutes, carers are paid for their travel time, and invoices match monitored visits. In supported living, the manager can show delivered hours against each package for any month, PBS plans are reviewed against real ABC data, and the record shows people making choices about their own lives. If you run supported living or a care home and want to see how this looks, book a demo.
Final conclusion
Domiciliary care and supported living both happen in people's own homes, but they are different services with different software needs. Home care runs on visits, rostering and call monitoring. Supported living runs on people, packages and positive behaviour support. Choose a system that fits the service you actually provide, test it with real scenarios, and do not let a single-system sales pitch push one model into the shape of the other.
Frequently asked
What is domiciliary care software?
Software for home care agencies that schedules visits with travel between them, records visit notes and medicines on carers' phones, monitors when visits start and finish, alerts the office to missed or late calls, and feeds invoicing and payroll.
What is electronic call monitoring in home care?
Electronic call monitoring records when a care worker arrives at and leaves a person's home, using the carer's phone with GPS, an NFC tag or a QR code, or in older systems a call from the landline. Many councils require it from commissioned home care providers.
Do supported living providers need electronic call monitoring?
Not usually in the same way. Supported living is commissioned in hours of support, often shared across a house, so the important evidence is delivered hours against the funded package rather than individual visit times. Check your commissioner's requirements.
Can one system handle home care and supported living?
Some can, but test it with real scenarios for both: a home care run with travel and call monitoring, and a supported living house with shared and one-to-one hours. If either is weak, separate specialist systems may work better.
Is acoustic monitoring a restrictive practice?
It can be, because it affects privacy. Each use should be assessed for the individual, agreed with the person or made as a best-interests decision if they lack capacity, recorded, and reviewed.
Does Kiwi do domiciliary care rostering?
No. Kiwi is built for care homes and supported living. It does not provide home care rostering with travel or electronic call monitoring.
Sources
- CQC: Right support, right care, right culture
- CQC: guidance on registering and inspecting supported living services
- Local Government Association and ADASS: guidance on commissioning home care
- NICE guideline NG21 Home care: delivering personal care and practical support to older people living in their own homes
- Homecare Association: guidance on electronic call monitoring
