What does a good rota look like in the care sector?

The care sector is notoriously underfunded which of course brings its difficulties, not least of which is staffing.

Residents in care homes need round the clock care and a wide variety of staff to look after their needs – nursing, cleaning, laundry and catering – all working different hours and shift patterns.

As a result, non-typical working hours and plenty of part-time and zero-hours contracts make things complicated. Keeping track of hours worked is a tricky balance but then you don’t need us to tell you that. Spreadsheets and post-it notes aren’t going to cut it.

Our mission is to alleviate the stress of doing rota administration duties so read on for our top 3 nuggets of advice to help you plan the rotas in your care home.

Let’s start with the basics:

1. The staffing allocation must cover the basic needs of the residents in your care. That includes staff across the different areas of work – nursing, cleaning and catering. Even when there are staff absences these needs still need to be met.
2. The rota needs to reflect a good range of skills which means you need the right mix of experienced staff on each shift that work well together. If they don’t pull together as a team then the level of care may be compromised. Always make sure your teams are carefully planned to ensure certain staff members aren’t overworked.
3. A live rota in the care sector is a legally binding document and needs to evidence who has worked on any given day, so it’s key that the right people are in place. Now here’s the really good part. Using online rota software can make your admin burden (i.e. these 3 things above) a thing of the past, leaving you more precious time to manage the things that really matter – the care of your residents and the wellbeing of your staff.

And with benefits like these;

• Easy to monitor hours worked based on individual contracts so that you can track, plan and evidence that staff are working the right hours.
• Better control of the rota – no more over or understaffing and the function to swap shifts really easily
• More accurate pay
• No more spreadsheets!
• A compliant, balanced and accurate rota, communicated to staff at the touch of a button and in plenty of time

Who wouldn’t want to make the most of them? Of course, getting started may take a bit of time upfront, but the time you’ll save later, alongside the other benefits will make it all worthwhile.