Northern Ireland
Children's home software for Northern Ireland.
In Northern Ireland a children's home works with a Health and Social Care Trust, not a council, and answers to RQIA. Careframe knows that from the first day. Choose RQIA at set-up and the app talks about Trusts, monitoring visits and AccessNI checks — and follows Northern Ireland's bank holidays — without you changing a setting.
See the four nations on the homepageTrusts, not councils.
On the set-up wizard's Registration step, choose "RQIA — Northern Ireland". The number box asks for your RQIA registration number, from your certificate, and you can skip it and add it before set-up is finished. The next question is not which local authority the home is in but which Health and Social Care Trust.
The Trust carries through to the child's record. The prompt there reads "Tell RQIA and the placing Trust", and the area notification is labelled a Trust notification. Where the placing Trust is the Trust for the home's area, Careframe says so in those words.
Monitoring visits, monthly to start.
The visits row in the Care sidebar reads "Monitoring visits", and the page is titled Monthly monitoring visits. The visitor is called the registered person's representative, and the report goes to RQIA and the registered provider. Those names also fill the "Who" list when you send a report, so you are never offered a regulator that is not yours.
The rhythm starts at monthly and is worked out in calendar months. It is the home's own: change it in Care settings, or turn the tracking off. A home behind its rhythm sees amber, never red, and nothing counts as overdue.
The quality of care review starts at six-monthly, with its report going to RQIA. When it is done, Careframe adds an undated reminder to send the report out, which you can date, close or ignore.
Is care safe? Is care compassionate? Is the service well led?
The Care inspection page groups the home's records under RQIA's three questions, so the headings you work to every day are the ones on the screen. The Statement of Purpose and the Children's guide keep their names, but the Statement of Purpose question set is Northern Ireland's own, and the guide asks how a young person reaches RQIA and the children's commissioner for Northern Ireland. Careframe does not invent a phone number for either.
The person who oversees the home for the provider is the Responsible Individual, on the sign-off tick, in Messages and on the permissions grid.
AccessNI checks on the staff file.
A Northern Ireland home's default onboarding checklist names the check as "AccessNI enhanced disclosure (with barred list)". The evidence guidance, the renewal date, the candidate's declaration and the interview questions all say AccessNI, and the DBS Update Service chip does not appear. Default items carry an RQIA-standard tag. The Level 3 qualification item has neutral wording and no due date for a Northern Ireland home.
Northern Ireland's bank holidays.
The calendar and the timesheet bank-holiday check follow the Northern Ireland calendar for an RQIA home, and the Checks card in Timesheets › Settings names it. A manager can choose a different calendar there, and the change is written to the audit log.
One product, whichever nation each home is in.
Below the labels, Careframe is the same app in every nation. Staff files, rotas, timesheets, compliance and home finance to run the home. One record per child for daily logs, handover, incidents, plans and medication. A provider with homes either side of the Irish Sea sets each one to its own regulator, and the Director view lists them all together, worst first.
Inspection ready gives each home a count of gaps across twelve areas, each with who deals with it and how long it has been open — never a score. An inspector you give a pass to sees the home in RQIA's terms.
Questions people ask
Does Careframe work for children's homes regulated by RQIA?
Yes. Choose RQIA at set-up and the app uses Northern Ireland's labels: monitoring visits, Health and Social Care Trusts, AccessNI checks and RQIA's three inspection questions. The rest of the product is the same across the UK.
Does Careframe record AccessNI checks?
Yes. A Northern Ireland home's default staff checklist names the AccessNI enhanced disclosure, and the file holds its number, date and renewal. Careframe does not apply for the check on your behalf.
Can one provider run homes in Northern Ireland and Great Britain?
Yes. The regulator is chosen per home, so each home reads in its own nation's words. The Director view shows every home together; a single home cannot mix two nations.
How are monitoring visits tracked?
On their own page, with a monthly starting rhythm in calendar months that the home can change or switch off. A home behind its rhythm sees amber, never red, and the report recipients are RQIA and the registered provider.
What does Careframe cost in Northern Ireland?
The same as the rest of the UK: per home per month by beds, £129 for 1–3, £179 for 4–6 and £229 for 7–10, ex VAT. No contract, no setup fee, and free until the home is registered.
What this does not do
- Careframe is not a guide to regulation. It labels and organises the home's records in Northern Ireland's terms; the decisions stay with you.
- It does not run AccessNI checks for you. It records the check and when it is due again.
- The regulator is set once at set-up and cannot be changed from inside the app afterwards. A home cannot mix nations or set a regulator per child.
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See it on your own home's shape.
A short demo, with a straight answer about what is built and what is not.