Guides  ·  Exhale Care Solution

How to prove care staff attended a visit

Short answer

A visit is proven when the record shows who was there, where, when, and what was done, and that record was made at the time rather than written up later. A clock in tied to the client's location, timed care notes, and a log nobody can quietly edit afterwards will satisfy almost every commissioner and inspector.

Why a signed timesheet is not proof

A sheet signed on Friday says that somebody remembers a visit happening. It does not say when the carer arrived, how long they stayed, or what they did. When a family complains that nobody came on Tuesday, a signature is the start of an argument, not the end of one.

Commissioners know this, which is why so many contracts now ask for visit data rather than sheets. Inspectors know it too. What they want is evidence that was created during the visit.

The four things the evidence has to show

  • Who. The individual worker, not the agency. A login on their own phone does this without a signature.
  • Where. A location captured at the moment they arrived, checked against where the client lives. This is what a geofence is for.
  • When. The real arrival and departure times, stamped by the system, not typed in.
  • What. Notes on the care delivered, the medication given and anything unusual, written before they leave the house.

If any one of the four is missing, the record can be challenged. If all four are there and were captured at the time, it almost never is.

You do not need hardware in every home

The old way was a landline call from the client's phone, or a tag on the wall. Both break: the client is on the phone, the tag falls off, the carer forgets. A carer's own smartphone does the same job better. They tap once on arrival, the app records the time and the location, and the visit is on the office screen before the kettle has boiled.

No signal in the house? The tap is stored on the phone with its original time and uploads when signal returns. The carer does nothing different. How clocking in works with no signal covers this in detail.

Make the record hard to argue with

Evidence is only as good as what happens to it afterwards. Three habits matter.

  1. Nobody edits history quietly. If a time has to be corrected, the correction is recorded with who made it and why.
  2. The office sees it live. A missed visit should show up as a gap on a map that morning, not as a complaint next month.
  3. Keep it for as long as you must. How long to keep care records sets out the usual periods.

What this looks like with our software

Exhale Care Solution records the visit itself: the notes, the tasks, the medication. Exhale Time and Attendance records the presence: the clock in, the geofence check, the departure. Together they produce the four pieces of evidence without anyone filling in a form. Each is sold on its own, and each works on its own.

The product behind this guide

See it working on your own rota

Everything above is how Exhale Care Solution already works. A demo takes about twenty minutes; bring the thing you find most annoying about your current setup.

See Exhale Care Solution →
  • Care notes written at the visit, not at the weekend
  • Visits verified by location, so evidence is not a claim
  • Medication records kept as they happen
  • A family portal that stops the reassurance calls

Questions people ask alongside this one

Straight answers

It is better than nothing, but on its own it proves only that someone signed. It does not show the time, the length of the visit or who attended. Most commissioners now expect electronic visit data alongside or instead of signatures.

Some councils require visit logging on their contracts. Many now accept phone-based, location-verified clocking as that logging. Ask your commissioner what they accept before you buy anything. See our guide to alternatives to electronic call monitoring.

The visit still happened, so the manager corrects it, with the correction recorded. A good system nudges the carer when they are inside the geofence and have not clocked in, so forgetting becomes rare.

Keep reading

Related guides

Guide

Is there an alternative to electronic call monitoring?

Yes. The visit still has to be proven, but it does not have to be proven with a landline call or a tag on the wall.

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Guide

What happens if a carer has no phone signal?

Nothing changes for the carer. A properly built app records the clock in on the phone itself, with the time and the location captured at the moment of the tap, then uploads it the instant a…

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Talk it through with the people who built it

We build and host Exhale Care Solution ourselves in Liverpool. Ring us with the problem, not the product, and we will tell you honestly whether it fits.

Book a demo 0151 208 2612