Set up programmes, facilities and beds
Before anyone can be admitted, set up four things, in this order:
Example used on this page: James Cole sets up Sunrise Care Trust's two homes: Sunrise North House (children) and Sunrise Elm Lodge (older people).
Step 1: create the business units
Where: Organization → Business units. Who: users who manage business units, usually an administrator.
Each home must be its own business unit of type Care facility. A parent unit for the organisation is optional, and Care ignores it.
| Business unit | Type | Becomes a facility? |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise Care Trust | Head office | No. It only groups the homes. |
| Sunrise North House | Care facility | Yes |
| Sunrise Elm Lodge | Care facility | Yes |
- Select Add Business Unit, enter the Code (for example
SUN-NORTH) and the Name (Sunrise North House). - Set Type to Care Facility. To group the homes, choose
Sunrise Care Trustas the Parent Business Unit. - Make sure Active is ticked, and save.
- Repeat for Sunrise Elm Lodge.
Select the Edit (pencil) button on its row, change Type to Care Facility and save. You don't need to recreate it.
Step 2: give staff access to each home
Where: Admin panel → User business unit access. Who: a super administrator, or another
user with user.business-unit.assign. Changing an administrator's access also needs admin.update.
Access is given per home and per user. Nobody gets access automatically, not even the person who created the unit, and access to the parent unit does not carry down to the homes.
| User | Grant | Why |
|---|---|---|
| James Cole (manager) | North House and Elm Lodge: Allowed | Works across both homes |
| Sara Ahmed (keyworker) | North House: Allowed | Works only at North House |
| Tom Reid (nurse) | Elm Lodge: Allowed | Works only at Elm Lodge |
- Choose the user.
- Tick the homes, choose Allowed, and save.
- Ask the user to select Refresh access, or to sign out and back in.
Without this step, saving anything in that home fails with "Access denied. The required permission or capability is unavailable", including adding the facility itself.
Step 3: create programmes
Where: Care → Programmes. Who: care.programme.manage.
A programme is a type of care. Programmes belong to the whole organisation, not to one home, so one "Children residential care" programme serves every children's home. You choose the home when you admit someone.
- Search first, so you don't create a duplicate.
- Fill in the form:
| Field | What to enter | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Code | A short unique code. Stored in capitals; cannot be changed later. | CHILD-RES |
| Name | The name staff will see | Children residential care |
| Type | Children residential, Elderly residential, Shelter, Family support, Day care or Community outreach | Child residential |
| Minimum age / Maximum age | Optional age guidance in years | 0 and 18 |
| Description | Optional | Long-term residential care for children |
| Residential (uses admissions and beds) | Tick for programmes where people live in. Untick for community programmes, which use enrolments. | Ticked |
| Active | Untick to stop new use without losing history | Ticked |
- Select Save programme. To change a programme later, select Edit on its row. The code stays locked.
Example programmes for Sunrise:
| Code | Name | Type | Ages | Residential |
|---|---|---|---|---|
CHILD-RES | Children residential care | Child residential | 0–18 | Yes |
ELDER-RES | Elderly residential care | Elderly residential | 60+ | Yes |
DAY-CARE | Day centre | Day care | 60+ | No (enrolments) |
Admitting someone outside a programme's age range shows a warning, but the admission is still allowed. For children, the programme's maximum age also feeds the leaving-care date.
The system refuses when:
| Message | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Programme code already exists | Use the existing programme, or choose another code. |
| Programme code is immutable | Codes cannot be changed after saving. |
| Minimum age cannot exceed maximum age | Swap the two values. |
| Programme is inactive (when admitting) | Reactivate it under Programmes, or choose another. |
Step 4: add each facility
Where: Care → Facilities → Add facility. Who: care.facility.manage and access
to that home's business unit (step 2).
The Business unit list offers only units that are:
- of type Care Facility,
- active, and
- without a facility already.
If the list says "No unused active Care Facility business units are available", check those three things.
| Field | What to enter | Example (North House) | Example (Elm Lodge) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business unit | The home. Cannot be changed later. | Sunrise North House (SUN-NORTH) | Sunrise Elm Lodge (SUN-ELM) |
| Facility type | Children's home, Orphanage, Elderly home, Nursing home, Shelter or Day centre | Children home | Elderly home |
| Registered capacity | The number of places on your registration. Used for occupancy figures and the "over capacity" warning. | 12 | 20 |
| Gender policy | Mixed, Male only or Female only. Admitting someone who doesn't match shows a warning. | Mixed | Mixed |
| Minimum age / Maximum age | Optional; warns at admission | 0 / 18 | 60 / (empty) |
| Licence number, Licensing authority | Optional registration details | RC-0042, County Council | RC-0077, County Council |
| Licence expiry | Optional. After this date, every admission warns that the licence has expired. | 31/03/2027 | 30/09/2027 |
| Time zone | The home's local time zone. Medication times use it. | Europe/London | Europe/London |
Select Add facility. The facility appears in the list, showing its type, capacity, gender policy, licence expiry and status.
The form may suggest your computer's time zone. Medicine rounds use the facility's zone, so a wrong
zone shifts every dose time. A facility saved without a zone uses UTC. "Unknown time zone" means the
name is misspelt; use a name such as Europe/London, Asia/Karachi or America/New_York.
There is no edit screen for a facility after it's added, so check every field before saving. Ask your system administrator if a detail needs correcting.
Step 5: add locations and beds
Where: Care → Facilities → select the home → Locations. Who: care.facility.manage.
Locations describe the building, down to the individual beds. Residents are placed in beds, so a facility needs at least one bed before anyone can be given one.
How locations nest
There are four levels. Each location must sit under a location of a higher level in the same home:
You may skip levels. Some valid layouts:
| Layout | When to use it |
|---|---|
| Building → Wing → Room → Bed | Large homes with floors or wings |
| Building → Room → Bed | Small homes |
| Building → Bed | Dormitory-style homes, with no separate rooms |
The system refuses a lower level above a higher one, for example a room inside a bed: "A ROOM cannot be placed under a BED".
Add a location
| Field | What to enter | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Building, Wing, Room or Bed | Room |
| Inside | The parent location. Leave empty for a building. | Wing · First floor |
| Code | A short code, unique within this home. The same code can exist in the other home. | R3 |
| Name | What staff will see | Room 3 |
| Beds in room | Rooms only: the most beds the room may hold | 2 |
| Accessibility | Optional notes | Ground-floor access, wet room |
Select Add location, then repeat.
Worked example: Sunrise North House
| Order | Type | Inside | Code | Name | Beds in room |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Building | (none) | MAIN | Main House | |
| 2 | Wing | Main House | F1 | First floor | |
| 3 | Room | First floor | R3 | Room 3 | 2 |
| 4 | Bed | Room 3 | 3A | Bed 3A | |
| 5 | Bed | Room 3 | 3B | Bed 3B | |
| 6 | Bed | Room 3 | 3C | Bed 3C | refused: "Room capacity reached: R3" |
Take a bed out of service and back
In the Locations table, use Take … out of service, for example while a room is redecorated, and Return … to service afterwards.
| Bed status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Available | Can receive a resident |
| Out of service | Cannot be used |
| Reserved | Held; nobody can be placed in it |
An occupied bed cannot be taken out of service: "An occupied bed cannot be taken out of service; move first". Move the resident to another bed first (see Move bed).
Locations cannot be renamed, moved or deleted from the screen, and a location's type can never change. Plan the layout before you enter it.
The bed board
Where: Care → Facilities → select the home → Bed board. Who: care.census.view.
The bed board is the live picture of one home:
8 of 10 beds occupied · 1 available · 1 out of service · 9 residents (capacity 12) · 1 on leave
1 resident(s) recorded as missing.
Each bed is listed by its full path, for example "Main House › First floor › Room 3 › 3A", with the resident's name. If you may not see that person, it shows Occupied (restricted).
| Figure | Counted from |
|---|---|
| Beds occupied, available, out of service | Bed locations and their current placements |
| Residents | Live admissions, including people without a bed |
| Capacity | The facility's registered capacity, not the number of beds |
| On leave, missing | Open absences |
Example: Elm Lodge shows "18 of 18 beds occupied · 20 residents". Two residents were admitted without a bed. Give them beds with Move bed on their admissions, or add beds.
Visitor log
The facility page also has a Visitor log. Choose a Day to see every visit recorded at this home on that day. Visits are recorded on each person's profile; see Visits.
Setup checklist
- Each home is an active business unit of type Care Facility.
- Every member of staff has Allowed access to the homes they work in.
- Programmes exist, with residential ticked only for live-in care.
- Each home has a facility with the correct capacity and time zone.
- Each home has buildings, rooms and beds; the bed board shows the expected beds.
- Optional: incident notification rules (Incidents), assessment templates (Assessments) and retention policies (Retention). None of these are provided ready-made.