Policies & Procedures (Add-on) 📚

Policies and procedures are essential for any care agency. When you go through your CQC application or inspection, you are required to have policies and procedures in place that are customised to your branding and tailored to your business, whether that is domiciliary care, supported living, or care homes. Without them, you cannot operate compliantly.

You have two options for managing policies and procedures in OnCare:

Option 1: Use your own policies. If you already have policies in place, whether you built them yourself or paid a consultant to create them, you can upload them to the Agency Details and Documents tab inside Settings. Your documents will be stored as files that staff can click on and read, similar to a scanned document. However, you will not have access to the advanced features that come with the Policies and Procedures add-on, such as e-signature tracking, version control, editing within the system, or automatic compliance updates.

Option 2: Use the OnCare Policies and Procedures add-on. This is a paid add-on that gives you access to a comprehensive library of professionally written, CQC-compliant policies and procedures. OnCare works with a third-party compliance partner with over 20 years of experience in the care sector who writes and maintains all the policies to ensure they remain up to date with current regulations. OnCare provides the technology around it, which is why this is offered as an add-on.

There is a six-month minimum commitment on the Policies and Procedures add-on when you are on a monthly rolling contract.

CQC inspectors will check that your agency has comprehensive policies and procedures in place covering all key areas of care delivery, staff management, safeguarding, data protection, and health and safety. Having well-maintained, up-to-date policies demonstrates good governance and shows inspectors that your agency takes compliance seriously.

The OnCare Policies and Procedures add-on saves you significant time and money compared to building policies yourself or hiring a consultant. All policies are pre-written, automatically customised with your agency branding, and kept compliant over time. You can see the date each policy was last updated, giving you confidence that your documents are current.

Available on the mobile app. All policies and procedures are accessible to care workers directly inside the OnCare mobile app. This is a significant advantage, as not many competitors offer this. Care workers do not need to download a separate app. Everything is embedded within the same OnCare app they already use for clock-in, visit reports, and eMAR.

Search functionality. You can search for any specific policy using the built-in search bar, making it quick to find exactly what you need.

Edit and customise. You can click on any policy, review it, and add your own text on top of it to include processes or details specific to your agency.

Version control. You can choose which version of a document your staff see on their phones, giving you control over when updated policies are rolled out.

Acknowledgement tracking. You can track which staff members have read and acknowledged each policy. This creates a timestamped record essential for CQC inspections.

Automatic compliance updates. The policies are maintained and updated by OnCare's compliance partner. When regulations change, the policies are updated accordingly.

You do not need to upload any policies yourself. When you sign up for the add-on, the policies are set up inside the system for you. If you want to add Policies and Procedures to an existing OnCare account, contact your account manager and they will enable it.

One of the first things you need to do after activation is go to Settings, scroll down to Policies and Procedures under the Policies and Procedures and Operational Forms tab, and click on Settings. Here you will see approximately 50 sections that need to be completed with information about your business. You must fill out all of these. If you try to access a policy that requires information you have not yet entered, the system will tell you to complete the missing variables. This setup can take approximately an hour but only needs to be done once.

Policies and Procedures are formal company policies published to your staff through the system. Staff can read them on the mobile app and acknowledge them with a tracked e-signature. They are maintained and kept compliant by OnCare's compliance partner.

Operational Documents are practical working forms and templates that you download as Word files, complete on your computer, and upload back to client or care worker profiles. They do not have e-signature tracking or mobile app access. Operational Documents are covered in a separate article.

The core policy text is managed by the compliance partner and cannot be deleted or replaced, ensuring policies remain compliant. You can add your own text on top. The system does not automatically notify staff when a new or updated policy is available. Office staff need to communicate policy updates to their team.

OnCare provides comprehensive policy libraries tailored to different types of care services and regulatory bodies:

Below is the complete list of policies available in each library.