What Is the Profile History and Audit Trail?
OnCare automatically logs changes made to client profiles, giving you a complete history of every modification. The profile history records who made the change, what was changed, when it happened, and what the previous value was. This runs in the background from the moment your account is created and cannot be disabled.
This feature is currently available at the client profile level. Every time someone in your agency updates a client's details, care plan, risk assessment, medication records, or any other part of their profile, that change is captured and stored. Schedule-level audit tracking (who made changes to the schedule, when, and what was changed) is coming soon but is not yet available.
Why This Matters for CQC Compliance
The Care Quality Commission expects providers to maintain accurate, contemporaneous records and to be able to demonstrate accountability for changes to care documentation. If a CQC inspector asks who changed a client's medication dosage, when it was changed, and what it was before, the profile history gives you the answer instantly. This level of transparency is difficult to achieve with paper records or systems that do not track changes.
The profile history also protects your agency and your staff. If a concern is raised about whether a care plan was updated or a risk assessment was reviewed, you can show exactly when those changes were made and by whom. This is invaluable during inspections, complaints investigations, and safeguarding reviews.
What Gets Tracked
The profile history tracks all changes made to client profiles. This includes updates to personal details, care plans, risk assessments, medication records, contact information, and any other fields on the client's record. Every change is logged with the name of the person who made it, the date and time, the field that was changed, the previous value, and the new value.
In addition to profile-level tracking, OnCare also records certain visit-level changes. If an office staff member edits the check-in or check-out time on a visit report, this is tracked. You can view the edit history by going to the visit report, clicking on the Alerts tab, and selecting Report Edits and then View Edit History. This shows you who changed the check-in or check-out time and what the original and updated times were.
Similarly, when an office staff member resolves an alert, the resolution is recorded with the name of the staff member, the date and time, and the comment they added. This appears both in the visit report and in the resolved section of the Alerts Dashboard.
How to View Profile History
To view the profile history for a client, go to the client's profile. The Profile History is located as the third tab from the top on the right side of the client's profile page, positioned below the Friends and Family section and above the Communication Log. Click on it to see the full change history for that client, with the most recent changes shown first.
Who Can Access Audit Information
Access to profile history is available to office staff through the web dashboard. Care workers using the mobile app do not have access to the profile history or change history. This ensures that detailed change logs remain visible only to those who need them for governance and compliance purposes.
Using the Audit Trail for Investigations
When an incident occurs, whether it is a safeguarding concern, a complaint from a client's family, or an internal disciplinary matter, the profile history and visit edit records become important tools. You can trace exactly what was on a client's care plan at a specific point in time, whether medication records were updated, when risk assessments were last reviewed, and who was responsible for each change. Combined with the alert resolution records and visit report edit histories, this gives you a comprehensive picture of what happened and when.
What the Profile History Cannot Do
The profile history currently tracks changes at the client profile level only. It does not yet track who made changes to the schedule, though this feature is coming soon. Data in OnCare is retained and cannot be permanently deleted. Client and care worker profiles can only be archived, not deleted, which means the data and its full change history are always preserved. OnCare retains data for eight years in line with recommended data retention practices for care agencies.