For care groups running homecare and care homes
The 6:45am phone-round,gone.
A carer rings in sick for a morning visit or a night shift. Your coordinator texts us the gap. We ring the right people one by one, carers, bank and part-timers, the first yes gets it, and everyone is confirmed by text. Across every service you run, alongside the systems you already use. No client data.
06:50 no answer, calling Dan
06:52 calling Priya
What the phone-round costs across your group
Move the sliders to a typical week across all your services. The maths assumes a coordinator or manager costs £15 an hour and spends 15 minutes ringing round per call-off, a missed homecare visit is £26 of revenue, and an agency shift costs around £100 more than your own bank (8 hours at a £12.50 premium). Change them to yours.
Coordinator time £2,598, missed visits £563, agency premium £1,200. Before on-call payments, and before an inspector asks how a missed visit happened.
Most of this comes back in the first month. Try it for 30 days; if you're not happy at the end, you get your money back.
Eight minutes, start to finish.
Nobody opens an app.
Calls go out one at a time, in the order that fits your rota: regular carer first, then availability, distance, hours already worked, and fairness.
Text the gap
A visit or a shift, sent however your team likes. "C-0412 tomorrow 7–8 meds" or "Nights tonight, 20:00–08:00, meds trained" is enough. Anything missing, we ask in one text.
We rank who to call
Carers, bank and part-timers for that service. Right skills (meds, dementia, nights), in range, under their weekly hours, not on leave. Regulars go first, and hours are shared fairly.
The line rings them
From the service's own number, one person at a time. They say yes or press 1. Voicemail gets a text with a 6-minute window. Nobody's called before 06:30 or after 21:30.
Confirmed both ways
The carer gets the details by text. You get one line: who, how long, how many calls. Still unfilled at the deadline? Your on-call gets the full log.
One line for homecare
and care homes.
The same engine covers a dropped visit and a sick call on a night shift. Each service keeps its own staff list, number and rules. You get one view across all of them.
A dropped morning visit
Calls carers who are in travel range and have the skills for that client, starting with the client's regular carer. Double-ups, medication and live-in handovers all handled the same way. Visits that can't be filled go to your on-call with the full log before the visit is due.
A sick call for tonight's shift
Calls the bank and part-timers for that home first, then the wider group if you allow it. Only people who hold the right skills for the shift, and never anyone who would go over their weekly hours. You see who covered it before handover.
Live on a new service in three days
Taking on a home or a new branch? Import the staff and bank lists and it runs from day three, the same way as everywhere else. Consistency from the first week, not the first quarter.
Evidence an inspector can follow
Every gap, every call, the order people were called in and why, and what time it was covered. Useful for Responsive and Well-led, and for the first inspection anywhere new.
Sits alongside your stack
Your care planning, eMAR and rota systems stay the record. The line fills the gap and sends a summary back. It can run on numbers you already own.
Works inside a franchise
Nothing to replace and nothing that clashes with systems a franchisor provides. It sits on top as a phone line and a text summary.
What your carer actually hears
Forty seconds, from a number they already have saved.
It says who it is. It never discusses pay, rotas or complaints; anything like that is flagged to the office. Carers opt in once by text and can opt out any time.
Now take the call yourselfTRANSCRIPT, OUTBOUND, 06:52
Shift line: Hi Priya, it's the shift line from Harbourside Care. Quick one: can you cover a visit this morning, seven till eight, in Northfield?
Priya: Which client is it?
Shift line: It's reference C-0412, a medication visit. Can you take it?
Priya: Yeah, go on then.
Shift line: Great, that's booked. You'll get a text with the details now. Thanks Priya.
0:38 · accepted · confirmation text sent
You're Priya.
Your phone's ringing.
This is the real shift line, not a recording. Type your agency name, press answer, and talk to it the way your carers would. Nothing is booked.
Uses your microphone; headphones help. By answering you agree the call may be recorded for quality. Calls end after two minutes.
FIVE THINGS TO SAY. TICK THEM OFF AS YOU GO.
Done playing Priya? Say "Stop, what is this?" and it'll tell you what it does and how to get it.
Every call, every reason,
on one screen.
The console you get on day one: every service on one screen, or one service at a time for each manager. Pick any gap to see who was called, in what order, why they were chosen, and what landed on the phone.
Today's gaps, all services
The console
Live in any browser. Today's visits, calls in order, the reason each carer was picked, and who was skipped for hitting their hours.
A text per visit
One line when it's filled. The full log and the next move when it isn't. Nothing to open.
07:00 digest
Yesterday in three lines: fills, time to fill, and the one pattern worth knowing.
Monthly evidence
Fill rate, missed visits avoided and response times on one page you can show the council or an inspector.
Nothing about the client leaves your office.
This was designed for the CQC conversation before anything else. We hold a reference code, an outward postcode and the skills the visit needs. That's the list.
No names, no notes
No client names, addresses, conditions or care notes, ever. If a coordinator types one in, it's stripped before anything is stored.
Article 28 in writing
You're the controller, Membula is the processor. Sub-processors named, regions stated, in a DPA you can hand to an inspector.
Separate per service
Each branch and home has its own staff list and records. You choose whether bank staff can be offered shifts at other services. Nothing is shared with anyone else.
Carers opt in
One text on day one, STOP at any time, quiet hours respected, the 48-hour weekly cap enforced, transcripts deleted after 30 days.
Straight answers.
Our rota software already broadcasts open shifts.
It does, as a notification in an app most carers don't open on the school run. A phone call from the agency's number gets answered. Run the line alongside it for your 30 days and compare fill rate and time to fill on the same weeks. Not better? Money back.
Will carers answer a robot?
They answer the agency's number, saved in their phone as "[Agency] Shifts". It says who it is in the first sentence, takes about forty seconds, and they can press 1 instead of talking. They opt in by text and can stop at any time.
What about Working Time and the 48-hour week?
Hours already filled that week are counted before anyone is called. A carer at their cap isn't offered the shift. You can set a different cap per carer where you hold a written opt-out.
What if we cover it ourselves while it's calling?
Text FILLED 1043 or CANCEL 1043 and the loop stops before the next call. Anyone already texted is told it's covered.
How long does setup take?
Two spreadsheets from you: carers (name, mobile, skills, postcode, availability) and client references (code, outward postcode, skills). Day one we import, day two your coordinator does three test runs, day three it's live on real shifts.
We're part of a franchise network. Can we add this?
It doesn't replace anything a franchisor provides. It sits on top as a phone line and a text summary, and your existing systems stay the record. If your franchise agreement needs sign-off for new suppliers, we'll give you what they need to review.
Does it work for care-home shifts, not just visits?
Yes. For a care home, it calls that home's bank and part-timers first, then, if you allow it, staff from your other services. It checks skills like nights, medication and dementia, and never offers a shift that would take someone over their weekly hours.
We already use a rota system and care-planning software.
Good, keep them. The line only fills the gap. Your coordinators still see the change in the rota system, and each fill comes with a summary they can file. Where your rota system can export or connect, we can keep the staff list in sync.
Where does it fall down?
If your carer list is out of date, the calls are too. If your coordinators keep using the WhatsApp group as well, the numbers won't mean anything. We'll tell you both at onboarding and again at day 14.
Thirty minutes.
Bring last month's agency bill.
Talk me through how gaps get covered across your services today. I'll show you the line filling one, and you decide whether to try it for 30 days. Not happy at the end? Money back. If it doesn't fit your branch, I'll say so on the call.