How to set up day care
CareHQ allows a selection of day care sessions and related extras to be set up for any home on your account, allowing day care residents to be booked and managed via a location's Day care chart.
This article covers how to set up day care rate types, how to activate day care for a care home, how to set up day care sessions and extras, and how to set day care rates.
An Account owner user must set up day care initially as that role is necessary to access the Account settings section of CareHQ in order to add the day care rate types.
How to set up day care rate types
One or more day care rate types can be added to categorise payment rates for day care sessions (see Good to Know below for more details).
To add a day care rate type, follow these steps as an Account owner:
- Select Account from the main navigation menu, then select the Finance tab from the top of the page.
- Scroll down to the Day care rate types section and select the Add day care rate type button.
- Enter a descriptive Name for this rate type, then select Save.
The rate type will now show in the Day care rate types list. If you need to another rate type, repeat the above steps.
At least one rate type should be added in order to manage day care, but you may not need more than one unless you have different rates for different funding sources, for example you might add Local Authority funded and Private day care rate types. If you have a single rate, the rate type might simply be named Day care rate.
How to update a location to offer day care
To ensure a care home location can offer day care and to add a Day care chart, follow these steps:
- Select Locations from the main navigation menu, then select the appropriate location.
- From the Details tab, select the Update action (top right), set Offers day care to Yes, then select Save.
A new Day care tab will now be available, which gives access to the Day care chart for the location.
Before adding sessions, any day care extras should be added if necessary so that they can be selected as options when adding a day care session. An example of a day care extra would be any regular service which a day care resident might choose, which may or may not be included in the price of a session. So for example if breakfast, lunch or dinner are available and may be charged separately to the session, these should be added as day care extras.
How to add day care extras
As discussed above, day care extras should be added before adding sessions. Follow these steps to add one or more day care extras:
- Go to the appropriate location and select the Day care tab, then select Manage sessions.
- Select the Day care extras tab, then select Add.
- Enter a Name for your extra service, and then select Save.
You will return to the Day care extras tab with your new extra showing in the list. Repeat the last two steps above to add further extras if required.
How to set up day care sessions
To add a day care session, follow the steps below:
- Go to the appropriate location and select the Day care tab, then select Manage sessions.
- From the Day care sessions tab, select Add (top right).
- Give the session a suitable Name, such as Weekday morning, and select the appropriate Session type.
- Under Availability, select the days that the session will be available on by default.
- Enter a figure for the Max. places that this session can support.
- Select Save to finish adding the day care session.
The new session will now appear on the Day care sessions list along with its related details.
Please note: If you need to add further day care sessions, do so by repeating the above steps but note that an extra form field will be displayed when adding the next session: Overlaps. See below for more details.
After adding one day care session for a location, the Add form for any subsequent sessions will include the Overlaps field within the Places section. Overlaps shows a list of other session names, and you should tick any that this new session overlaps with in relation to the overall number of day care places that can be supported.
So for example, if a Full day session exists and you then add a Morning session you should tick the Full day session below Overlaps to show that the available places for both overlapping sessions are shared - if a resident/service user is booked into one session, the available places are also reduced by one for any overlapping session.
How to set day care session rates
Once the day care sessions have been added for a location, follow the steps below to set rate(s) per session:
- Go to the appropriate location and select the Day care tab, then select Manage sessions.
- Select the session you wish to set rate(s) for, then select the Rates tab.
- You will see separate entries for each day care rate type that was added. Select Add rate for a rate type.
- Depending on the rate type selected, enter the appropriate Rate for the session, for this rate type.
- If you have any day care extras, tick to select these either as Included extras (within the session rate) or Optional extras (charged separately) for this day care session, then select Save.
- If you have more than one day care rate type, select Add rate for the next rate type and repeat the above steps.
Having set the day care session rates, the rates for optional extras need to be set, if appropriate. See below.
How to set rates for day care extras
Once day care session rates have been set, follow these steps to set the rates for optional day care extras:
- Go to the appropriate location and select the Day care tab, then select Manage sessions.
- Select the Day care extras tab, then select the extra that you wish to set rates for.
- Select the Rates tab from the top of the page.
- You will see separate entries for each day care rate type that was added. Select Add rate for a rate type.
- Enter the Rate for this item when charged as an optional extra for this rate type (e.g. LA or Private funded), then select Save.
Repeat the above steps for all day care extras as required.
When all session and extra rates have been set, you can return to the Day care chart for the location which will now show your created sessions against the days of the week, ready to be used for day care bookings.