About the home
Esmere Gardens is a 70-resident care home in Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, providing residential, nursing, respite and emergency care. As a privately run, family-led provider, it manages high staffing demands and constant coordination between teams. Before Care Centre, rota clashes, missed updates and limited visibility of the team created avoidable pressure for managers and carers.
The challenge
When Kimberly, the Registered Manager, first reviewed the home's operations, she found good people working without the right systems. The team faced:
- Frequent shift gaps, because the rota was difficult to see and to keep up to date
- Frustration with communication scattered across WhatsApp groups and paper rotas
- No regular measure of how staff felt about their work
- No structured way to recognise good work or to share important updates
“We had good people, but not the right systems. We couldn't afford to lose staff because of burnout or miscommunication.”
What changed
Esmere Gardens moved its rota, leave, recognition and staff communication onto Care Centre, with equal attention to efficiency and team culture. Kimberly builds the week in CareRota™ by role and publishes it to the team's phones. When a gap opens, eligible staff are notified and claim the open shift in the app for her approval, and staff clock in from their phone within the home's clock-in range. Leave is requested on the phone against a live balance, and one approval updates the rota, the timesheet and payroll. An anonymous pulse question from CareSurvey™ gives the home a regular measure of mood, CareKudos™ lets colleagues thank each other on one feed, conversations have moved from WhatsApp into CareChat™, and policies are issued through CareHR™ with versioned acknowledgement.
“Carecentre has completely transformed how we manage staff, communication, and wellbeing. It's not just about shifts. It's brought the whole team together.”
In their own words
“Carecentre gives us early insight into how our team is doing. If someone's morale dips, we know before it becomes a problem. That's invaluable.”
“I was mentioned in the recognition feed for helping a new resident settle in. It meant a lot. We all feel more seen here now.”
What's next
Kimberly and the team are now moving onboarding into CareHR, so that new starters complete it from their own phone and training certificates are tracked, with their expiry dates, alongside every other staff document.
As Kimberly puts it: "Without a doubt, Carecentre makes everything easier."
Products used
