ARC vs CHARMS: a broad platform against a narrow one
CHARMS is the widest system in this comparison: fostering, adoption and residential care across the UK and Republic of Ireland. ARC does one setting, deliberately. If you run children's homes and nothing else, that focus is what separates the two.
Every claim about CHARMS on this page is taken from their own public material and linked to the page it came from. Where they don't publish something, we say so rather than guess. Last checked 11 August 2026.
ARC and CHARMS, row by row
Same rows on every comparison we publish, so nothing is chosen to flatter us. Numbers in brackets link to the CHARMS page each claim came from.
Green cells mark where ARC leads, slate cells where CHARMS leads. Rows tagged LEVEL are a draw.
| CAPABILITY | ARC | CHARMS |
|---|---|---|
| COST AND TERMS | ||
| Published price |
ARC LEADS
£149, £199 or £249 per home / month by registered beds (1–3, 4–6, 7+), published on our pricing page. Two months free if you pay annually. |
Not published on the UK site; quote on request. [1] |
| What the price is charged on Per-home, per-licence and per-bed models produce very different bills for the same home. |
ARC LEADS
The home. Staff accounts are unlimited and never change the price, whether you run five staff or twenty-five. |
Not published. [1] |
| AI included in the price |
ARC LEADS
Included. Advisory drafts, de-identified before inference, UK-only and audited, at no extra charge. |
Not published. [1] |
| Minimum contract |
ARC LEADS
None. Pay monthly and cancel at any time, or pay annually for two months free. An annual plan can be cancelled but is not refunded, and runs to the end of the paid year. |
Not published. [1] |
| Setup and migration fees |
＝ LEVEL None. Onboarding, training and help moving your existing records across are in the monthly price. |
＝ LEVEL None. Implementation, training and data import are stated as free, as are custom reports. [1] |
| Price across a group of homes Some vendors discount the per-home rate as you add homes. |
＝ LEVEL Each home is banded on its own registration, so a group of small homes pays small-home prices. Combined billing across the group, published rates at every home, and no renegotiation as you grow. |
＝ LEVEL Not published. [1] |
| THE RECORD AND THE REGULATIONS | ||
| Who the product is built for |
ARC LEADS
UK children's residential homes only. |
Broad social care: fostering, adoption and residential, across the UK and Republic of Ireland. [2] |
| One record per young person |
ARC LEADS
One living record: timeline of every event and entry, care plans and goals, keywork, contact, and wishes and feelings. |
Case management with referral and care planning; single-record structure not described. [1] |
| Daily recording |
＝ LEVEL Structured daily journals that compile from what staff log during the shift, with mandatory-field prompts. |
＝ LEVEL Mobile-enabled note-taking. [1] |
| Handover |
ARC LEADS
Compiled automatically from the shift rather than re-typed at the end of it. |
Not published. [1] |
| Incident tracking |
＝ LEVEL Incidents stay open until they are formally resolved and signed off, with missing episodes, return home interviews and physical intervention records. |
＝ LEVEL Incident reporting. [1] |
| Home finances |
ARC LEADS
Each home's cash tin, prepaid card and debit card has its own account: top-ups from your organisation, spends recorded with receipts, pocket money moved into a child's pots, and regular counts checked against the balance, with manager sign-off. |
Not published on the residential care page. [1] |
| Staff rotas |
＝ LEVEL Managers build and publish rotas as a live calendar, including shifts that run across several days. Staff see the published rota, changes after publishing are flagged, and hours export as a CSV for payroll. |
＝ LEVEL An advanced rota system joined to staff records and training, with holiday requests and manager approval alerts. No timesheet or payroll export is mentioned. [1] |
| Electronic medication record (eMAR) |
＝ LEVEL Prescriptions confirmed by a second person, scheduled and as-needed doses recorded at the point of giving, a controlled drugs register with witnessing, and live stock balances. Runs alongside your pharmacy MAR until a manager signs it over as the record. |
＝ LEVEL Not published on the residential care page. [1] |
| Safeguarding workspace |
ARC LEADS
A separate, role-restricted workspace rather than a folder everyone can open. |
Not published as a separate restricted area. [1] |
| Regulation 40 notifications |
ARC LEADS
Raised by a manager at incident review, where the decision belongs, then tracked per recipient with a 24-hour overdue clock and a compiled PDF for the Ofsted submission. |
Not published. [1] |
| Regulation 44 independent visits |
ARC LEADS
Structured independent-visit record with the monthly due date tracked. |
Not published; confirm Reg 44 templates. [1] |
| Regulation 45 quality of care reports |
ARC LEADS
Compiled from the record already entered, with manager sign-off and a full audit trail. |
Not published; confirm Reg 45 templates. [1] |
| DATA AND ASSURANCE | ||
| Where the data is held |
ARC LEADS
United Kingdom, named to the service: the application on Amazon EC2 and the database on Amazon RDS, both in the UK region. |
Not stated; infrastructure described as meeting UK GDPR. [2] |
| Independent security certification Formal certification held by the supplier itself, separate from its hosting provider. | Role-restricted access, an append-only audit trail on every record, and a signed data processing agreement, running on ISO 27001-certified AWS infrastructure in the UK. |
CHARMS LEADS Cyber Essentials Plus. [2] |
| Track record and availability How long the product has been running, and how widely. | Live now, with onboarding, migration and UK-based support included from day one. |
CHARMS LEADS Over 600 organisations and 50,000 practitioners. [2] |
Sources
- [1] https://socialcarenetwork.com/Product/Page?pageType=Charms_Child_Residential_Care “Free Implementation & Data Transfer - We handle the complete migration of your existing data securely and at no extra cost. All implementation, training, and data import included free of charge.” “mobile-enabled note-taking” “incident reporting” “Advanced Rota System”
- [2] https://socialcarenetwork.com/ “trusted by over 600 organisations and 50,000 practitioners across the UK and Republic of Ireland” “meet the full requirements of UK GDPR” “Cyber Essentials Plus certified - the highest level of UK government-backed cyber security accreditation”
CHARMS information taken from their own public material, last checked 11 August 2026. We re-check every comparison at least every 6 months. If anything here is out of date or wrong, email hello@arccare.co.uk and we will correct it.
When CHARMS is the better choice
If your organisation does more than run children's homes, CHARMS is the better answer and it is not close: fostering, adoption and residential in one system with one supplier is worth more than depth in any one of them. CHARMS also builds custom reports free of charge, has 600 organisations and 50,000 practitioners behind it, and holds Cyber Essentials Plus.
Compare the whole bill, not the headline
ARC is £149, £199 or £249 per home per month, set by the number of beds the home is registered for. That covers unlimited staff accounts, every feature, AI, onboarding and migration, billed monthly or annually. There is no premium tier and the price does not move as your team grows.
Headline prices in this market are rarely the whole bill. Add-ons, per-licence charges, setup fees and the discount that only applies on a three-year tie-in all change the number. Ask every supplier the same five questions and compare what comes back.
See ARC's full pricing →Questions to ask any supplier
- Is the price per home, per registered place, or per user?
- Which features sit behind a higher tier or an add-on — including AI?
- What do onboarding, training and data migration cost?
- Is that price conditional on a one, two or three-year term?
- Where is our data hosted, and where does any AI processing happen?
ARC and CHARMS: common questions
How much does CHARMS cost?
Social Care Network does not publish CHARMS pricing on their UK site; they quote on request. Their US site lists per-licence pricing, but that is a different market and should not be assumed to apply here. ARC publishes £149, £199 or £249 per home per month by registered beds, with unlimited staff accounts.
Does CHARMS charge for implementation?
No. CHARMS states that implementation, training and data import are included free of charge, along with complete migration of existing data and custom reports. ARC also includes onboarding and migration in the monthly price.
Is CHARMS just for children's homes?
No, and that is the main difference. CHARMS serves fostering agencies, adoption agencies and residential providers across the UK and Republic of Ireland. ARC is built only for UK children's residential homes.
Moving from CHARMS to ARC
Changing recording system mid-placement is a real risk, so we plan the move around your home rather than the other way round. Onboarding and migration are included in the monthly price.
Review what you hold
We look at your current records together and agree what must come across and what can be archived.
Migrate the record
Young person records, plans and open incidents are moved and checked before anyone relies on them.
Train on shift
Short sessions with the people who will use it, in the home, on real entries.
Run in parallel
A short overlap so nothing is lost, then a clean cut-over on a date you choose.