ARC does not overwrite care records. Every meaningful change is written as a new, immutable version alongside the last one, stamped with who made it and when. The history is what makes a record defensible: an inspector can see not only what it says today but how it came to say that.

Only a home manager can open version history. If you are staff or a senior and a colleague has mentioned a history panel you cannot find, that is why — the button is not shown to you, and the endpoint behind it refuses with "Only managers can view version history."

Where to find it

Four kinds of record carry a history you can open:

Record	Where the button is	What it says
Daily journal	Beside Download PDF at the top of the day	History
Plan	Top right of the plan	Version History
Incident	Beside the status badge	Version History
Safeguarding concern	Under Date Opened on the concern	Version History

The panel slides in from the right, headed with the record type and subtitled "Every change is recorded as a new version."

Reading the history

You get a list of versions, newest first. Each entry shows:

Version 4 — the version number
A Current badge on the most recent one
The date and time it was written
The reason for the change, where one was recorded
Who made it — or System, when ARC wrote the version itself

Select any version to open its full snapshot: the record exactly as it stood at that moment, field by field. Back to all versions returns you to the list.

What creates a version

A version is written when a record is first created, and again whenever it is saved with a real change. Saves that only touch housekeeping fields — the "last updated" timestamp and who touched it — do not create one, so the history stays readable rather than filling with noise.

Some steps record their own reason, which is what you see on the entry. Finalising a journal day, for example, writes a version reading "Journal finalised"; editing the day's note writes "Journal note updated", and editing its sections "Journal sections updated". Sending a journal back for changes and undoing a sign-off write versions too, each with the manager's note or reason in it, so the signed-off version is never lost. See Finalise a journal day.

Who did what across the home

Version history is per record. For a list of access, staff and company changes across the home, which everyone who works there can read, see The audit log.

A correction is a new entry, never an edit

This is the part worth understanding before you need it.

If something was recorded wrongly, the fix is a further entry. The original stays visible with its own timestamp and author, and the correction sits above it. You cannot quietly rewrite what was written on the night — and neither can anyone else. See I deleted something by mistake.

Version history does not override who may see a record

A staff-subject allegation is locked down to the DSL, the registered manager and company admins, and the subject of the allegation is never shown it. That gate is applied to the version history too: the snapshots carry the full case detail, so a manager who is not entitled to the concern gets "Record not found" here as well, rather than reading it through the back door.

The same principle scopes everything else: a record that does not belong to the home you are working in is reported as not found, not as forbidden.