# ARC > ARC is software for running Ofsted-registered children's homes and supported accommodation services in England, made by Arc Care Systems Ltd (company number 17503573, Barnstaple, England). Staff record daily life, incidents and safeguarding once, in one connected record for each young person; managers, Responsible Individuals, Regulation 44 visitors and inspectors each see what their role allows of that same record. Care records are hosted in the UK. Pricing is published: per home by registered beds, or per place for supported accommodation, with unlimited staff accounts and every feature included. ARC is for: - Organisations opening their first Ofsted-registered children's home, from before registration. - Providers running one or several children's homes, including those replacing paper records or another recording system. - Providers of Ofsted-registered supported accommodation (formerly semi-independent) for 16 and 17 year olds, under the Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations 2023. - Registered Managers, Responsible Individuals, directors, safeguarding leads, company administrators and care staff, each of whom sees what their role allows. What ARC does today: - Daily recording: structured daily logs, a daily journal per young person, and shift handovers that carry open risks and actions forward. - Young person records: one live profile per young person, with care, placement, pathway, health, education and risk plans that staff read and confirm. - Safeguarding and incidents: a role-restricted safeguarding workspace, around forty incident types, missing episodes and return home interviews, physical interventions, and prompts for Regulation 40 notifications to Ofsted. - Staff: rotas, a training and competency matrix, DBS records, supervisions and appraisals. - Oversight and quality assurance: configurable compliance rules checked nightly, required logs, manager review and sign-off, and analytics across every home in a company. - Regulation 44: the independent visitor writes their report in ARC's visitor workspace, or the manager files the report the visitor wrote elsewhere; the manager and Responsible Individual comment on it. - Regulation 45: ARC counts the period's incidents, physical interventions, missing episodes and complaints; the registered person writes the review, and the actions arising become tasks once it is signed off. - Inspection: time-boxed, read-only access for an Ofsted inspector to a home's records, with a log of what was opened, plus inspection records and the home's action plan. - Money: young people's pocket money and savings, and the home's cash and cards, with counts and manager sign-off. - Supported accommodation: services and their premises, policies, a location assessment per premises and a compliance calendar before registration; once young people move in, Regulation 28 notices, Regulation 27 notifications, restraint follow-up, daily logs and key work against support plans, and turning 18. What ARC does not do: it does not write Regulation 44 or Regulation 45 reports, decide anything about a child, or replace the professional judgement of the people responsible for the home. Reports are written and signed by those people. Pricing (per home per month, prices exclude VAT, no setup fees): children's homes 1–3 beds £149; 4–6 beds £199; 7+ beds £249. Paying annually costs ten months' price for twelve months. New companies have their first 14 days free. A home not yet registered with Ofsted can use the Prepare plan at £29 a month for up to 12 months: staff, rotas, policies and compliance, with the children's records opening when it moves to its band price. Supported accommodation is £25 per place per month (£250 per place per year), minimum 3 places, with SA Prepare at £29 a month before registration. AI and data: AI is off unless deliberately enabled. Where it is on, it summarises records that already exist, in three places, and every output is labelled an advisory draft: an AI summary panel on an incident, generated from the incident's own narrative and updates; a draft daily summary on a journal day, which staff read, correct and save or discard; and a draft "Summary for Ofsted" when a manager considers a Regulation 40 notification, which the manager copies into Ofsted's own form (ARC submits nothing). The AI decides nothing. Before text is sent to the model, names and identifiers ARC recognises are replaced with placeholders; the model runs on Amazon Bedrock in London. Care records are stored with AWS in London; the only providers outside the UK that handle customer data are Stripe (card payments) and Laravel Forge (server management), and neither holds care records. Contact: hello@arccare.co.uk. Reviews: https://www.g2.com/products/arc-care-systems-ltd-arc/reviews How to read this file: each link below is a markdown copy of an ARC web page, and any public page is available as markdown by adding .md to its address (the home page is https://arccare.co.uk/index.md). https://arccare.co.uk/llms-full.txt holds the full text of every page in this index apart from the Optional section. https://arccare.co.uk/help/llms.txt indexes the whole Help Centre. Where a linked page and this summary differ, the linked page is authoritative. ## Product overview - [ARC home page](https://arccare.co.uk/index.md): Overview of ARC for UK children's homes: the connected record for each young person, who uses it, how it is hosted, and how it is priced. - [ARC features: the connected young person record](https://arccare.co.uk/features.md): Every feature in ARC is an input to one connected record per young person: daily logs, journals, handovers, incidents, safeguarding, care plans and Regulation 44 and 45 reporting. ## Who ARC is for - [Opening a children's home: the Prepare plan](https://arccare.co.uk/opening-a-childrens-home.md): For providers preparing to register a children's home with Ofsted: what the Prepare plan opens before registration (staff, rotas, policies and compliance), how long it lasts and what changes once the home is registered. - [Supported accommodation software](https://arccare.co.uk/supported-accommodation-software.md): Software for Ofsted-registered supported accommodation (formerly semi-independent) for 16 and 17 year olds: every premises in one service, £25 a place a month, SA Prepare at £29 before you register. - [Registering a supported accommodation service: SA Prepare](https://arccare.co.uk/register-supported-accommodation.md): Applying to register a supported accommodation service with Ofsted? SA Prepare is £29 a month: premises, policies, location assessments and compliance in place before your URN. - [Moving from paper records](https://arccare.co.uk/alternatives/paper.md): For homes still keeping paper records: what the regulations require of records, what assembling paper records costs a home, and what moving to ARC involves. ## Pricing and getting started - [Pricing](https://arccare.co.uk/pricing.md): Current prices for children's homes (per home per month, by registered beds) and supported accommodation (per place), annual billing, the free trial, what is included and the pricing FAQ. - [Request a demo](https://arccare.co.uk/demo.md): Book a 30-minute walkthrough of ARC with the team. ## Key features and workflows - [Daily recording, journals and handovers](https://arccare.co.uk/features/daily-recording.md): Structured daily logs, self-compiling journals and automatic shift handovers for UK children's residential homes. Written once, in the moment, never rebuilt at the end of a shift. - [Safeguarding, incidents and missing episodes](https://arccare.co.uk/features/safeguarding.md): A role-restricted safeguarding workspace, nearly forty incident types, missing episodes and return home interviews, physical intervention records and Regulation 40 notification signals. - [Regulation 44, Regulation 45 and Ofsted inspection](https://arccare.co.uk/features/inspection.md): Regulation 44 visits filed with the visitor's own report and answered from ARC, Regulation 45 reviews that start from the period's figures, and an Ofsted inspection portal. - [The Regulation 44 visitor workspace](https://arccare.co.uk/help/reporting-inspection/reg-44-visitor-workspace.md): For independent visitors: sign in, set up a visit, write the report, get comments, and sign it off. - [Regulation 45 reviews in ARC](https://arccare.co.uk/help/reporting-inspection/regulation-45-reports.md): The registered person's quality-of-care review: what ARC gathers for you, what you write, and how the actions arising become tasks. ## Regulation and compliance - [Regulation 44 visits in children's homes: a guide](https://arccare.co.uk/articles/regulation-44-visits-childrens-homes.md) - [Regulation 45 reviews in children's homes: what to include](https://arccare.co.uk/articles/regulation-45-review-childrens-homes.md) - [Regulation 40 notifications in children's homes](https://arccare.co.uk/articles/regulation-40-notifications-childrens-homes.md) - [Recording in children's homes: a practical guide](https://arccare.co.uk/articles/recording-in-childrens-homes.md) - [Management oversight in children's homes: what to evidence](https://arccare.co.uk/articles/management-oversight-childrens-homes.md) ## Data protection, security and AI - [Data security](https://arccare.co.uk/data-security.md): How ARC protects care records: UK-only hosting, encryption in transit and at rest, role-based access control, backups and resilience, and ARC's regulatory position. - [Sub-processors](https://arccare.co.uk/sub-processors.md): The companies that handle data on behalf of ARC, what each one does and where, plus a short data protection summary for children's homes. - [How ARC uses AI](https://arccare.co.uk/help/data-ai/how-arc-uses-ai.md): Where AI appears in ARC, what is stripped out before anything reaches a model, where the model runs, and what is written down about every call. ## Independent research and sector data - [Three or More: Placement instability for children in care in England, 2021 to 2025](https://arccare.co.uk/research/placement-instability-2025.md): Original analysis by ARC Research of published official statistics. Sources: Department for Education: Children looked after in England including adoptions; Department for Education: Stability measures for children looked after in England. Data period: 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. Published 11 September 2026. Key finding: 8,500 of the 81,770 children looked after in England on 31 March 2025, 10%, had three or more placements during the year. The rate was 14.1% among children looked after continuously for less than twelve months, against 8.9% among those looked after continuously for longer. Counts are rounded by the department to the nearest 10. - [England's Children's Homes: Ofsted Provider Data 2026](https://arccare.co.uk/research/ofsted-provider-data-2025.md): Original analysis by ARC Research of published official statistics. Sources: Ofsted: Children's social care in England 2026; Ofsted: Children's social care in England 2025. Data as at 31 March 2026. Published 13 August 2026, updated 23 October 2026. Key finding: Ofsted's register listed 4,804 children's homes in England at 31 March 2026, up 795 (19.8%) in a year from 4,009. Registered places rose only 11.3%, from 15,742 to 17,523, so the average home fell from 3.93 places to 3.65. The North West holds 1,259 homes, 26.2% of the total. ## Comparisons and alternatives - [Software comparisons index](https://arccare.co.uk/compare.md): Index of ARC's published comparisons with other children's home software suppliers. Each claim about another supplier links to that supplier's own published material. - [ARC vs CHARMS: children's residential care software compared (2026)](https://arccare.co.uk/compare/charms.md): ARC and CHARMS from Social Care Network compared: pricing transparency, what implementation costs, the young person record, Regulation 44 and 45, and where each one fits. - [ARC vs Clearcare: children's home software compared on total cost (2026)](https://arccare.co.uk/compare/clearcare.md): ARC and Clearcare compared on what a home actually pays: licence, AI charges, contract length and setup. Plus the young person record, Regulation 44 and 45, and certification. - [ARC vs CRIS: children's residential care software compared (2026)](https://arccare.co.uk/compare/cris.md): ARC and CRIS compared for UK children's residential homes: pricing transparency, multi-agency access, Regulation 40, 44 and 45, safeguarding, hosting and certification. - [ARC vs Hearth: children's home software compared (2026)](https://arccare.co.uk/compare/hearth.md): ARC and Hearth compared for UK children's residential homes: published pricing by bed band, AI, handover, safeguarding, Regulation 40, 44 and 45, hosting and assurance. - [ARC vs Lief: Children's Home Software Compared (2026)](https://arccare.co.uk/compare/lief.md): An honest comparison of ARC and Lief for UK children's residential care: what each costs all in, the young person record, handovers, safeguarding, Regulation 44 and 45, and AI. - [ARC vs OVcare: children's home software compared on cost and scope (2026)](https://arccare.co.uk/compare/ovcare.md): ARC and OVcare compared for UK children's residential care: published pricing, setup fees, contract terms, Regulation 45 reporting, forms, and data hosting. - [ARC vs Sue Solutions: children's home recording software compared (2026)](https://arccare.co.uk/compare/sue-solutions.md): ARC and Sue Solutions compared for UK children's residential homes: pricing transparency, daily recording, safeguarding, Regulation 44 and 45, and data hosting. ## Guides for children's home teams - [Children's home software: a buyer's guide for 2026](https://arccare.co.uk/articles/childrens-home-software-a-buyers-guide-for-2026.md): How to choose children's home software: what the regulations require, how pricing works, the questions to ask suppliers, and how to switch without risk. - [Children's home handovers: what to include and a template](https://arccare.co.uk/articles/childrens-home-handovers.md): What a good children's home handover contains, how to structure it, why handovers fail, and a worked example and template managers can use this week. - [Incident follow-up in children's homes: what happens next](https://arccare.co.uk/articles/incident-follow-up-childrens-homes.md): What a manager does after an incident is recorded: review, Regulation 40 decision, restraint deadlines, debriefs, plan updates and closing actions. - [Spotting patterns in children's home records](https://arccare.co.uk/articles/spotting-patterns-in-childrens-home-records.md): A practical method for reviewing children's home records for patterns and escalation: what to look for, five questions to ask, and when to escalate. - [Safeguarding chronologies in children's homes](https://arccare.co.uk/articles/safeguarding-chronology-childrens-homes.md): What a safeguarding chronology is, what goes in it, a column format with an example table, who maintains it, and how it is used in reviews and inspection. - [How much does it cost to open a children's home?](https://arccare.co.uk/articles/cost-of-opening-a-childrens-home.md): What it costs to open a children's home in England: one-off costs, staffing, the cash needed before your first child, break-even occupancy and a worked example. ## Free tools - [Free tools for new children's home providers](https://arccare.co.uk/tools.md): Three free tools for aspiring children's home providers in England. Work out the cash needed before your first child arrives, gather published evidence on a location, and check whether your registration application and service are ready. - [Children's home cost and viability calculator](https://arccare.co.uk/tools/cost-calculator.md): Free tool for England. Work out how much money you need before your first child arrives, and the occupancy and weekly fee a children's home needs to break even. - [Children's home location assessment tool](https://arccare.co.uk/tools/location-assessment.md): Free tool. Enter an England postcode to build a preliminary evidence report covering the local area, recorded crime, essential services, transport, environmental considerations and local residential provision. - [Children's home registration readiness checker](https://arccare.co.uk/tools/registration-readiness.md): Free tool for England. Answer a guided self-assessment and get a personalised readiness report covering the people, evidence, documents and Statement of Purpose needed to apply to register a children's home with Ofsted. ## Additional documentation - [Help Centre index](https://arccare.co.uk/help/llms.txt): Every Help Centre article by area of ARC, with a one-line summary of each: how each feature works, who can use it and what it records. - [Full text of this index](https://arccare.co.uk/llms-full.txt): The complete markdown of every page in this index apart from the Optional section, in one file. ## Optional - [About ARC](https://arccare.co.uk/about.md): Who builds ARC and why, and the company behind it, Arc Care Systems Ltd. - [Contact ARC](https://arccare.co.uk/contact.md): How to contact the ARC team. - [ARC Research](https://arccare.co.uk/research.md): ARC Research publishes original analysis of publicly available data on children's residential care in England. Reports, data briefings and annual research. - [All articles](https://arccare.co.uk/articles.md): Practical guides for managers, safeguarding leads and teams running UK children's residential homes. Recording, handovers, incidents, safeguarding, oversight and regulations. - [Privacy policy](https://arccare.co.uk/privacy-policy.md): How Arc Care Systems Ltd handles personal data. - [Terms of service](https://arccare.co.uk/terms-of-service.md): The terms for using the ARC website and service.