Supported Accommodation Prepare Plan Terms

1. What the Prepare plan is

The Prepare plan is for a supported accommodation service that is not yet registered with Ofsted. You choose it service by service, when you add the service to ARC. Your other services and homes are not affected.

By choosing Prepare for a service, you confirm that the service is not registered at that time. A service that is already registered cannot be put on the Prepare plan.

A service that is not registered does not have to use the Prepare plan. You can put it on the full plan at its normal price instead.

2. What is included

A Prepare service can use the parts of ARC for getting a service ready and running its staff. These include the policy templates, the statement of purpose, staff and HR records, the location assessment for each premises, and the compliance calendar for each premises, such as gas, electrical and fire checks, and company administration.

A Prepare service cannot use the parts of ARC for recording and overseeing young people. These include young people's records, moving a young person in, daily records, handovers, incidents, safeguarding, medicines, support plans, key work and reports about young people. You cannot add a young person to a Prepare service.

These lists may change as ARC develops, as described in section 2 of the Customer Agreement. ARC shows which features are locked on a Prepare service.

3. Price and payment

The Prepare plan costs £29 per service per month, or the price shown in ARC when you choose it if that is different. The price is the same however many premises or places the service has, and the minimum of 3 places in the supported accommodation schedule does not apply to it. There is no setup fee. Fees exclude VAT, which is added where it applies.

The Prepare plan is only available with monthly billing. If you want annual billing, every service on the Prepare plan must first move to the full plan.

Discount codes and offers do not reduce the Prepare plan fee. A discount you hold will apply to a service once it moves to the full plan only if it was stated to cover supported accommodation fees when it was given.

Any free trial for new customers applies to Prepare services as stated when you sign up. Otherwise, section 5 of the Customer Agreement applies, including how failed payments and price changes are handled.

4. Moving to the full plan

You can move a Prepare service to the full plan at any time from ARC, for example once it is registered and you hold its Ofsted URN. From then on, the service is charged per place under section 3 of the supported accommodation schedule.

When you move a service yourself, we charge the difference between the two prices for the rest of your current billing period straight away. The locked features open once that payment is confirmed. If the payment does not go through, the service stays on the Prepare plan.

You should move a service to the full plan once it is registered and ready to accommodate young people.

5. The 12-month limit

A service can stay on the Prepare plan for up to 12 months from the date it started on it, including any free trial. ARC shows this date for each Prepare service.

We will email you at least 30 days before a service reaches the limit. At the limit, the service moves to the full plan automatically and is charged per place under the supported accommodation schedule. The difference for the rest of that billing period is added to your next invoice.

If registration is taking longer than expected, you can ask us to extend the limit before it is reached. We may agree to an extension at our discretion, and we will confirm the new date in writing.

If you do not want a service to move to the full plan, you can remove the service from ARC, or end the Customer Agreement under section 10, before the limit is reached.

If your subscription ends and you return after a service's limit has passed, we will give you at least 30 days' notice before that service moves to the full plan.

6. Moving back to the Prepare plan

You cannot move a service from the full plan to the Prepare plan yourself. If you ask, we may do it for you, at our discretion. We will only do it for a service that is not registered and where no young person has ever been recorded.

7. Your records

Records you create on the Prepare plan are Customer Data under section 6 of the Customer Agreement. They stay in place, unchanged, when the service moves to the full plan.

Section 10 of the Customer Agreement applies if the agreement ends while a service is on the Prepare plan. This includes your right to ask us for a full export of your records, and that fees already paid for a billing period are not refunded.

8. Changes to the Prepare plan

We may change or withdraw the Prepare plan for services added after the change at any time.

For a service that is already on the Prepare plan, we will email you at least 30 days before any change to these terms or the Prepare price applies to it. If we withdraw the plan, services already on it keep it until they reach their 12-month limit, or an extended date we have agreed, unless you move them earlier.