A care episode records a period of care for a client — whether they have been admitted to a residential home (permanent or temporary) or are receiving non-residential (domiciliary) services. Each care episode can contain one or more financial assessments. This article covers creating, editing, and ending care episodes.
Create a new care episode
Navigate to Care Episodes > Care Episodes and Assessments (or use the toolbar icon).
Search for and select the client.
Click New.
Enter the Date From (the admission or service start date).
Select the Care Type from the dropdown: Permanent, Temporary, or Domiciliary.
Click OK to open the Care Episode Details screen.
Care episode details
For residential placements
Provisional — tick if the episode is entered for information only and charges should not be raised.
Private — tick if the home is a private care home. Leave unticked for local authority homes.
Home — select the care home. Click the browse button to see available homes, or type the first few letters and press Enter.
Date To — enter if the care end date is known (for example, for respite care). Leave blank for permanent admissions.
Discharge Status — if a Date To is entered, select the reason the client stopped receiving care.
Residential placement details
Accommodation — select Nursing or Residential.
Client Group — select from the list.
Team and Care Manager — select from the dropdowns.
Referral Details — optionally record the admission source, client category, and referral date.
For non-residential (domiciliary) care
Episode Type — select the type of non-residential service from the filtered list.
The residential-specific fields (Home, Private, Accommodation) are not applicable.
Click Save to save the care episode.
Financial tab
The Financial tab on the care episode records funding and cost information.
Field | Description |
Funded by OLA | Tick if another local authority funds this client. |
Finance Code | Only enter if finance code rules are not in place. If rules exist, the system constructs codes automatically. |
Fee Code | Allows A4W to determine costs using pre-agreed rates. Costs are automatically uplifted during annual reassessments. |
Overridden Cost | Manually specify a home cost that overrides the fee code for all assessments. |
Suppress Provider Payments | Suppresses payments to the home for this client. |
Home Cost Group | Groups homes or clients for bulk cost uplifts during automatic reassessments. |
⚠️Important: Do not enter a Finance Code if finance code rules are in place — a manually entered code will override the automatically constructed codes.
End a care episode
Open the care episode in Care Episodes and Assessments.
Enter the Date To (the end date of care).
Select the Discharge Status (the reason for ending care).
Click Save.
Specify care costs
You can record the cost elements that make up the total home cost, such as nursing payments and third party top-ups.
Navigate to Care Episodes > Specify Care Costs.
Search for and select the client.
Click New to add a care cost element.
Select the Element from the dropdown (for example, nursing payment or third party contribution).
The Amount may be calculated automatically or can be overridden by ticking the Overridden button.
If the element is a nursing payment, select the PCT funding the nursing care.
Repeat for each cost element.
Click Save.
📌Note: The Fee Code field shows the cost of the home, which is loaded via the Job Service process.