Provider Portal allows care providers to submit details of actual service delivered to councils electronically, replacing the need for paper invoices. Providers create a service delivery file from their electronic homecare monitoring system and upload it through Provider Portal. The system validates and processes the data to determine payments to providers and charges to service users.
Key terms
Contract — the general agreement between the council and the provider, defining the framework of rates that apply to service delivered.
Order — describes planned care for an individual service user, placed against a contract. A service user may have more than one order, placed against one or more contracts.
Visit — a single instance of service delivered to a service user.
File formats
Service delivery data can be submitted in two formats:
Format | Description |
XML | The standard format for providers with electronic homecare monitoring systems. |
CSV | An alternative for providers whose systems do not support XML export. |
⚠️Important: The file reference must be unique for each file submitted. If you submit a file with the same file reference as a previous submission, it will be treated as a duplicate and will not be imported.
XML file structure
The XML file uses the following hierarchy:
File — one per submission, containing file reference, description, and creation date.
Provider Contract — one or more per file, identified by provider reference and contract number.
Service Delivery Header — one or more per contract, representing a week of service for a service user.
Home Care Visit — one or more per header, representing an individual visit.
Service delivery header fields
Each service delivery header contains:
Field | Required | Description |
Service User Reference | Yes | Unique reference by which the service user is known to the council. |
Service User Details | Yes | Service user name (and optionally address), useful for reviewing exceptions. |
Week Ending | Week Ending | The week ending date for the service delivered. |
Our Reference | No | Optional reference the provider assigns, for example to tie back to an invoice. |
Service User Contribution | No | Zero for home care. Included for future use with other service types. |
Payment Claimed | No | The monetary amount the provider believes is due. |
📌Note: VAT is excluded from the service delivery header. Separate VAT invoices should be issued where required.
Home care visit fields
Each visit within a service delivery header contains:
Field | Required | Description |
Service Type | Yes | Type of service, for example HOME CARE. Agreed between council and provider. |
Visit Date | Yes | Date of the visit, must fall within the week ending period. |
Start Time Claimed | Yes | Start time claimed by the provider (may differ from actual). |
Duration Claimed | Yes | Duration claimed by the provider (may differ from actual). |
Actual Start Time | Yes | The actual time the visit started. |
Actual Duration | Yes | The actual duration of the visit . |
Secondary Visit | Yes | True or False. Set to True only for additional care workers (see below). |
Number of Carers | Yes | Count of care workers involved. |
Visit Code | Yes | Code describing the outcome, for example visit successful, service refused. |
Order Reference | No | Reference number of the individual service user contract. |
Manually Amended | Yes | Code indicating whether times were electronically verified. |
Claimed vs actual times
Start Time Claimed and Duration Claimed allow providers to override actual values where needed. This is relevant when rates vary by time of day or when durations need rounding.
For example, if a night rate applies between 10pm and 7am and a visit starts at 06:37, the provider can set Start Time Claimed to 06:30 to claim 30 minutes at the night rate.
Multiple care workers
Visits by more than one care worker can be recorded in two ways:
Same visit details for all workers — use a single Home Care Visit with the Number of Carers set accordingly. Set Secondary Visit to False.
Different visit details per worker — create a separate Home Care Visit for each worker. Set Secondary Visit to False for the primary worker and True for additional workers.
📌Note: The second option (separate visits per worker) can be used in all cases, whether or not details vary between workers.
Visit codes
Visit codes are agreed between the council and the provider. They indicate whether service was delivered and, if not, the reason. Each visit code has the following properties:
The contracts it can be used with.
The period during which it can be used.
A description.
Whether the provider is paid.
Whether the service user is charged.
Maximum payable duration (default 24 hours).
Standard payable duration (overrides the visit duration if set).
📌Note: The council maintains the list of available visit codes and associates them with contracts.
Manually amended indicator
This code indicates whether the visit start time and duration were electronically verified or manually entered. Values are agreed between the council and provider. Common examples:
Code | Meaning |
N | Electronically verified. |
Y | Manually suggested time or duration. |
More detailed codes may be used, for example distinguishing between telephony verification, card reader verification, and manual entry.