IT that keeps
Care Homes and Agencies running
Care homes and home care agencies run on trust: the data of the people you support, family confidence and a regulator who expects evidence. We look after the technology behind all three, so your team can focus on the people in your care.
Free ConsultationThe A2Z IT Promise
We understand how care actually runs: nights and weekends, agency staff, shared devices and inspections. Our IT support is shaped around that reality, not a nine-to-five office.
DSPT Standards Met
Support to achieve and renew your Data Security and Protection Toolkit submission.
Secure Email & Teams
Microsoft 365 email and Teams set up so your staff can communicate safely with families and professionals.
Cyber Essentials
Readiness and certification support, with your Microsoft 365 setup measured against the controls.
Wi-Fi for Homes & Offices
Reliable, secure coverage for point-of-care recording in homes and for the office your service runs from.
How we support care providers
Compliance, care records and connectivity, handled properly.
Compliance your inspector can see
The Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) is the gateway to NHSmail and many local-authority contracts. CQC expects good governance of data under Regulation 17. We help you reach and keep "Standards Met" and set up your IT so the evidence an inspector asks for, from access controls to audit trails and incident records, is there when you need it.
- DSPT submissions and renewals
- Tool-driven Microsoft 365 assessments mapped to the technical requirements of DSPT and Cyber Essentials
- Access control and audit trails that map to CQC's Well-led questions
- GDPR handling of special-category resident data
The IT beneath your care records
Whatever digital care records or eMAR platform you use, it is only as good as the IT it runs on. Your platform's vendor supports their software; we make sure everything it depends on holds up: the devices, the Wi-Fi, the network in your office and the Microsoft 365 accounts it connects to. When you move off paper or change platform, we have the groundwork ready so the switch lands smoothly.
Care buildings are rarely kind to Wi-Fi: thick walls, long corridors, extensions added decades after the original. The day it matters is the day the line drops halfway through a medication round. We survey the building rather than guess at it, put coverage where your staff actually record and add 4G failover so a dead line is an inconvenience instead of an incident.
- Devices and shared logins managed for care teams
- Wi-Fi designed from a survey of your building, not a guess
- 4G failover for when the broadband gives up
- Resident and visitor Wi-Fi kept on its own network, away from care systems
- Backup for the records and files your service cannot lose
Built for how care actually runs
Care doesn't stop at half five. Staff change often, devices are shared between shifts or out on visits and families expect to stay connected. We plan support arrangements around your rota, make joiners and leavers quick and safe, then give your team the tools to keep families close, from secure video calls to email updates.
- Offices fitted out with networking, with endpoints managed day to day
- Secure Wi-Fi across homes and offices, built on Ubiquiti UniFi kit
- Licensing shaped to roles: lighter licences for carers, full desktop tools for the office
- Whole-site managed service options for care homes, covering every device in the building
- Support hours planned around your rota, not ours
Continuity and policies, written down
Take a managed service from us and the documentation comes with it. We write a continuity plan for the IT we look after, built around your setup rather than a template with your name on the front: what your service depends on, what happens on the day it is not there and how it comes back. Scope is the part worth being clear about. The plan covers the IT in your contract, so you know which parts of your continuity planning sit with us and which stay with you.
We document the process and procedures behind the day to day as well, then work through your IT policies with you. Policies read better when they describe what your service actually does, so we draft them alongside your team instead of handing over a folder to sign.
- An IT continuity plan tailored to your setup, not a template
- Scope in writing, so you know what sits with us and what stays with you
- Process and procedures documented for the IT we run
- IT policies drafted with your team, ready for your DSPT submission
Cyber Essentials, before a contract asks for it
Local authority frameworks and NHS-linked contracts increasingly ask whether you hold Cyber Essentials. The question tends to arrive with a deadline attached. We measure your Microsoft 365 setup against the five controls with our own tooling, fix what falls short and get you ready for the assessment. The same work feeds your DSPT submission, so you are not evidencing the same things twice.
- Your setup measured against the five Cyber Essentials controls
- The gaps fixed, not just handed to you in a report
- Certification readiness for when a tender needs the badge
- Evidence that does double duty for DSPT
Built to work across more than one home
Running three homes is not running one home three times. We standardise what should be identical across your sites, keep the central office and the homes together in one Microsoft 365 tenant with sensible boundaries between them and turn bringing a newly acquired home onto your systems into a process rather than a project.
- One tenant across the group, with each home's data where it belongs
- The same build on every site, so support is not a guessing game
- A worked process for onboarding a home you have just acquired
- Reporting by home or across the group, whichever question you are answering
Training that fits a care rota
Security training written for an office lands badly in a care setting. Your team shares devices, works nights, includes agency staff who might be with you a fortnight and covers a wide range of confidence with technology. We run awareness training that takes that as the starting point: short, practical and in language that doesn't assume anyone reads IT for pleasure. Phishing is what catches care services, usually dressed up as an invoice or a rota change.
- Short sessions that fit around shifts, not a half day in a classroom
- Phishing simulations using the lures actually aimed at care providers
- Guidance that works for shared devices and agency staff
- A record of who has done what, ready for DSPT
We've sat where your team sits
We have worked with the Care Sector for over five years, much of it onsite. We know the back office as well as the care floor: rotas, audits, funding and the evidence a Well-led review expects. That experience is why we built CareHub, our own platform for UK care providers.
CareHub brings digital care management, HR, governance and finance together in one system, built on Microsoft Azure. It works inside Microsoft Teams through an app we built for it. The full picture is on its own site.
What we cover for care providers
The care-specific work, alongside everything on our services pages
DSPT Support
Email & Teams
Cyber Essentials
Home & Office Wi-Fi
Resident Data Protection
Joiners & Leavers
Managed Devices
Backup & Recovery
Care sector FAQs
Do you understand CQC requirements?
We set up your IT so the governance evidence CQC looks for under Regulation 17, such as who accessed what and what happened after an incident, is captured as a matter of course and ready for your inspector.
Can you help us get DSPT "Standards Met"?
Yes. We work through the toolkit with you, fix the technical gaps it surfaces and support the annual renewal so it never becomes a last-minute scramble.
We still use paper records. Can you help us go digital?
Yes. We get the IT ready for the move: the devices, the Wi-Fi and the Microsoft 365 accounts. Your chosen records platform's own team looks after their software; we make sure it has solid ground to land on.
What happens when things break at the weekend?
Care runs around the clock, so we agree support arrangements that match your rota. Talk to us about what cover your service needs.
Someone already looks after our IT. What does switching involve?
We take over in stages rather than all at once. First we audit what you have and who holds the keys to it, then accounts, devices and documentation move across on a plan you have signed off. Nothing is switched off until the thing replacing it is working.
Our staff aren't confident with technology. Is that a problem?
No. It is more common than not. We set things up so the everyday tasks are simple, then train in short sessions that fit around shifts rather than expecting people to sit through a half day.