Access Care Planning Reviews – How you can find and use them

In this article I’ll be taking a broad sweep of all the sources for reviews of Access Care Planning online, pulling the overall scores where available, and some common positive and negative themes.

This should give you a great start in weighing up whether Access Care Planning is the right system for your care service.

I want to assure you that I’ll be completely unbiased here. But of course as I’m writing from the position of someone at The Access Group, you will probably want to take a look at some of the reviews themselves after reading this article to put your mind at rest. However, reading this article will still help you make sense of some anomalies in those review sites and help you find the information you are after that bit quicker.

What is Access Care Planning?

If you’ve stumbled upon this page, or are not clear on what Access Care Planning is, let me explain. It is software that enables care providers (mainly but not exclusively in domiciliary care and supported living settings) to use digital care plans, assessments, client records and so on, to completely replace paper care records and forms.

During care visits, care workers use the mobile app to register and verify their attendance, review care plans, view planned activities (including medication) and record if they were completed, add notes and so on.

Access Care Planning is fully integrated with the Access Group’s care rostering system, Access PeoplePlanner.

Common themes from reviews

Before digging into the detail here are some common themes – both positive and negative - that I’ve identified after surveying the full range of reviews from all the different available sources, including websites and app stores (Apple App Store and Google Play Store). I hope this saves you a bit of time.

Common positive themes

Configurability and automation

Business owners and managers most frequently cite how ‘configurable’ or customizable Access Care Planning is. This is one of the software’s key strong suits compared to alternative care planning systems.

What this means in practice is that all care plans, forms and other parts of the care record and care planning process can be customized to fit your care service’s ways and style of working. It also means that they can fit perfectly to different national requirements (for example in Scotland) or to changes in the regulatory landscape, or in what best practice looks like.

In addition you can create custom workflows to automate processes specifically in the way you want them to work, further saving you time and helping you manage processes while being confident each step will be completed. You can also create custom alerts for incidents of different types.

Other systems can be a bit more rigid, meaning you need to fit to them, rather than they fit to you. Here are some examples of reviews:

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“the capabilities are endless, the system does everything you need it to and can be fully customizable to your business needs, everything is reportable and visualized in a user friendly way.”

“They have not only enabled us to be entirely digital as an organisation but the level of automation configurable into the system has enabled us to achieve outstanding inspection results over the last 3 years.”

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Ease of use

Within the Google Play Store the most common theme in positive reviews is how easy the mobile app part of Access Care Planning is to use. These reviewers are usually care workers. Here’s one example I particularly liked:

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“my name is Melissa and I have recently begun working in the care sector and the Access Care Planning app is idiot proof (needs to be!) as a I am new to smart phones and apps I feel this one has improved my confidence with IT rather than drive me to distraction”

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Now, I certainly doubt that Melissa is an idiot. Not being the most tech savvy doesn’t make anyone stupid. But it’s great to hear that someone who is both new to tech and to care finds the Access Care Planning app so easy to use.

Having an app for care workers that is easy to use is a really important factor in how successful the implementation and ongoing use of digital care planning software is.

Time saving

Again within the Google Play Store, the second most common theme among positive reviews is how much time the app saves for care workers in visits and that it makes their work easier:

“simplifies life for carers” and “much better than the old paper books and rotas”

This is exactly what Access Care Planning is supposed to do. Give care workers more time to care.

Keeps clients and next of kin updated

The majority of reviews online are from care workers or managers. However there are some from family members of people being cared for by companies using Access Care Planning, such as this one “Very useful….I can keep updated on how my mum is doing what I am unable to visit.”

Some clients also leave positive reviews, such as this one “It’s great for checking what carer I have next and the following days. Due to my short [term] memory loss it’s easier to remember.” And this one from the Apple App Store: “I have recently needed to have more daily care input, and the app allows me to see who is coming that day. I have really valued it.”

Common negative themes

Complexity

The other side of Access Care Planning being very configurable and customizable is that you need to spend a bit of time working with the software supplier to firstly ensure the system firstly fits how your care service works, and secondly to set up the system to automate processes properly.

This will pay dividends in the long run, saving you lots of time. But its not a simple case of turning it on and away you go.

Most reviews in this area are not that negative, but do help you be realistic about having to put time in to get the best results, for example these extracts from reviews on Slashdot.org:

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“Sometimes the settings and customisations are a bit hard to navigate.”

“It can be difficult to set up, with a huge amount of trial and error to perfect your complicated automations and requirements, however once you have got the hang of the configuration it works a treat.”

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Difficulties updating

A more frequent complaint in negative reviews is people having difficulty updating the mobile app. As you would expect the majority of these come via the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.

Sometimes users get a notification telling them to update, but then are unable to do so. This is often due to the care service using ‘Mobile Device Management’ (MDM), which is a tool that is used by businesses to keep mobile devices and the data on them secure. MDM can be used to control who is able to make updates, often centralizing this control with super users (often registered managers).

This can lead to issues where communications are not clear to care workers to leave their work phones switched on and charging during the time period where the office is planning to update all their devices. When morning comes and the care worker in question switches on their device and are asked to update they are unable to do so.

If the care worker flags this up to their office the device can then be updated immediately. Unfortunately this does not necessarily mean the care worker will also update their negative review of course.

Crashing

All mobile apps will crash from time to time and Access Care Planning is no exception. If an app is crashing repeatedly it is usually due an error in the programming that needs to be fixed. Fortunately this should not result in loss of data, however it is understandably frustrating especially for care workers who are already pushed for time.

When an issue that is causing repeated or frequent crashes is flagged up, our support and app development teams jump on it as a priority, and typically these are issues that are often relatively simple to fix once they have been identified.

Access Care Planning reviews – on leading review websites

If you Google ‘Access Care Planning reviews’ the first results you are likely to see are some of the most respected software review sites on the internet, including Capterra, G2 and SlashDot.

The good news: Access Care Planning review scores are relatively good on these sites.

The bad news, or at least the disappointing news perhaps is that when you click on them you’ll quickly see that the actual number of reviews is very low, especially for such a widely used piece of software (Access Care Planning is used in thousands of care locations across the UK alone).

Access Care Planning is not unique in this regard. Other systems in the care space, such as Care Planner for example, also have next to no reviews on these particular sites.

Why, you ask? Well, this is largely down to the rather long winded process you need to go through to leave a review on these websites. Including having to create a fairly detailed profile and add quite a lot of information, for example on how long you have been using the system, the category of your business and other details.

On the one hand this might reduce the number of fake reviews, on the other it deters genuine users from leaving feedback.

All that being said, Access Care Planning has the an average overall score of 4 stars out of 5 on these three review websites (G2, Sourgeforge and Slashdot.org), from a total of 12 reviews (at time of writing).

These reviews do offer a bit more detail and vary from reviewer to reviewer however there are some repeated points:

Popular points in favour of the software include:

• Improved compliance and governance
• The completeness of the system
• Freeing up more time for staff
• Improved task/process management
• Being fully customizable
• Improved productivity

Popular complaints, or drawbacks typically focus on:

• The time needed to set the system up
• Being difficult to get a hang of
• Some connectivity issues
• Issues with the software crashing sometimes

Here is an example from Sourgeforge, from a ‘manager’ that describes the software as a ‘Good all rounder’:

Pros:

• Clear and consistent format for staff.
• Ability to see who inputs information and when - checking on real time recording which is a plus for CQC.
• Reminders to help you ensure no one or no task is forgotten.

Cons:

Sometimes the settings and customisations are a bit hard to navigate.

Need good connection to ensure your devices always sync and upload your notes.

Overall:

This system has helped us improve our service, learn lessons and hopefully a winner with CQC. It is a timely software to set up for your needs and expensive.

And here is another from G2:

What do you like best?

Allows information to be easily accessed and managed via mobile devices.

What do you dislike?

Occasionally had issues with the software crashing.

Would you recommend Access Care Planning?

Definitely consider this software, especially if you are still using paper processes. Much easier and will increase productivity.

What problems does the software solve?

Allowing us to skip paper processes and therefore increasing productivity.

Where are the Access Care Planning reviews on Trustpilot?

If you’ve been looking at software previously you’ve probably used Trustpilot. But if you Google Access Care Planning reviews you might be surprised to see Trustpilot so low on the results page and instead of a dedicated ‘Access Care Planning’ site, there is just a result for The Access Group Trustpilot microsite.

This is because Access Care Planning does not have its own TrustPilot Page. Instead, it is grouped under the wider Access Group umbrella profile, so Google can’t match up the two.

But don’t despair. People that use Access Care Planning do in fact leave reviews under the Access Group umbrella on TrustPilot. With a little bit of digging and filtering you can find those reviews. I’ve done this and below you can read my summary of what I found.

At time of writing (March 2023) reviews containing “Care Planning” on The Access Group Trustpilot page have an average overall score of 4 out of 5 stars. As you might expect, the bulk of these are either extremely positive (5 stars) or very negative (1 or 2 stars).

Positive reviews

Most positive reviews in Trustpilot for Access Care Planning cite:

• The flexibility of the system and the ability to automate common processes to reduce admin further (see Configurability above for a more detailed explanation).
• Quality and responsiveness of technical support
• How comprehensive/complete the system is
• Enables a fully paperless approach
• Strong integration with rostering system

Here are some examples:

Stefano (review published 29/06/2020 – 5 Stars):

We've been using Access products for almost 4 years now in the Social Care sector.

They have not only enabled us to be entirely digital as an organisation but the level of automation configurable into the system has enabled us to achieve outstanding inspection results over the last 3 years.

The support portal is brilliant and Access Care Planning in particular is often updated with new features.

Couldn't recommend Access more as a Company!

Lee (review published 25/10/2019 – 5 Stars):

Any minor problems or issues have been dealt with by the support team very quickly and effectively through generally their online chat portal.

All in all I have found this company to be not only efficient but caring towards their customers.

Negative reviews

Although as the examples above show, most customers have a great experience with both initial and ongoing support with Access Care Planning. However, other customers do not always have a good experience. I could say that this is inevitable with any business, but that wouldn’t be good enough as far as Access Group is concerned.

There aren’t any negative reviews on Trustpilot specifically related to the quality or performance of the software itself. Negative reviews center more on issues with billing disagreements, lack of communication or time taken for an issue to be solved.

For example:

“The support desk are always accommodating and sort what they can, but again they have limited resources and sometimes calls go awry or need to be chased several times before they are actioned.”

All of these are of course regrettable and something we have taken a number of measures to improve, such as introducing new support systems and packages, chatbots (as mentioned above), help centres and FAQs, creation of Customer Success Manager roles and continued refinement and improvement of our training processes.

As a result of these improvements we have seen a drastic reduction in the number of negative reviews on Trustpilot in the last 12 month window (most negative reviews were posted much earlier) and better scores in our customer satisfaction ratings (such as Net Promoter Scores).

Of course, there’s always room for improvement our teams that work directly with our customers are always trying to find new ways to provide an even better service than we do already.

In summary

As with most reviews, those for Access Care Planning are skewed to the extremes of the scale, positive or negative. Most of us will leave a review for something only when we have had an amazing experience, or a very bad one. This can create an unrepresentative view of the product or service you are assessing (either that it is better, or worse than what you will actually experience).

Most people’s experience is rarely perfect all the time. But at Access I know my colleagues strive to make our software a real asset for care providers, and to assist them to get the most out of it. Many of our team members have decades of experience working in or around health and social care. They understand and are passionate about improving quality, safety and easing the burdens on care workers and care services as a whole.

Thousands of home care providers across the UK use Access Care Planning and have done so for years, which is testament to the quality and impact of our solutions and the support we provide to our customers. That said, there is always more we can do, functionality we can improve in our software, improved, faster support we can provide to customers.

So, hopefully this article has cleared away some of the jungle that stands between you and real reviews from users of Access Care Planning. Take the information here and set out on your own to investigate those reviews for yourself. And of course, to review Access Care Planning itself, for yourself, or to ask us any questions just contact us for an open conversation.