Frequently asked questions
Straight answers about Warden — the read-and-sign compliance platform for UK care homes. From £49 per home per month, no setup fee, cancel any time.
What does Warden cost?
From £49 per home per month, priced by the size of the home: £49 for up to 25 staff, £79 for 26 to 60 staff and £99 for 61 staff or more, excluding VAT. Every feature is in every plan, plus PDF and Word evidence packs, with no setup fee and no 12-month contract — cancel any time. Founding homes get 50% off the first 3 months if they start before 31 March 2027, paying yearly gets 2 months free, and groups of 3 or more homes get 15% off every home. See full pricing, or talk to us about a group.
What exactly is read-and-sign?
Every policy or notice goes out to exactly the staff who must read it, with a deadline. Warden records the full chain automatically: published → opened → signed → chased → re-versioned. Staff type their name to sign against the exact version they read, and previous versions' signatures are preserved as history.
How do care staff sign in?
Magic-link sign-in — no passwords to forget on a night shift. It works on any phone with no app to install, and staff see exactly two things: notices waiting for signature and notices done.
What else is included beyond read-and-sign?
A live training compliance matrix (every carer × every mandatory course, with a per-home score), safer recruitment tracking for CQC Reg 19 (DBS, right-to-work and references with red/green expiry tracking), a DoLS register with expiry alerts, policy review-due reminders, secure document storage, a system-wide audit log kept automatically, supervisions and appraisals (who is overdue, signed off by the staff member, included in the evidence pack) and optional comprehension checks that staff pass before they sign a notice.
How does Warden relate to CQC's five key questions?
Warden's records can help you evidence parts of the Safe, Effective, Caring and Well-led key questions, and the regulations behind them: Regulation 17 (good governance), 18 (staffing), 19 (fit and proper persons employed) and, for the DoLS register, 11 and 13. Warden × CQC maps each module, with sources. It is not legal advice, and Warden does not replace the manager's own judgement.
Is there anything Warden doesn't do yet?
Competency tracking is in development, not yet live. Warden is deliberately explicit about what is live versus roadmap — nothing on the site is sold ahead of existing.
How long does setup take?
The single-home pilot goes from staff list to inspection-ready in about a week. Staff lists import from CSV, existing training records import from a spreadsheet, and carers need zero training — open the link, read, type your name.
What happens to our evidence if we stop using Warden?
The home keeps the evidence. The combined evidence pack — acknowledgements, training matrix, safer recruitment, DoLS and supervisions — downloads as PDF or Word, pilot or not, and the training matrix and each notice's register also export as PDF.
Where is our data hosted?
EU-hosted (Helsinki, Finland), encrypted in transit, with a full audit trail and multi-tenant isolation — the operating standard across the Zelicra suite. Warden runs as an offline-capable PWA with web-push notices.
How do we start?
Book the single-home pilot via the form on the homepage — name, work email, care home or group. One home, real policies, real staff list. Or start a 14-day free trial — no credit card required.