Terms of Service

1. Who we are

SmartCareApps is operated by SmartCareApps Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17256668), with its registered office at 124 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX. In these terms, "we", "us" and "our" mean SmartCareApps Ltd, and "you" and "your" mean the organisation or person using the service. You can contact us at hello@smartcareapps.co.uk.

2. These terms

These terms form the agreement between you and us for your use of the SmartCareApps website and applications (the "service"). By creating an account or otherwise using the service, you confirm you accept these terms and have authority to accept them on behalf of your organisation. If you do not agree, please do not use the service.

3. The service

SmartCareApps provides online compliance and management tools for care providers, including audits and checks, rota and staff scheduling, a safeguarding log, a compliments-concerns-and-complaints record, an action tracker, and internal messaging and announcements. We provide the service on a software-as-a-service basis. We may improve, add to, or change features over time — new apps are included in your subscription at no extra cost — and we will not make changes that materially reduce the core functionality you pay for without letting you know.

4. Eligibility & your account

The service is intended for use by care providers and their staff. To use it you must register an account and provide accurate information. You are responsible for your account, your login credentials, and all activity under your account. You must keep your credentials secure, and we strongly recommend enabling the multi-factor authentication we provide. Please tell us promptly at hello@smartcareapps.co.uk if you suspect any unauthorised access.

5. Fees, payment & minimum term

Our subscription is charged per CQC registration. You may choose either:

• £75 per month per registration; or
• £750 per year per registration, paid annually in advance.

All subscriptions have a minimum term of 12 months from the start of your paid subscription. If you pay monthly, you are still committed for the full initial 12-month term. After the minimum term, your subscription continues for further periods of the same length as the one you have been paying for, unless you cancel it (see section 13).

If a payment fails or is overdue, we may suspend access until it is paid. We may change our prices, but we will give you at least 30 days' notice before a change applies to your subscription, and a price change will not take effect during a period you have already paid for.

6. Your responsibilities

You are responsible for the information you put into the service and for making sure you are entitled to process it. The service supports your compliance work, but it does not replace your own professional judgement or your legal duties as a care provider. You remain responsible for meeting your obligations to the CQC and any other regulator, and for the accuracy and completeness of your records.

Where you choose to switch on optional features that process your staff's information — such as location-checked clock in and out — you are responsible for informing your staff, and for having a lawful basis for doing so.

7. Acceptable use

You agree not to use the service unlawfully, to upload content you have no right to share, to attempt to gain unauthorised access to the service or other customers' data, to disrupt or probe the service's security, or to copy or resell the service. We may suspend access if we reasonably believe these rules are being broken.

8. Data protection

How we handle personal data is set out in our Privacy Policy. For the personal data you enter into the service about the people you support and your staff, you are the data controller and we act as your data processor, processing that data on your instructions to provide the service. That processing is governed by our data processing agreement, which forms part of these terms and is published at smartcareapps.co.uk/dpa.html.

9. Availability & support

We aim to keep the service available and reliable, but we do not guarantee it will be uninterrupted or error-free. We may carry out maintenance, and will try to keep any planned downtime short and outside busy periods where we can. We provide support by email at hello@smartcareapps.co.uk.

10. Your data & backups

Your data remains yours. We take encrypted backups to help protect against loss, but our backups are not a substitute for your own record-keeping, and you are responsible for keeping the records you are legally required to retain. You can export your data from the service at any time, and on request after your subscription ends we will help you retrieve it (see section 13).

11. Intellectual property

We own the SmartCareApps software, branding and content. We grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the service during your subscription. You own the data you put into the service. You must not copy, modify, resell or reverse-engineer the software.

12. Our liability

Nothing in these terms limits our liability where it would be unlawful to do so — including for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud. Subject to that, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profits, goodwill or data caused by matters outside our reasonable control, and our total liability to you in any 12-month period is limited to the fees you paid us in that period. The service is provided to support your compliance, not to guarantee a particular inspection outcome.

13. Cancellation, suspension & termination

You may cancel your subscription with effect from the end of your minimum term (or any renewal period) by contacting us at hello@smartcareapps.co.uk, giving 30 days' notice. We may suspend or end your access if you seriously or repeatedly break these terms, or fail to pay. When your subscription ends, your right to use the service stops. Your account then becomes read-only for 30 days so that you can export your records, after which we delete them in line with our data processing agreement and Privacy Policy.

14. Changes

We may update these terms from time to time. If we make a significant change, we will give you reasonable notice (for example by email or a notice in the service). Continuing to use the service after a change takes effect means you accept the updated terms.

15. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute, unless mandatory law provides otherwise.

16. Contact

Questions about these terms? Email us at hello@smartcareapps.co.uk, or write to SmartCareApps Ltd, 124 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX.