SmartCareApps
Legal

Terms of Service

These terms govern your use of SmartCareApps. Please read them carefully — by using the service you agree to them.

Last updated: [DATE TO BE SET ON PUBLICATION]

Draft for review. This is a working draft prepared as a starting point. Please have it checked by a suitably qualified person before you publish it or rely on it. Items in [square brackets] need your confirmation.
Contents
  1. Who we are
  2. These terms
  3. The service
  4. Eligibility & your account
  5. Free trial
  6. Fees, payment & minimum term
  7. Your responsibilities
  8. Acceptable use
  9. Data protection
  10. Availability & support
  11. Your data & backups
  12. Intellectual property
  13. Our liability
  14. Cancellation, suspension & termination
  15. Changes
  16. Governing law
  17. Contact

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, starting a trial, 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 tools for care providers, including audits and checks, a safeguarding log, a compliments-concerns-and-complaints record, and an action tracker. We provide the service on a software-as-a-service basis. We may improve, add to, or change features over time; 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, use the multi-factor authentication we provide, and tell us promptly at hello@smartcareapps.co.uk if you suspect any unauthorised access.

5. Free trial

We may offer a free trial so you can evaluate the service. No payment card is required to start a trial. At the end of the trial, your subscription begins only if you choose to subscribe — we will not start charging you automatically without your agreement. We may change or withdraw the trial offer at any time.

6. Fees, payment & minimum term

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

  • £50 per month per registration; or
  • £500 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 [monthly / yearly] periods unless you cancel it (see section 14).

[To confirm: whether the quoted prices include or exclude VAT; the notice period to cancel before a renewal (we suggest 30 days); when payment is taken (e.g. in advance each period); and what happens after the minimum term — does it roll monthly, or renew for another year?]

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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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. [A separate data processing agreement covering this is available on request / forms part of these terms — confirm which.]

10. 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.

11. 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, and on request after your subscription ends we will help you retrieve it (see section 14).

12. 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.

13. 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.

[To confirm with a reviewer: the liability cap and exclusions above are a common starting point but should be checked against your insurance and risk appetite.]

14. 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. We will keep your data available for export for [30] days after the end of your subscription, after which we may delete it in line with our Privacy Policy.

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. Contact

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