01Pricing, value first
A partner for healthy growth: your business, your team and the people you support all win. See what that gives back, then the price.
For adult social care in England. Your numbers update as you type, and you don't need to give us your email.
Just want the prices? Jump to the plans
Your numbers: Care home, 1 service, 50 staff, 23.7% yearly turnover. Our estimate: 1 in 10 of the people who would leave because they don't feel valued stays.
Hospital, hospice or SEND school? These figures are for adult social care, so talk to us about your setup:
Check the numbers above
What turnover costs you today
£93,000 a year
Replacing about 12 leavers in a care home like yours. Public source
With no leavers to count, there is no turnover cost to show.
Hours back a month
15 hours for your managers
Managers: time in CareKudos uses up the time it saves for a team this size.
18 hours for your team
Team: posting uses up the time it saves for a team this size.
Our estimate Where the hours come from
Your plan
Core £249 to £449 a month, by team size
Pays for itself if 1 in 17 of those leavers stays.
Our cautious estimate is about 1 in 24. How we worked it out
Your numbers: Care home · 1 service · 50 staff · 23.7%
02Why it pays
Public figures only
£93,000 a year
About 12 of your 50 staff leave each year, at the Skills for Care average for care homes (23.7%, 2025/26). Replacing each one costs about £7,870 (Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2026).
Each square is one member of staff. Open squares are the people who leave in a year.
While their posts stand empty, about 3,430 hours of planned work need overtime, bank or agency cover, or go undone. That is like running with about 1.7 full-time posts empty all year.
At 0% turnover there are no leavers to count, so these public figures show no turnover cost for your service.
Core pays for itself if 1 in 17 of the people who would leave each year stays. That is one carer kept about every 17 months, even at the top of Core's price.
Our cautious estimate is about 1 in 24. Our estimate
On our numbers, a home your size sits just short of paying for itself at the top of Core's price. Your quote may be lower.
Value we counted: about £8,200 a yearCore: £2,988 to £5,388 a year
At the top of Core's price, the value we counted covers the full cost, with about £2,800 to spare.
Replacement cost avoided about £4,000, plus management time about £3,200 and team preparation time about £1,200, minus posting time about £260.
Real, but not counted: your CQC rating, tenders won, occupancy and fees, fewer sick days, families' trust and your team's wellbeing. Nobody can promise them, so we leave them out of the money. A free 30-day pilot shows the time and the evidence in your own service; turnover takes longer to show, so we keep that number cautious.
Sources: Skills for Care, State of the sector 2026 (Chart 38, all-staff turnover 2025/26, without agency staff) · Joseph Rowntree Foundation, The hidden cost of low pay in the social care sector (2026), median cost per new hire across 11 providers. Open hours count about 290 hours per leaver, worked out from JRF's figure for the work lost while a post stands empty; some are covered by agency, whose cost is inside the £7,870. The break-even line uses the top of your plan's price and the £7,870 alone. Every step is under How we worked this out.
03CQC and tenders
Illustration: your evidence builds up month by month.
Every post, Peer Star, Staff Voice answer and Good Catch is filed under CQC's key questions as it happens, so nothing needs rebuilding the week before a visit. Inspector Mode hides names before you share.
CQC makes its own judgement. CareKudos does not promise a rating.
Retention, recognition and Staff Voice figures for the quality and social value questions in council and NHS bids.
In one 2025 award report, Southwark Council cited the winning provider's staff retention (88% with over five years' service) as evidence of a stable workforce. Public source
Proof for your answers. The panel makes the decision.
04What CareKudos gives back, when your team uses it
Your managers
15 hours a month back
About 183 hours a year, more than 4 working weeks. Our estimate
Your whole team
18 hours a month back, all together
About 227 hours a year, more than 6 working weeks. Our estimate
Each line is rounded to 5 minutes, down for time saved and up for time spent. The totals above are rounded down to whole hours.
Worth about £3,200 of management time and £1,200 of team preparation time a year, minus about £260 of posting time (salary only, not cash in the bank). Hiring hours stay out of the money, because their cost is inside the £7,870. Cover hours stay out too: the agency part is inside the £7,870, and we don't put a price on the rest.
More than 3 working weeks of cover your team no longer has to find. It is part of your team's hours above. Our estimate
With no leavers to count, there is no cover to save.
43% of social care staff thinking of leaving say they don't feel valued or supported by colleagues or their manager (DHSC, 2026). Public source
People told CQC that having the same regular care worker helps them feel safe. From Advance, families can see the good care and say thank you. Public source
About one fewer leaver every 24 months, worth about £4,000 a year in replacement costs. Our estimate
With no leavers to count, there are no replacement costs to avoid.
Better-rated services tend to have fewer vacancies (Skills for Care, 2026). That is a pattern in the data, and we don't promise it for your service. Public source
You can check every step. Public figures carry their source, and our own estimates are marked.
A US study co-funded by a recognition company found a 45% lower chance of leaving within two years with strong recognition (Gallup with Workhuman). We stay far below that, and we never use it in the maths.
Management time is valued at Skills for Care pay (registered manager £20.63 an hour, deputy £16.02 for supervision, salary only). The team's preparation time is valued at the National Living Wage (£12.71, GOV.UK), and posting time is taken off at the same rate. Hiring hours are shown as time only, because their cost is already inside the £7,870. Cover hours are time only too: the agency part is inside the £7,870, and we don't put a price on the rest. It is time freed, not cash in the bank. Public source
Per person, your team saves about 22 minutes a month on average: about 10 minutes of supervision preparation and 14 minutes of cover, minus about 2 minutes spent posting.
Price: we compare with the top of your plan's range. Your exact price is confirmed in a quote.
What it depends on: your team using CareKudos. In one US study, hospitals with a recognition scheme had the same intent to leave as hospitals without one. Nurses who actually felt recognised had less burnout (Kelly and Lefton, 2017).
What we leave out: your CQC rating, tenders, occupancy, fees, sickness absence and families' trust. These figures are for adult social care in England. This is a guide, not a quote.
| Service | Plan | Turnover costs today | Manager hours back a month | Team hours back a month | Pays for itself if |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| One care home, 50 staff, 23.7% | Core | £93,000 | 15 | 18 | 1 in 17 stays |
| Home care, 2 services, 120 staff, 22.2% | Advance | £209,000 | 33 | 43 | 1 in 19 stays |
| Care home group, 6 homes, 400 staff, 23.7% | Enterprise | £746,000 | 107 | 151 | 1 in 24 stays |
Skills for Care, The state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England 2026, Glossary and Effective supervision guide · Joseph Rowntree Foundation, The hidden cost of low pay in the social care sector (2026) and Technical Appendix · DHSC, Work-related quality of life of the adult social care workforce in England in 2025, wave 2 (2026) and Busting bureaucracy (2020) · CQC, State of Care 2024/25 and Provider information return · Care Provider Alliance, review of CQC's single assessment framework (2025) · Southwark Council, Flexi Care contract award report (11 March 2025) · GOV.UK, National Living Wage 2026 · Gallup, Employee retention depends on getting recognition right · Kelly and Lefton, American Journal of Critical Care (2017). Figures marked 'Our estimate' are CareKudos estimates, to be confirmed with pilot data.
05Your plan
Prices go by team size, on a 12-month term. Our numbers use the top of each range, so your quote will not be higher than the price we used. We confirm your exact price before you commit.
Fits your service
One service, up to 50 staff
from £249/month
£249 to £449 a month, by team size
Up to 3 services, unlimited staff
from £499/month
£499 to £899 a month, by team size
Groups with 4 or more services
from £1,299/month
£1,299 to £2,499 a month, by group size
Core fits your service: one service with up to 50 staff.
Your plan already includes the family portal and Family Stars.
The pilot is for organisations new to recognition software. No obligation.
Compare plans
Questions
Core is designed for individual care settings that want to put recognition, values and evidence at the heart of everyday care. If you want families involved, start with Advance.
Your price depends on your team size. We confirm it with you before you commit, so there are no surprises.
Yes. Paid subscriptions have a 12-month initial term, which starts with your first invoice. It then renews for another 12 months unless you give written notice at least 30 days before the end of the term. Full details are in our Terms and Cancellation Policy. If you are new to recognition software, you can start with a free 30-day pilot first.
Talk to us. Hospitals and hospices often have many teams or sites, so we shape the setup and the price with you.
Care organisations that have not used a recognition solution before. The pilot is free, has no obligation and ends with a short exit survey.
We start with public figures: the Skills for Care turnover rates for 2025/26 and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's median cost of replacing a care worker (2026). Time saved and how many people stay are CareKudos estimates, marked as such and to be confirmed with pilot data. We compare with the top of each plan's price range. You can check every step under How we worked this out.
Talk to us
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