A: MyCareTracker is a resource system to help individuals needing care to live independently without having to worry about many of the responsibilities that come with being an employer. Read more about the back story to this system.

A: An employer in MyCareTracker is someone who has a care need and who wants to manage their own care by choosing who their employees are, employing them directly through either a Direct Payment, Personal Budget, Compensation payout or trust scheme, Personal Health Budget or Continuing Care. An employer may also be someone who has been give the responsibility to manage the care package for someone who has a care need (either a friend, family member, social worker or healthcare professional) and has been appointed by either the person needing the care or the funding provider.

A: An employee in MyCareTracker is someone who looks after an individual needing care, whether they consider themselves to be a “carer” or a “personal assistant”. If you are a friend, relative or family member of the person you are looking after, make sure that you have agreed this in advance with your care package provider before adding your details to this system.

A: Direct Payments and Personal Budgets are a central part of the Personalisation Agenda to give service users choice and control over their care and support. If you want to read more about them in detail, we highly recommend this expert guide or look on your local council website.

A: Whilst we are building up the core functions of MyCareTracker we need a minimum amount of information. For that reason at this stage we are recommending that you need to have a minimum of 10 hours care per week and 3 PAs. You must also have an existing care package in place through either a Direct Payment, Personal Budget, Compensation payout or trust scheme, Personal Health Budget or Continuing Care. Once the system has reached an appropriate level of functionality we will open it up so that users with fewer care requirements can also benefit.

A: MyCareTracker is being designed to work on the latest versions of the most popular web browsers using HTML5. This includes Internet Explorer (versions 8 and above), Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera. Internet Explorer 6 or Internet Explorer 7 are not supported. If you use one of these popular browsers, we strongly recommend that you update to the latest version both to benefit from the full range of features on the site but also for security purposes. This site also requires browsers to have JavaScript enabled. The long term aim is to have this site work on smartphone browsers and tablet devices as well.

A: During this initial phase and for the pilot programme, MyCareTracker will be free to use for all users. As the system develops and we start to add some of the more advanced features there will be monthly premiums that you can upgrade your package to. There will always be a set of features that you can use free of charge.

A: If tools or features don't work as expected, or you just need some advice as you get used to the system, please use the feedback tool which is linked on the website. We can't guarantee that we'll have an answer to you in a matter of minutes, but one of our team will endeavour to get back to you within 48 hours.

A: MyCareTracker can’t magically put together a care package for you or the funding to pay for your carers. If you've had a compensation pay out as a result of an accident, or you have funds which would prevent you from applying for state assistance, have a look in your local area for places like DIAL, ASIST or Centres for Integrated Living. They provide many individuals with private funding information and support services for getting care packages set up. If you do qualify for state assistance, you need to get a social worker first. They will then carry out a care assessment plan to judge how much funding you require. Many of these processes vary from council to council, so make sure you check with your local authority either through their website, giving them a ring or visiting them in person. Once you have a care package in place, then come back and visit MyCareTracker again so we can help get you started!

A: Absolutely. We want to get the word out to as many people as possible as quickly and as often as we can because we believe strongly that MyCareTracker can help thousands of individuals to live more independently. So tell your friends and family, get them to tell their friends and family, get the word out to everyone you know as much as possible!

A: Many people can cope with managing their own care, we're not suggesting for a moment that you have to use this system. MyCareTracker came about as an idea from users who do manage their own care and have done for a number of years. Based on their own experiences they've told us that living their lives are complicated enough without having to deal with the day to day nightmare of employment bureaucracy, so MyCareTracker is being designed to make things that little bit easier. By storing information in one place and drawing on a wide range of experiences, we hope that MyCareTracker can give our users a little more free time to live their lives the way they want to with a bit less hassle.

A: At the moment we haven't set a limit for how many PAs you can add. Some of our users only have two carers, some have anywhere up to 10! To benefit from the full functionality of this system we recommend you start with a minimum of 2 PAs. Don't worry if you only have one, it will still work!

A: Not straight away, no. As we add more features we will be integrating payroll functionality into the system, so holiday pay will definitely be included. Have to keep a happy workforce after all!

A: All communication between your computer and the website takes place over an encrypted HTTPS connection using SSL, look for the padlock on your browser.

A: Any website host will only ever guarantee a website will be accessible 99.9% of the time. In English that means that any website out there might be inaccessible for up to 45 minutes per month. If for whatever reason the website is offline for longer or experiences problems, MyCareTracker takes daily backups of the information it stores to limit any amount of information lost and this will be restored when the website becomes accessible again. If you find that you lose more information than this at any stage, contact one of our team straight away so that they can investigate for you.

A: Absolutely. All of the information you store in the MyCareTracker system can be exported in .csv format so that you can keep a copy at any time.

A: We are developing an archiving system so that you'll be able to see a historical overview of all the care information that you store on the MyCareTracker system. At this stage, when one of your PA's leaves and you archive their details, they will no longer be able to log into the system. All of their personal information will be deleted, with the exception of their full name, user name and National Insurance number. As an employer you will be required to keep information on file for up to 7 years on an employee's work history, so you will need these bits of information at the absolute minimum to show when they worked for you. Additional financial information related to that employee's earnings will also need to be stored when payroll features are activated as part of the system, but we will make this information clear nearer the time.

A: Yes. When a PA leaves all of their personal information will have been deleted with the exception of their name, username and national insurance number. They will have to fill in their personal information again and the system will ask them to set a new password before they first login after you have reactivated them from your archived PA list.

A: MyCareTracker is being built from the outset to provide tools that its users need rather than forcing them to adapt their needs to a standard set of functions that only do part of what they want. A lot of features are currently in active development and you can keep up to date with these on the MyCareTracker blog. We welcome ongoing feedback though, so if there is a particular tool or feature which you would like to recommend to enhance this system, we strongly encourage you to use the feedback link to get your suggestion to us. You'll also be able to see other suggestions made by users and vote for your favourites and that way we can get to work on the most popular ideas.