Packages arriving all day
The brokerage team emails a new package: four calls a day, in a village on the edge of your area, starting Monday. A hospital discharge team sends another: two calls a day, urgent. The council's portal lists three more. The emails land in a shared inbox that the care coordinator checks between phone calls.
Deciding whether you can take a package means opening the rota, working out which carers cover that area, checking whether they have gaps at those times, and remembering who is about to go on leave. By the time the coordinator has done that, another agency has replied and the package has gone.
Why good packages slip away
Brokerage is often first come, first served, or close to it. The deciding factor is how quickly you can say yes with confidence. That depends on knowing your capacity by area and time of day, which most agencies can only find out by studying the rota.
Referrals arrive in inconsistent formats. Some are structured forms, some are free-text emails, some are PDFs. The key facts, postcode, call times, number of carers, start date, have to be picked out by reading each one.
Packages you cannot take are also information. If you keep turning down calls in one area at one time of day, that is where to recruit. Without a record, that pattern stays invisible.
Hospital discharge referrals add urgency on top. A ward wants to know within hours whether you can start care so a bed can be freed. Those requests often arrive by phone to whoever picks up, and are then passed on by word of mouth, which makes the capacity check even more rushed.
What slow intake costs
| Issue | Effect |
|---|---|
| Replies sent late | Packages taken by other agencies |
| Capacity worked out by hand | Coordinator time on every referral |
| Packages accepted without real capacity | Runs overloaded, calls late |
| Declines not recorded | No view of where demand is unmet |
| Shared inbox | Referrals missed or answered twice |
Accepting a package you cannot really cover is as costly as missing one you could. Both come from not knowing capacity quickly.
How we speed up intake
- Referral capture from the brokerage inbox and any portal that offers a feed, with extraction of postcode, call times, duration, number of carers, start date and any skills required. A person confirms the extracted details.
- A capacity view from your rostering system: which carers work in or near that postcode, and their free time in each call window over the coming weeks.
- A fit check that marks each referral as likely, possible or unlikely, with the reason, such as no carer free at breakfast in that area.
- Suggested carers for a likely package, respecting any skills or gender preferences in the referral.
- A quick reply template to brokerage, sent from your normal email, with the decision recorded.
- A record of every referral and outcome, showing where and when you most often have to decline.
The decision to accept stays with the coordinator. The system does the reading and the capacity check, so the decision can be made while the package is still available.
Referrals answered while they are still open
The coordinator sees each new referral with its fit check already done. Likely packages can be accepted in minutes, with suggested carers ready. Unlikely ones are declined quickly and politely, which brokerage teams appreciate.
Over a few months, the decline record shows where to recruit. That is often the most useful thing the system produces.
Does intake work like this for you?
- Brokerage packages arrive in a shared inbox
- Checking capacity means studying the rota
- Other agencies often take packages first
- You sometimes accept packages you struggle to cover
- You have no record of the packages you declined