Care is one of the hardest sectors to run payroll for, and one we know well. Between rotating shifts, sleep-ins, waking nights, bank staff and a workforce that turns over quickly, a single pay run can involve dozens of variations. Add strict National Minimum Wage rules and pension duties across a large team, and it is easy to see why care managers would rather not do this in a spreadsheet at 10pm. We take the whole run off your desk.
Rota-based pay, shifts and sleep-ins
Care work rarely fits a tidy nine to five. Your staff work early shifts, late shifts, long days, waking nights and weekends, often on rotas that change week to week. Different roles and shifts may carry different rates, and enhancements can apply to nights, weekends and bank holidays. We take your rota or hours data in whatever form you keep it and turn it into an accurate pay run every period, whether you pay weekly, fortnightly or monthly.
Sleep-in shifts need particular care. The rules on how sleep-ins are paid and how they interact with the minimum wage have been contested and refined over the years, so how a shift is structured, what counts as working time and what allowance applies all matter. We work with you to make sure sleep-ins, waking nights and any on-call arrangements are recorded and paid in line with how your contracts and current rules treat them.
Bank and agency-style staff? Many providers keep a pool of bank staff who pick up shifts as needed. We handle variable-hours and bank workers alongside your permanent team, so everyone is paid correctly for exactly the hours they worked.
National Minimum Wage compliance
The care sector is a focus area for HMRC minimum wage enforcement, and the risks are not always obvious. The headline hourly rate is only part of it. Time spent travelling between service users, handover periods, training and certain other working time can all count towards the hours a worker must be paid for. If that time is not captured, an apparently compliant rate can quietly fall below the legal minimum.
We help you stay on the right side of this by calculating pay against the correct minimum wage rate for each worker's age, flagging where recorded hours and pay look at risk of falling short, and keeping clear records. We cannot make guarantees about how HMRC will view your arrangements, but we give you the visibility and the accurate figures you need to get it right and to demonstrate that you have.
Statutory pay and pensions across a large team
Care providers often employ large numbers of people, and with that comes a steady stream of statutory calculations. Statutory Sick Pay is common in care, where staff cannot come in if they are unwell, and it needs to be worked out correctly each time. Statutory maternity, paternity and other family-related pay comes up regularly too. We calculate and apply all of these as part of your normal run.
Pensions auto-enrolment is a significant ongoing duty when you have a big, changing workforce. Every worker has to be assessed each pay period, new joiners enrolled, opt-outs processed, contributions calculated and data sent to your pension provider, and re-enrolment handled on cycle. With high turnover, this is constant work. We run auto-enrolment for you end to end so nothing slips through, and we keep the records that show your duties have been met.
High turnover and sensitive data
Turnover in care is famously high, which means a constant flow of starters and leavers. Every new employee needs setting up correctly, and every leaver needs a P45 and a clean final pay. We process starters and leavers promptly so your headcount records and HMRC filings always match reality, and so nobody is paid late or paid after they have gone.
Care payroll also involves sensitive personal information, from bank details to sickness records and sometimes more. We are ICO-registered and handle your staff data securely and confidentially. We are also CIPP members, ICAEW-affiliated and ICO-registered, so your payroll is run by an accredited team that does this every day.
How we help care providers
We give care homes, domiciliary care agencies, supported living services and other providers a complete, hands-off payroll. You send us the hours or rota; we handle the rest. That includes calculating shift and enhancement pay, sleep-ins and waking nights, PAYE and National Insurance, SSP and family-related pay, auto-enrolment, payslips, P45s and P60s, and RTI filing on or before every payday. You get accurate payslips and reports each pay period, and a named contact who answers the phone.
This is exactly the sort of high-volume, high-variation payroll that our outsourced payroll service is built for. Our pricing is straightforward at £5 per employee, per month (plus VAT), with no long tie-ins, so it scales cleanly with your headcount. See our pricing or get a quote. Tell us how many staff you pay and how often, and we will come back to you the same day.