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How to manage worker availability

Record when your contracted workers cannot work, check it on the calendar and remove it when plans change.

Workers engaged through their own limited company (PSC) or an umbrella company are not employed by your agency, so they have no leave entitlement with you. Instead, you record the times they cannot work. Unavailability stops them being offered shifts at those times, and it shows straight away on the leave calendar, with no balance and no approval needed.

For PAYE employees, you record leave instead. See How to add leave on behalf of a worker.

 

Before you begin

  • Leave Management is available on Agency Accelerator Pro.
  • You will need a user access level that allows you to manage leave.
  • Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required.

 

Recording unavailability

  1. Select Leaves in the left hand menu, then Add Leave.
  2. Enter the worker's name or email address in Employee and select them. A Care Hires logo beside a name means a Care Hires Verified worker. A building icon means one of your direct employees.
  3. Check the panel on the right. Under Unavailability, it shows the worker's name, reference number and a View Profile link, with tabs for Last 7 days and Upcoming 7 days. Each day shows whether anything is recorded, for example Available all day.
  4. Choose the Unavailability Type. The option is Unavailability.
  5. Add Additional Notes (Optional), such as the reason the worker is unavailable.
  6. Select ADD DOCUMENTS to attach anything relevant. Each file is listed by name, with a bin icon to remove it.
  7. Choose the day in Select Date. Use the reset button beside it to clear the date and start again.
  8. If the worker cannot work at all that day, turn on Full Day Unavailable. The time is set to 00:00 to 23:59 for you.
  9. If they cannot work for only part of the day, leave the toggle off and enter the From and To times. Select + TIME WINDOW to add another window on the same day, for example a morning and an afternoon. Use the bin icon to remove a window.
  10. Check each window shows its length, such as 4h 30m, with a green tick.
  11. Select + ADD UNAVAILABILITY.

Unavailability is recorded one day at a time. If a worker is unavailable on several days, add each day separately.

Tip: Record unavailability as soon as a worker tells you about it. It stops the shift being offered to someone who has already said no, which is a quick way to lose their goodwill.

 

Seeing unavailability on the calendar

  1. Select Leaves, then Leave Summary.
  2. Find the worker with Search by Employee ID/Name, and use the year and month dropdowns to find the date.

Unavailability shows as a pink square with a number. The number is how many time windows there are that day. Hover over it to see, for example, No of unavailability: 2. Select Leave Types Key at the top right to see what every colour on the calendar means.

 

Looking at one day in detail

  1. Select the square on the calendar. The day view opens, with the date at the top, for example 5th Nov 2026, and the day split into 15 minute slots.
  2. Find the worker's entry. It appears as a bar showing the note and length, for example test • 4.5 hours.
  3. Select the bar to open the Unavailability History panel.

The panel shows:

  • Unavailability Breakdown: the Start Date, the Duration with the times and total hours, and the Availability
  • Leave Type/Reason: the type and any notes added
  • View Document for anything attached

Select BACK to return to the month.

 

Deleting unavailability

  1. Open the day and select the entry to open Unavailability History.
  2. Select the bin icon beside the entry.
  3. A message asks Are you sure you want to delete this unavailability? Select DELETE to confirm.

Please note: Deleting removes all of the worker's unavailability time windows for that day, not just one of them. Once deleted, the worker becomes eligible for new shift allocations at those times. If only one window was wrong, delete the day and add the correct windows again.

 

Availability in the Care Hires Worker app

Workers can also share their own availability in the app. Two rules protect your rota:

  • Booked times are protected. A worker cannot mark themselves as unavailable at a time they are already booked on a job.
  • Clashes are shown. When a worker selects Full Day Unavailable on a day they have a job, the app shows them the clash.

See Managing Availability via the Worker Mobile App for what workers see.

 

Seeing why a worker is not eligible for a shift

When you open an open job for one of your direct clients, the Eligible section has a filter that lets you include workers who are unavailable for that shift. They are listed with the reason they are unavailable, so you can see straight away why someone you expected is missing.

 

If something looks wrong

  • You see leave types instead of the unavailability form. The worker is set up as a PAYE employee. If that is wrong, check the employment type on their profile.
  • A worker is still being offered shifts. Check the unavailability is on the right date and covers the right times in Leave Summary.
  • A worker is missing from a job's eligible list. Check whether they have unavailability recorded for that time.

If you cannot put something right, contact our Support Team with the worker's reference number and the dates concerned.