Covering Shifts with Bank and Agency Staff

Planning the rota lays out the shifts — shift management is how you get each one covered. Care Bank keeps every shift in the Jobs List, where you can track its status, allocate bank workers, and share to an agency when your bank can't cover it.

The Jobs List

Open Jobs from the main menu and select Jobs List. Each shift shows its worker type, site, start and end time, break hours, estimated and actual charge, status, and timesheet state. Two controls help you focus:

• List View / Site View — see all jobs as a list, or grouped by site.
• Care Bank Jobs / Care Hires Jobs — switch between shifts filled by your own bank and shifts shared to agencies.

Filter by status — Draft, Urgent, Open, Open Over-due, Suggested, Allocated, Completed, or Cancelled — and narrow further by date range and site.

Posting and Allocating Shifts

• Post a job. Select + Post Job to create and publish a new shift.
• Allocate a worker. Open a shift and choose from the suggested, eligible workers. Candidates are ordered by your configuration — typically those who have been to the site before first, then alphabetically.
• Posting tiers. Where configured, open shifts are offered in tiers: preferred or frequent staff are notified first; after a set wait, all other bank staff; and after a further wait, the shift can be pushed to agency.

Note: Posting tiers and wait times are configured during setup. Confirm your organisation's tiers, and whether shifts are first-come-first-served or require approval, before going live.

Sharing a Shift With an Agency

If your bank can't cover a shift, share it to an agency through Care Hires. The rates, cancellation terms, and approval cut-offs that apply come from your Agreement with that agency (see the Agreements section). Depending on your configuration, sharing may route through an approval step and ask you to record a reason, so there's a clear audit trail of why agency cover was needed.

Shift Statuses

Track each shift through its lifecycle — for example Open, Open Over-due, Suggested, Allocated, Completed, and Cancelled — so you always know what still needs attention. The Timesheet column shows whether worked time has been captured yet.

Tips for Provider Admins

• Exhaust the bank first. Let the posting tiers run before sharing to agency — it protects your margins.
• Watch the overdue filter. "Open Over-due" shifts need urgent attention; check this filter daily.
• Give a clear reason when sharing. A consistent reason makes later reporting and reconciliation much easier.