frequently asked questions

Yes. Emergency housing providers can use PLACENTRAL™ to advertise current or upcoming availability, increase visibility to Local Authorities, and receive enquiries through the platform. This helps promote available spaces in a more structured way, respond quickly to demand, and reduce void time.

Yes. Local Authorities can use PLACENTRAL™ to search for emergency housing by area, availability, and relevant service criteria. This helps teams identify suitable options more quickly, improve visibility of available spaces, and manage urgent housing searches in a more organised and efficient way.

For adult placements, you can source care homes, nursing homes, domiciliary care, emergency housing for homeless families, rehabilitation and supported living. For children's placements, you can source domiciliary care, fostering, residential and boarding, (incl. parenting assessments) residential children’s homes, short breaks, supported accommodation and specialist schools (SEND / therapeutic / disability).

Yes. Care Providers can view property listings from landlords who are looking to work with the sector. Some properties may already be suitable for care use, including cases where relevant licensing or planning is in place. This helps providers identify potential expansion opportunities more quickly and connect directly with landlords who understand the market.

Yes. Care Providers can advertise both current and upcoming availability by adding a future available-from date to a listing. This helps Local Authorities plan ahead, gives providers earlier visibility of upcoming capacity, and can help reduce void time by generating interest before the service becomes available.

Yes. Visibility depends on the option chosen. Vacancies under the monthly option are shown only on the public website for self-funding clients and are not visible to Local Authorities. Vacancies under pay-per-booking are visible only to Local Authorities in the secure platform and are not shown publicly. Annual licence holders can choose public visibility, Local Authority visibility, or both.

Yes. Care Providers can respond securely through the platform’s secure chat, giving placements teams a more organised alternative to fragmented email chains. This helps keep referral-related communication in one place, reduces inbox overload, and supports a clearer, more efficient audit trail.

Yes. Care Providers can update or remove live listings if availability, service details, or other relevant information changes. This helps them keep listings accurate, reduce unsuitable enquiries, and ensure local authorities are viewing information that is intended to reflect the provider’s current position.

When a relevant referral or enquiry is sent through the platform to a Care Provider, they receive it through secure chat. If they are offline and have added a mobile number to their profile, they can also receive a text alert, along with an email notification. This helps Care Providers stay aware of new opportunities quickly, respond promptly, and avoid relying solely on manual inbox monitoring.

Yes. Care Providers can use PLACENTRAL™ to connect directly with recruitment agencies for both temporary and permanent staffing needs. This makes it easier to respond quickly to urgent gaps, support mobilisation, and plan ahead for longer-term recruitment.

Yes. Independent Fostering Agencies can advertise both current and upcoming availability, including foster families expected to become available and those progressing toward panel. This gives Local Authorities earlier visibility of potential options, supports forward planning and permanence planning, and helps agencies generate interest in advance rather than waiting until availability becomes immediately live.

No. Every Care Provider must create and use their own account. This is essential for compliance, legal, operational, and financial accountability. Shared accounts are not permitted, as each Cae Provider is responsible for their own listings, contracts, and regulatory information.

No. Care Providers do not need to publish the full address when advertising through PLACENTRAL™. However, they are required to include the area so Local Authorities can search effectively, including by radius and distance from a preferred location. This helps protect privacy and safety while still giving Local Authorities the location insight they need to identify suitable options.

Yes. When a Care Provider creates a new listing, they are required to include key regulatory information relevant to that service, such as their Ofsted or CQC registration details, URN, and latest inspection outcome where applicable. This helps give Local Authorities clearer visibility of important compliance information when reviewing listings.

Once your vacancies are live, relevant referrals and enquiries come straight to you through the secure chat on PLACENTRAL™, giving you a faster and more organised way to respond. If you are offline, you will also receive a text alert so you can pick up opportunities quickly. This helps Care Providers stay responsive to placements teams, reduce missed opportunities, and manage referral activity more efficiently in one place.

PLACENTRAL™ helps Care Providers grow by widening their network, connecting them with better-matched referrals through intelligent matching, and making it easier to scale. Care Providers can quickly request temporary staff to mobilise faster and view properties from landlords looking to work with the sector, helping them increase capacity and respond to opportunities more effectively.

Yes. Care Providers can still use PLACENTRAL™ if they only want to reach self-funding clients. The monthly option allows vacancies to be advertised on the public website without being shown to Local Authorities, helping providers increase visibility to private enquirers through a simple advertising route.

Yes. PLACENTRAL™ helps Local Authorities to identify suitable services, but each Local Authority may still require its own due diligence, onboarding, and approval steps before using a Care Provider for the first time. Care Providers must still comply with any Local Authority requirements.

Each listing includes key compliance information, such as Ofsted or CQC registration details and current ratings. In addition, when Care Providers sign up, PLACENTRAL™ verifies them through Companies House, giving Local Authorities added insight into company information such as incorporation date, company type, and registered status. This supports stronger due diligence from the outset.

Local Authorities and Care Providers' dashboards show real-time data that can be downloaded and saved as PDF or CSV files.

We don’t retain any personal data about the individuals for whom you’re seeking placements. Referral information in chats is automatically permanently deleted from all chats when a placement is booked or the referral is closed. Your user account data (name/email) is anonymised on account deletion. Relevant usage stats remain for system reporting and dashboards. Further information can be found in our Privacy Policy which is published on our website.

Yes. PLACENTRAL™ can give framework managers clearer visibility of live availability, referral activity, and market movement within the platform. This helps reduce reliance on fragmented updates and manual tracking, and supports better oversight, quicker decision-making, and a more organised view of provider activity.

Yes. PLACENTRAL™ can support a more consistent approach by giving participating Local Authorities one place to view options, manage activity, and communicate with providers. This can help reduce variation in manual processes, improve visibility, and support a more joined-up way of working across the framework.

Local Authorities can use PLACENTRAL™ for both framework and off-framework sourcing. It can support off-framework activity directly, and it can also help digitise framework-based sourcing where a framework exists but the process is still managed manually. This gives Local Authorities a more efficient, centralised way to manage both routes in one place.

Yes. PLACENTRAL™ can help Local Authorities manage Care Provider oversight in a more structured way by bringing key framework-related information into one place. This can reduce manual tracking, support clearer visibility of Care Provider status, and make ongoing framework management more efficient.

No. PLACENTRAL™ is designed to work alongside existing frameworks, not replace them. Local Authorities can continue to follow their own framework rules, approval routes, and procurement processes while using the platform to improve visibility, reduce manual admin, and manage activity more efficiently.

Yes. As set out in our Terms & Conditions, if a placement is sourced through the website, it must be booked through the website. This helps ensure referral data shared in chats can be securely deleted once a placement is booked, supports GDPR compliance, and maintains a clear audit trail. It also supports accurate analytics and reporting, and is essential to the commercial sustainability of the platform.

No. PLACENTRAL™ is a web-based platform, so users can access it through their browser without installing software on local devices or completing a system integration. This makes it easier to get started quickly, reduce IT dependency, and begin using the platform without a complex implementation process.

Getting started is designed to be quick and straightforward. The time involved depends on your user type and how much information you want to add at the outset, but most users can complete registration and begin setting up their profile without a lengthy onboarding process. The platform is web-based, and registration takes users through the steps relevant to their account type.

Yes. Organisations can continue using other systems and processes alongside PLACENTRAL™. The platform is designed to give users an additional route to source services, manage opportunities, and improve visibility, rather than requiring exclusivity. Any use of the platform is simply subject to the relevant Terms & Conditions.

Signing up as a care provider is quick and easy. Enter your Companies House number and PLACENTRAL™ will pull through key company details to speed up registration. Then complete your profile, choose your services and locations, and start increasing your visibility to local authorities. Most providers can register in minutes. To watch the guide, copy and paste this link into your browser: https://youtu.be/rvH7hguGj6o

Registration is simple. Create an account, and you can start listing your properties directly to Care Providers.

Simply sign up on the website, provide your company details, and you can begin receiving staffing requests directly from care providers when they send them.

You register via the website. We run a manual verification to confirm your authority to act on behalf of your local authority (completed within 24 hours). The person who registers becomes the Account Administrator. You can then add and manage sub-users in your teams.

Yes. As long as the landlord grants access to their account, trusted agents can upload and manage property listings on their behalf.

Care Providers delivering essential services are backed by Local Authority funding and regulated by CQC or Ofsted, meaning rent payments are more consistent and reliable as their financial management is scrutinised and they are expected to maintain tenancies in a way that provides individuals in care with long-term stability. This reduces financial risk and provides stable returns.

Some care services require properties with specific licences or planning consent. Care Providers can see your property details on PLACENTRAL™ and contact you directly to confirm requirements.

Care providers typically look for multi-year lease agreements to deliver regulated services. Local Suthorities may also seek short-term agreements for emergency housing.

If you register as a landlord, your property listings will be visible to registered Care Providers. If you want to advertise emergency accommodation directly to Local Authorities for homeless families, you will need to create a separate Care Provider account. This is because landlord and Care Provider accounts serve different functions on the platform and are designed for different types of users and services.

Yes. Care Providers can view referrals that Local Authorities choose to publish. This supports a fair and transparent process by allowing relevant Care Providers to see available opportunities aligned to their service and respond, in line with the spirit of the Procurement Act. Local Authorities remain in control of what they publish and when, so they can manage visibility in a way that fits their commissioning and placement approach.

No. If activity happens through PLACENTRAL™, live availability is updated automatically when a booking is made, and related analytics update too. This reduces manual admin and helps keep listings and reporting current. Care Providers only need to make manual updates where changes happen outside the platform or where other listing details need to be amended.

Yes. As soon as a Local Authority adds an end date to a placement, the Care Provider is notified and can choose to relist the vacancy straight away. The Care Provider can set a future availability date, allowing time to prepare the property for a new individual while making upcoming availability visible to Local Authorities in advance. This helps reduce void time and supports faster re-occupancy.

Yes. Local Authorities remain in control of when and how they use PLACENTRAL™ alongside their existing processes. The platform can support sourcing where needed, while allowing authorities to continue following their own internal processes, framework rules, and decision-making routes.

Yes. PLACENTRAL™ enables Local Authorities to view both current and upcoming availability where Care Providers have entered a future available-from date. This helps teams plan ahead, identify options earlier, and reduce delays when sourcing the right service. It is particularly useful for forward planning, step-down planning, and reducing void time by making upcoming availability visible in advance.

Yes. PLACENTRAL™ enables Local Authorities to search within a chosen radius and shows the distance between the searched location and available listings. This helps teams find options in the right area more quickly, support location-based planning, and make more informed decisions where proximity is important.

Care Providers are required to add the relevant Ofsted/CQC registration number for each provision in their listings, making it easy for Local Authorities to access and review the latest Ofsted or CQC reports as part of their due diligence. This helps teams check regulatory information quickly and make more informed placement decisions.

Yes. Local authorities can specify the number of spaces needed when searching for placements, so results can be filtered to show options with the required number of vacancies. Where keeping all siblings together is not possible, the platform can still help teams identify the best available options to keep as many siblings together as possible and search by location to keep their placements as close to one another as possible.

The Framework Manager function is designed to enable collaboration across multiple Local Authorities and care providers within a framework. However, outside of the framework module, each Local Authority is responsible for managing its own account. We don’t recommend giving users from another Local Authority access to your account, as this can create data protection and accountability issues, and also affect your metrics on your dashboard.

Yes. PLACENTRAL™ can support both framework and off-framework sourcing. This allows Local Authorities to manage both routes in one place, improving visibility, reducing manual admin, and creating a more consistent process whether sourcing through an existing framework or outside of one.

Yes. PLACENTRAL™ can help reduce the email chains, ring-rounds, and manual tracking often involved in framework sourcing. It gives Local Authorities a more structured way to view options, manage communication, and keep activity in one place, helping teams work more efficiently while still following their own framework processes.

Yes. PLACENTRAL™ can support existing frameworks by giving Local Authorities a more structured digital way to view services, manage referrals, and communicate with providers. It does not replace your framework rules or call-off process, but it can help reduce manual admin, improve visibility, and make framework-based sourcing more efficient.

No. PLACENTRAL™ is an open-access website, so no software installation or integration is needed.

Yes. Independent Fostering Agencies can advertise upcoming fostering availability by adding a future “available from” date to a vacancy. This allows Local Authorities to see which foster placements are expected to become available in advance, helping with permanence planning, forward planning, and reducing delays when a suitable match is needed.

Care Providers must refresh their listings every 3 days or they will be removed from search results. Bookings made through the website automatically update the number of available spaces shown on a live listing. Once all spaces are filled, the listing is removed from search results, helping Local Authorities see placements that are intended to reflect current availability.

Information shown on PLACENTRAL™ is provided by the Care Provider when they create or update a listing. PLACENTRAL™ does not audit, independently verify, or guarantee the accuracy of provider-submitted information. Care Providers are responsible for ensuring their listing details remain accurate and up to date. At sign-up, certain company information is automatically checked against Companies House records via the Companies House Open API using the company number entered.

No. PLACENTRAL™ is designed to minimise duplication. Local Authorities only need to enter the key placement requirements needed for Care Providers to assess suitability, such as placement type, age, and relevant risks or needs, rather than retyping full case notes or unnecessary sensitive information. This creates a clearer, more structured referral, supports better matching, reduces back-and-forth, and is often quicker than sending multiple unstructured emails.

Yes. PLACENTRAL™ includes a secure chat function so users can communicate in one place about live referrals, availability, and staffing requests. If Care Providers or recruitment agencies are offline and have added a mobile number to their profile, they receive a text alert and an email notification. Other users receive an email notification when offline. This helps reduce fragmented communication and missed opportunities.

Once a Care Provider is selected, the booking is completed through the platform in line with the Terms & Conditions. This helps keep the process clear and recorded, supports accurate reporting and analytics, and ensures referral data shared through the chat can be securely deleted once it is no longer needed. It also helps Care Providers keep their live availability up to date automatically.

This depends on your user type and pricing option. Local Authorities can add multiple users. Care Providers can add multiple users if they hold an annual licence. Recruitment agencies and landlords currently have one user per account. This helps keep access aligned to how each part of the platform is intended to be used.

Yes. During registration, users are also taken through the options relevant to their user type so they can choose the one that best suits how they want to use the platform. This helps make pricing clear upfront before sign-up is completed.

No. PLACENTRAL™ uses clear, published pricing so care providers can understand the cost before choosing how they want to use the platform. Fees vary depending on the option selected, but pricing is set out on the website so providers can compare the monthly, annual, and pay-per-booking routes transparently.

A simple way to compare is to estimate your likely pay-per-booking cost over a year, then compare that total to the annual licence fee. To do this, take 20% of your average weekly fee and multiply it by the number of current or expected vacancies you expect to secure through PLACENTRAL™. If that total is close to or higher than the annual licence cost, the annual option may offer better value. If you expect lower volumes, pay-per-booking may be the more cost-effective route.

PLACENTRAL™ offers three pricing options for Care Providers: a monthly advertising plan, an annual plan, or a pay-per-booking option. The monthly and annual plans involve upfront payment. The pay-per-booking option allows Care Providers to advertise with no upfront cost and only pay when a referral is successfully secured. This gives Care Providers flexibility and transparent pricing.

Care Providers with multiple vacancies can cap their costs by choosing an annual licence. This allows unlimited advertising and sourcing for a fixed annual fee, rather than paying each time a referral is secured. It can be a more cost-effective option for Care Providers expecting higher volumes of vacancies or regular placement activity.

Yes. In line with our Terms & Conditions, each company must have its own separate account. This is because each account is linked to a specific legal entity and its own company details, compliance information, listings, and booking activity. Keeping accounts separate supports a clear audit trail, accurate billing and reporting, and helps Local Authorities see which legal entity they are engaging with.

Yes. Landlords pay a small one-off fee per property listing. Your listing has no expiry date — it stays live until it’s filled. If you are providing emergency housing to Local Authorities for homeless families or individuals, you can either pay per booking or purchase an annual licence. You will need to register as a Care Provider to create your account and be visible to Local Authorities.

Recruitment agencies can choose between a monthly subscription or an annual licence for unlimited access to staffing requests. The annual option offers a discounted rate compared with paying monthly over 12 months, giving agencies a more cost-effective option for longer-term use.

Yes. PLACENTRAL™ can help recruitment agencies increase visibility to Care Providers using the platform, by giving them access to new staffing requests in one place. This can help agencies grow their client base, respond to live demand more efficiently, and win new business without relying solely on cold outreach or repeated follow-ups.

For temporary staffing, requests are focused on roles within the health and social care sector, such as support workers, care workers, care assistants, nurses, and other care staff. For permanent recruitment, Care Providers can seek support with any role, regardless of sector. However, we anticipate that most recruitment agencies registering on the platform will be those with experience in the health and social care sector.

PLACENTRAL™ helps Local Authorities source care more effectively by showing which services have availability now and in the future from the outset. This means teams do not need to spend time contacting providers just to check who has space. They can then use search filters to focus on the options that best meet their requirements, making the process faster, more targeted, and less manual.

PLACENTRAL™ uses referral and listing information to help Local Authorities identify Care Providers that may be better suited to the individual’s needs and care requirements. This helps reduce manual searching, improves efficiency, and supports faster shortlisting.

Only Local Authorities can download a PDF copy of the chat, and only for the conversation with the provider they book with. This supports internal record-keeping where needed. Once a booking is completed, all other chats linked to that referral are permanently deleted, helping ensure referral information shared with non-selected Care Providers is not retained longer than necessary.

Yes. PLACENTRAL™ uses two-factor authentication. Each login requires a one-time security code sent to the user’s registered email address, adding an extra layer of protection beyond a password alone. This helps reduce the risk of unauthorised access and supports more secure access to platform information.