Smarter Care Lab Notes

Welcome to Smarter Care Lab Notes, Birdie's ongoing log of what's new across the platform. Every month we'll add the latest releases and improvements, so you can stay up to date and make the most out of your Birdie experience. Bookmark this page and check back each month (or week!) to see what's changed.

July 2026

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8 July, 2026

A structured field for sexual orientation · Care Management

Sexual orientation is now a structured field under Personal Identity in Client Information, using standard coded options in line with NHS data standards, rather than a free-text box. Existing records have been carried over automatically: previous free-text answers now show as "Prefer to self-describe" with the original text kept, so there's nothing you need to update.

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6 July, 2026

See roster conflicts at a glance, sorted by what matters most · Upgraded Rostering

Conflicts on your roster are now grouped by type and sorted into two priority levels, high and medium, so you can act on the most serious issues first, like a carer who's assigned to a visit they're not available for. A new conflicts panel lists everything in one place, so you can review and resolve conflicts without opening every visit individually.

Not yet on Upgraded Rostering? Learn more and sign up to the waitlist.

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More reporting for care management · Upgraded Rostering - Birdie Analytics

The remaining care management reports are now available to partners on Upgraded Rostering: Care Delivery by Client, Care Management by Client, Care Management Trends, Care Tasks Completed, Task Logs, Medication Task Logs, Hours Delivered, and the Provider Information Return (PIR) Data Report. This completes full Birdie Analytics reporting coverage for Upgraded Rostering, including task completion, medication administration, and delivery data.

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A longer reference ID for manual payments · Finance

If you take payments manually from a payer, you can now add a free text reference ID with a longer character limit than the Direct Debit field allows. It shows in all the same places as the Direct Debit reference, so it's easy to track a payment reference that's too long for the standard Direct Debit format.

June 2026

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24 June

More accurate, easier-to-read transcripts  · Care Management - SmartPlans

We've upgraded the technology behind your recordings, so transcripts are now more accurate, even for longer or more complex conversations. When the same person speaks across several lines, we also now bring these together into one block instead of showing them broken up, making transcripts easier to read.

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Sharper care plan suggestions  · Care Management - SmartPlans

We've made a series of improvements to SmartPlans suggestions: fewer blank fields, so you get more complete suggestions, and a wider range of evidence quotes surfaced instead of the same ones repeating.

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Interested in trying SmartPlans? You can learn more about Birdie's new AI-powered assessment tool here.

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22 June

New reports for holiday pay and more · Upgraded Rostering - Birdie Analytics

Holiday Pay reports (Holiday Pay Summary and Holiday Pay Summary for Payroll) are now available to partners on Upgraded Rostering, alongside a new batch of call monitoring and compliance reports now supported there too: Electronic Call Monitoring exports (audited and reported, standard and abbreviated), a Cancelled Visit Log, a Medication Alerts & Comments report, and an Actions report. Together, these give you everything you need to pay carers accurately for the holiday they've accrued and taken, and to reconcile call times for compliance, all without leaving Birdie Analytics.

Not yet on Upgraded Rostering? Learn more and sign up to the waitlist.

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15 June

More detail in your visit timeline · Upgraded Rostering

Your visit timeline now tracks more than just timing changes. It also records when a carer is assigned, reassigned, or unassigned from a visit, along with any funding changes, and shows the root cause when a change elsewhere in Birdie (like marking a carer absent) affects a visit. Each event is time stamped with who made the change.

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Edits to a visit now stick, even when the schedule changes · Upgraded Rostering

If you make a specific change to a visit, like swapping the assigned carer, that change now stays in place even if you later update the wider schedule it belongs to. You stay in control of which edits carry through and which don't. Read more about visit overrides.

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Assign carers to multiple visits at once · Upgraded Rostering

Setting up or updating a care schedule is quicker. Select several visit slots and assign them all to one carer in a few clicks, instead of doing it one visit at a time. Useful when you're onboarding a new carer or reassigning after someone leaves.

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9 June

SmartPlans · Care Management

SmartPlans, our AI-powered care planning tool, is now available to all partners. Record a care assessment conversation in the app and SmartPlans generates a first draft for your care manager to review and confirm, freeing up time to focus on the person in front of you rather than the paperwork afterwards.

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May 2026

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27 May

Filter visit confirmation by client or carer group · Finance

You can now narrow the visit confirmation screen down to one or more client or carer groups, so you're only reviewing the visits that matter to you, rather than working through everything at once.

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18 May

Set a pay rate override once, and it applies going forward · Upgraded Rostering

If a carer works at a different rate for a particular schedule, you can now set that at the schedule level and it'll apply automatically to every future visit generated from it, rather than updating each visit by hand. This works even when more than one carer is booked onto the same visit, so each person's rate can be set independently. Learn more about pay rate overrides.

Not yet on Upgraded Rostering? Learn more and sign up to the waitlist.

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New reports for scheduling, HR, and incidents · Upgraded Rostering - Birdie Analytics

Five more reports are now available to partners on Upgraded Rostering: Unallocated Visits, Training Expiry, Monthly Active Carers, Carer Details, and Concerns, giving coordinators, HR leads, and quality leads continuous visibility into staffing gaps, training compliance, and safeguarding concerns.

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11 May

Manage time off without the back and forth · Workforce Management

Carers can now request time off directly from the app, and you can approve or decline requests from the Time Off tab in the Agency Hub, with a clear view of who else is off before you decide. Approved absences show up automatically on your roster, so there's no need to update it separately.

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5 May

A clearer label for self-administered medication · Care Management

We've added a visual badge that makes it obvious when a medication is self-administered, so carers aren't prompted to record something that isn't their responsibility.

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New reports for billing and payroll · Upgraded Rostering - Birdie Analytics

Six reports are now available to partners on Upgraded Rostering: Mileage, Pay Summary, Profit & Loss, Revenue Summary, Funding Sources, and Guaranteed Hours, so your finance team has continuous visibility across pay, invoicing, and margin.

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April 2026

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20 April

More visibility into care delivery · Upgraded Rostering - Birdie Analytics

Seven more care management reports are now available to partners on Upgraded Rostering: Care Circle Members, Alerts Raised & Resolved, Completed Visit Reports, Individuals with Reported Visits, Longer Visits & Consistent Care, Observations & Visit Notes Recorded, and Secure Check-in & Out Success. The PRN Protocol Logs report, already available to other partners since February, is now supported here too.

Not yet on Upgraded Rostering? Learn more and sign up to the waitlist.

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16 April

Find and confirm visits faster with date presets · Finance

The date selector on the visit confirmation screen now includes handy shortcuts like Today, Last 7 days, and This month. Pick one and your visits load instantly, saving a few clicks every time you open the page.

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13 April

A timeline for every visit · Upgraded Rostering

Every visit now has a timeline tab showing an audit trail of what's changed, when, and by whom, starting with visit creation, timing changes, and cancellations.

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2 April

National Living Wage rate updated · Finance

We've updated the National Living Wage rate used to flag pay checks, in line with this year's increase to £12.71/hr.

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March 2026

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30 March

Stop a visit schedule immediately · Upgraded Rostering

You can now stop an active visit schedule straight away, rather than waiting for a future date to take effect, giving you more control when plans change at short notice.

Not yet on Upgraded Rostering? Learn more and sign up to the waitlist.

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Additional reports for care management · Upgraded Rostering - Birdie Analytics

Another addition to the care management reporting suite now available to partners on Upgraded Rostering, covering areas like visits, care tasks, medications, observations, and assessments.

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23 March

Hide cancelled visits from the weekly view · Upgraded Rostering

You can now filter cancelled visits out of the weekly roster view, just as you already could on the daily view, making it easier to focus on what's actually happening this week.

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19 March

Improvements to resizing visit templates · Upgraded Rostering

You can now drag to resize the split between the unassigned visits panel and the carer rows below on the daily roster view. Maximise the unassigned view when you're working through allocation, or collapse it once you're done.

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9 March

See a full week of care from a client’s point of view · Upgraded Rostering

Toggle to a new weekly view built around the person receiving care, rather than the carer. The client weekly view helps you to easily review and manage a client's schedule, see their total booked hours, and make quick adjustments to visits – all in one place.

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February 2026

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26 February

Preferred hours now on your daily view too · Upgraded Rostering

Preferred working hours now show on both the daily and weekly roster views, so you can see at a glance whether a carer is under or over their preferred hours for the week, wherever you're working. Read more in our rostering dashboard overview.

Not yet on Upgraded Rostering? Learn more and sign up to the waitlist.

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19 February

A clearer read on carer workloads · Upgraded Rostering

Preferred hours now appear alongside booked hours on the weekly view, with a simple colour indicator showing whether a carer is within, under, or over their preferred range.

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13 February

Administer "as-needed" medication with confidence · Birdie Analytics

A new PRN Protocol Logs report in Birdie Analytics gives you a clear overview of all "as-needed" medications in one place: the specific protocol, who administered it, and the outcome, helping you spot patterns and audit specific medications with more confidence. This doesn't replace the MAR chart in the Agency Hub, which should still be checked regularly. Available to all partners with a Birdie Analytics licence.

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10 February

A small change to SMS alerts · Platform

We've removed the links from alert SMS messages. You'll still get the alert by text exactly as before, and the link is still there in the matching email notification, so nothing about how you're notified has changed.

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3 February

Booked hours, visible in real time · Upgraded Rostering

Each carer's booked hours now show on the weekly roster view, updating instantly as you assign and reassign visits, so you can check workloads without leaving the roster.

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Add and edit observation notes from the visit panel · Upgraded Rostering

You can now add and edit observation notes directly from a visit's side panel in the Agency Hub, as well as from the observations log. This also fixes an issue where notes added by carers in the field weren't always showing up for care managers afterwards.

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January 2026

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28 January

The weekly roster view is now fully interactive · Upgraded Rostering

Assign, edit, and cancel visits straight from the weekly view, just as you already can on the daily view. A new date picker lets you jump to any week or head straight to the calendar.

Not yet on Upgraded Rostering? Learn more and sign up to the waitlist.

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Want these updates in your inbox? Join the Smarter Care Lab mailing list for a fuller look behind the scenes, alongside this changelog.

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