Separate the shift from dedicated care and rent
A supported-living house may have a worker present for several tenants, one-to-one hours for a named person, and a landlord charging rent and eligible housing services. Put those in three columns before calculating any rate. One worker's shared hour is one staff hour, even if several people benefit. Counting it once per tenant inflates the rota and creates a double charge.
Check the signed care or support plans, commissioning schedules, contracts, tenancy documents and rota. The Care and Support Statutory Guidance says a personal budget records the cost of meeting a person's needs and how that budget will be used in the plan. It does not prescribe a universal split for a shared worker. The provider's allocation therefore needs a stated method that fits the actual plans and funding agreements.
Keep housing out of this care calculation. Housing Benefit guidance for supported housing says charges for care, support and supervision are ineligible for Housing Benefit, including where they are hidden inside rent or a service charge. The exact landlord and care-provider structure matters, so check the scheme's documents rather than assuming every supported-living operator claims Housing Benefit. Our supported-living finance guide covers that wider separation.
Agree who benefits before choosing a percentage
Start with the work the shared shift actually covers: for example, a planned evening presence, group activity support or a jointly commissioned waking-night arrangement. Identify the people included, the hours, any dedicated tasks within the shift, and the period of the agreement. A private task for one person does not become shared because the worker was on a common rota.
There is no automatic equal-share rule. An equal split may be sensible when three people receive the same agreed common support, but different assessed needs may justify a different split. The Care Quality Commission's person-centred care guidance requires regulated providers to assess needs and preferences with the person and keep care plans under review. That is a care standard, not a pricing formula. The commissioner or budget holder must still agree what the contract funds.
Record the method in plain terms: the shift and dates; the included tenants; the relevant plan or contract reference; the agreed percentages or equivalent staff-hour shares; the authorised payer; and who will revisit the split. If the care and housing providers are different organisations, name which one employs the worker and which one invoices. CQC's supported-living registration examples distinguish a person's home from the care provider's operating location and responsibility. Do not treat a shared address as proof that all services belong to one entity.
A worked £960 weekly shared-hours ledger
Assume one worker delivers 40 shared staff hours a week at a fully loaded, illustrative cost of £24 per staff hour. That is £960 of weekly cost. Three commissioning schedules agree that tenant A takes 50% of this shared service, tenant B 30% and tenant C 20%. The allocation is 20, 12 and 8 equivalent staff hours, costing £480, £288 and £192. These are shares of one 40-hour rota, not 40 hours of personal contact for each person.
| Tenant | Agreed share and basis | Illustrative weekly allocation |
|---|---|---|
| A | 50% × 40 shared staff hours | 20 hours · £480 |
| B | 30% × 40 shared staff hours | 12 hours · £288 |
| C | 20% × 40 shared staff hours | 8 hours · £192 |
| Control total | 100% × 40 staff hours | 40 hours · £960 |
The £24 rate is only a model input. Replace it with actual eligible pay, employer costs, paid leave, supervision and cover attributable to that shift. Do not add a second allowance for costs already included in the £24. Reconcile the 40 hours to rota and payroll records before copying an allocation into an invoice. The minimum-wage working-hours guidance also shows why a staffed night or on-call period needs its own employment review; an allocation model does not settle the worker's legal pay entitlement.
A vacancy does not transfer a charge to the other tenants
Suppose tenant B leaves before a later week, but the 40-hour shared rota remains in place. If the contract allows only A and C's existing shares to be billed until a new agreement is made, the provider has £672 of allocated income against £960 of modelled cost, leaving a £288 weekly exposure. That does not mean A and C each owe half of B's old share. Check whether the rota can safely change, whether the commissioner has a vacancy provision, and whether the remaining people's support plans now call for a different service.
The Care Act guidance on reviewing plans says a changed need or circumstance may trigger an unplanned review. In practice, record the vacancy date, the rota decision, the commissioner conversation, any revised support plan and the effective date of a new funding agreement. Continue meeting assessed needs while the commercial question is resolved.
Make the allocation auditable every month
For each shift, the ledger should show the worker and paid hours, shared versus dedicated work, the people covered, the approved split, actual cost, invoice period and funding reference. Keep care details in the secure care system; use a reference rather than sensitive personal information in the finance workbook. Compare total allocated hours with paid hours and total billed amounts with written authorisations. Investigate differences before month-end figures are signed off.
| Monthly check | Evidence | Question to settle |
|---|---|---|
| Rota to payroll | Actual shared and one-to-one shifts | Were all 40 staff hours paid and counted once? |
| Plan to allocation | Current plans and funding schedules | Is 50/30/20 still agreed and appropriate? |
| Allocation to invoice | Authorised rates, dates and payer | Does each line match the agreement? |
| Vacancy and changes | Occupancy, reviews and rota changes | Is any cost unfunded or wrongly transferred? |
LOYALS works with care operators in London and across the UK on payroll, invoicing and monthly management figures. For a supported-living service, the useful output is a trace from the assessed support and signed terms to the rota, ledger and invoice. It lets an operator see a funding gap without changing someone's care charge by assumption.