HearthChanging recording system without losing your evidence
Almost everyone says migration is free. Far fewer say what actually comes across, what does not, and what your records look like afterwards. This page is the specific version, including the parts that are genuinely awkward.
Written by Mason Hughes, 7 years in children's residential care
What comes across
| Record type | What happens to it |
|---|---|
| Children’s profiles and placement details | Migrated as structured records, matched to the right child |
| Daily logs and key-work notes | Migrated with original date and author preserved, flagged as imported |
| Incidents, restraint, missing episodes | Migrated and re-categorised so they count correctly in Annex A |
| Safeguarding concerns and referrals | Migrated with their outcome trail intact where the export contains it |
| Medication records | Migrated where structured; otherwise attached against the child and date |
| Care plans, risk assessments, consents | Usually documents: attached to the child, searchable, dated |
| Staff records, training, supervision | Migrated as structured records where the export allows |
| Regulation 44 and 45 reports | Attached against the period they cover |
What does not migrate cleanly, and why
This is the part most vendors leave out, so here it is plainly. Three things resist a tidy migration:
- Unstructured free text. If your current system stores an incident as one long note with no fields behind it, the categories Annex A needs are not in the data. They can be added, but that is a human reading records, not an import script.
- Scanned paper. Images of documents come across as attachments against the right child and date. They are not searchable text unless someone types them up, and pretending otherwise would be a lie you would discover at the worst moment.
- Whatever your provider will not export. Some systems export a fraction of what they hold. Where that happens the honest answer is that the remainder stays behind, and you should know which parts before you commit, not after.
The principle throughout: nothing is forced into a field it was never in. An imported record that has been reshaped to look native is a record whose provenance you cannot defend.
How long it takes
For a single home moving from a system that exports properly, one to two weeks from receiving the export, and most of that is checking rather than loading. Homes moving off paper take longer, because scanning and indexing is real work and the volume varies enormously.
Your team keeps recording throughout. The usual shape is: export taken, import run and checked, an agreed date from which new recording happens in Hearth, and the old system kept readable until you have verified the import against it. Do not close the old account first.
Leaving, including leaving Hearth
The test of any recording system is what happens on the way out, and it is worth applying to us as much as to anyone else. In Hearth the records are the home’s: a complete data export and PDF evidence packs are available at any time, there is no contract to run out, and reading or exporting is never blocked, including over a billing dispute.
Ask any vendor you are considering the same four questions: does the export include attachments, does it preserve authorship and timestamps, what format is it in, and how long do you have to take it. The pricing page answers those for Hearth alongside the numbers.
Common questions
How long does it take to switch children's home software?
For a single home with records in a system that can export, usually one to two weeks from receiving the export to running live, most of which is checking rather than loading. Paper-based homes take longer because scanning and indexing is manual work. Nothing about the switch requires the home to stop recording in the meantime.
Can we move our historical records, or do we start fresh?
You move them. Starting fresh sounds simpler and is a bad idea: it leaves your evidence for the period before the switch stranded in a system you are no longer paying for, which is exactly the period an inspection may cover.
Do migrated records keep their original dates and authors?
They must, and in Hearth they do. Records come across with their original timestamps and authorship preserved and are flagged as imported. A record set where every entry appears to have been written on the migration date is worse than useless as evidence, because it looks like reconstruction.
What cannot be migrated cleanly?
Free-text notes with no structure behind them, anything held only as scanned images, and any data your current provider will not export in a machine-readable format. These usually come across as attachments preserved against the right child and date, which is honest and searchable, rather than being forced into fields they were never in.
What if our current provider will not give us our data?
They generally must. UK data protection law gives the home, as controller, the right to its own records, and the provider is processing on your behalf. Ask in writing for a full export in a machine-readable format, citing your data processing agreement. In practice the request being in writing resolves most of it.
Can we run both systems at once during the change?
Yes, and for a short overlap it is sensible. The usual pattern is to record in the new system from an agreed date while the old one stays readable, then close the old account once the migration has been checked against it. Do not close the old account before you have verified the import.
Ask what would actually move.
Tell me what system you are on and I will tell you honestly what comes across cleanly, what does not, and roughly how long it takes. That answer is useful whether or not you switch.
Book a demoHearth is an independent software provider and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Ofsted. Information about other providers’ export capabilities varies by product and contract; check your own agreement.