Case study / Technical ownership, end to end
ACS is a software platform for children's residential care homes. It exists because the software those homes were stuck with was broken, manual and expensive, and the dominant providers could not fix it. A friend brought me the problem, I diagnosed exactly why the incumbents failed, and I built the answer. ACS is live today, used by real homes, in one of the most compliance-sensitive, Ofsted-regulated sectors there is. This is the proof behind the fractional CTO and CIO work: not advice from the sidelines, but technology owned from idea to production.
Most case studies tell you about a project. This one is about a product I conceived, architected, built and still run. It is the clearest answer I can give to the question every owner-manager should ask a technical leader: have you actually done it?
The starting point: a sector running on workarounds, with software that made compliance harder, not easier.
Children's residential care is one of the most heavily scrutinised environments in the country. Every home answers to Ofsted, and an inspection can ask for evidence of almost anything: who was on shift, what happened and when, how a decision was made, where the record is. The software meant to support all of that was failing the people using it. It was broken, manual and expensive, and the dominant players in the market were not fixing it.
A friend who runs in this world brought me the problem directly. Not as a sales lead, as a frustration. The tools were getting in the way of the actual job, which is caring for children, and adding risk at exactly the point where risk matters most.
What "broken" looked like day to day, in the words of someone living it.
The reality on the ground was paper, pen and manual spreadsheets that depended on people remembering to fill them in. When Ofsted asked for documents, there was no audit trail to pull from, so supplying evidence for an audit became a scramble. The information existed somewhere, but finding it was the nightmare.
“Before, we used paper and pen for everything, and manual spreadsheets we had to rely on people filling in. There was no audit trail for Ofsted, so it was a nightmare trying to find everything when we had to supply documents for an audit. Now we do everything in the ACS app, even staff rotas. The way the kids can log in and see who's on shift that day is amazing.”
— a registered manager at a North West children's home
That quote captures the whole arc in one breath. The before: paper, pen, spreadsheets, no audit trail, a nightmare at audit time. The after: everything in one place, even staff rotas. And the detail that tells you this was built by someone who understands homes, not just software: the children can log in and see who is on shift that day. That is a care feature, not a compliance checkbox, and it is the kind of thing you only build when you have listened properly.
Why the incumbents could not fix it, and what I did differently.
The first job was not to write code. It was to work out precisely why the existing software was failing and why the big providers could not put it right. That diagnosis is the part most people skip. Once it was clear, I designed and built ACS around how homes actually operate and what Ofsted actually asks for, rather than bolting compliance on as an afterthought.
I conceived it, architected it, and built it. It did not stop at a prototype or a deck. It went into production in a live, regulated environment where getting it wrong is not an option.
Where ACS is now, and what it proves.
ACS, the children's residential care home software I built, is live and in use by real children's residential care homes. It runs day in, day out, in a sector where the standard for trust is set by Ofsted and by the families who depend on these homes. I still run it, which means I am accountable for it the way an owner is, not the way a consultant who has moved on to the next project is.
This is the keystone proof behind everything else I offer. When I describe myself as a fractional CTO or CIO, ACS is what stands behind it. I have taken technology from a broken starting point, through a real diagnosis, to a built and shipped product running in production. That is the difference between someone who tells you what good looks like and someone who has done it.
The systems and data work behind the leadership.
If technology decisions are being made by accident and you need someone who has actually built and shipped, not just advised, that is exactly what the fractional CTO and CIO work is for. The first conversation is a straight diagnosis, not a pitch.
Book a callTell me what needs to migrate, what no longer reconciles, or which report the business no longer trusts. If there is a fit, we start with a 5 to 10 day ERP Data Readiness Review.