Essex Care Search | Provider Hub

Welcome to the Essex Care Search Information Hub. Thank you for visiting.

Essex Care Search Essex Care Search is a free online directory designed to help people find up to date information about residential care providers across Essex. Launched in 2019 in partnership between Essex County Council (ECC), the Essex Care Association (ECA), and local Health partners.

Registered residential care providers can create and maintain their own profiles, including service descriptions, contact information, current vacancies, photos, videos, and other key details.

The directory supports both the public and council/health professionals:

Individuals and families can use the search tool to find residential care homes that meet their specific needs.
ECC and Health teams regularly use the system to identify providers with available residential care vacancies.

Why use Essex Care Search?

Actively used by ECC’s Service Placement Team and Health partners to identify residential care vacancies.
Simple and user friendly for people seeking residential care, with an average of over 150 provider views per month.
Free marketing platform to showcase the unique strengths of your care home.
Improves visibility to people searching for care for themselves or a family member.
Includes a free occupancy management tool to help providers record and monitor bed availability.
Already used by over 330 registered residential care homes across Essex.

For more information about how the system works, please see the Essex Care Search Overview towards the end of this page.

If you would like to register to use Essex Care Search, please click here and enter your details.

If you have any questions about system, please contact us using the details below.

Contact Information

Tel: 03330 322 939
Email: support@essexcaresearch.org

Essex Care Search Overview

Once registered on the system, residential care providers enter information about their home.

The system includes a bed management tool which allows providers to list their current vacancies and manage bed occupancy.

People looking for residential care, either for themselves or a loved one, can search the directory using different criteria such as location, type of care provided etc. to find a provider that meets their needs.

If the bed management tool is used, Essex County Council and Health can search for vacancies and submit booking requests for vacant rooms directly through Essex Care Search.

Residential care providers enter information about their care home to create a provider profile page which people can view to find out information about your care home. The details that can be shown on your profile page include:

Contact details
A link to your website (If applicable)
Address
Description of your service
The types of accommodation you can provide
Photos and a video
Interactive map of your location
CQC rating and a link to your latest CQC report

The directory includes a flexible search function which allows people to do a high-level search based on distance from a location or a detailed search by entering additional search criteria. Once a search has been conducted, users can further filter or modify the search terms to refine the search results.

The search results can either be viewed as list or on a map. People can select and view a residential care provider's profile page from the search results.

The system includes a bed management tool which allows providers to list their current vacancies and manage bed occupancy for both self- funders and ECC or Health funded placements.

Based on the details entered by providers, people can filter their search results for current vacancies and rooms with specific features.

Provides can setup and manage the details for each of their rooms including:

Type of bedroom e.g. residential, nursing etc.
Features available in the room e.g. ground floor, ensuite, bed rails etc.
Contract type accepted for ECC and Health placements
Price band

Providers have the option to suspend an unoccupied room for any reason, for example when the room is being redecorated.

If the provider is using the bed management tool, ECC and Health can use the system to search for and submit booking requests against rooms shown as vacant.

When a booking request is submitted, the provider will receive an automated e-mail informing them a booking request has been submitted. Providers then login to Essex Care Search to view and manage the booking request.

Providers can directly control who has access to Essex Care Search for their care home and manage permissions levels for individual staff members, allowing choice over what system functions they can access.

Role	Summary of role permissions
Provider Administrator	Users with this role have the highest available permission level. Administrators have full access to the system, including the ability to add new users and manage provider details. In addition, users with this role can manage the beds within Essex Care Search, accept and reject booking requests, and add a private client to a room.
Provider Manager	Users with this role can manage the beds within Essex Care Search, accept and reject booking requests, and add a private client to a room. They cannot add new users or manage provider details.
Provider View	Users with this role an only view the beds and room occupancy. They cannot add new users, manage provider details, accept, and reject booking requests, or add a private client to a room.

Last updated: 12/02/2026

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