In short and in plain language
A place in a care home often has to be found fast. Often, relatives search for someone else.
The article shows how your admissions page explains the way in. It shows each step from the first call to move-in day.
Each step needs the right papers and a person to ask. The article also explains which details matter before the contract.
The form should be easy to use as well. Otherwise the inquiry gets lost.
We build a page like this for you. Relatives can then see what to do next.
A place in a care home is rarely found at leisure. The call comes from the hospital, the social services desk names three houses, and the daughter sits at a screen late at night working out what happens next. At the end of 2023, 14 per cent (Federal Statistical Office) of people needing care in Germany were living in full residential care, around 800,000 people, spread across 11,250 (Federal Statistical Office) homes offering permanent residential care. Anyone running one of those homes has a job on their website that no photo gallery can do: show the path from the first call to move-in day so a family under time pressure can follow it. This article describes how that page is built, which details the law requires before signing, and which deadlines belong at which step.
Key takeaways
- Full residential care covers 14 per cent (Federal Statistical Office) of people needing care. The audience is small, decides under time pressure, and in nearly every case decides for someone else.
- Before the contract declaration, the law requires three items (Care Contracts Act) about the general range of services and five items (Care Contracts Act) about the services under consideration. The website is the obvious place to keep them readable.
- The care fund must decide on an application in writing no later than 25 working days (Social Code XI) after it arrives; if the deadline is missed, 70 euros (Social Code XI) become payable for each week begun. Deadlines like these reassure more than assurances do.
- In the first year the out-of-pocket share averaged 3,364 euros a month nationwide, ranging from 2,891 euros to 3,761 euros between the federal states (Substitute Health Funds Association). A national average is a poor placeholder for your own figure.
- The weak point is the form: only 15 per cent (Web Almanac 2024) of mobile websites use a genuine labelling element and 57 per cent (Web Almanac 2024) rely on placeholder text alone. On an admissions page that costs the enquiry the page exists to produce.
Why a move into care rarely starts as a plan
The care statistics describe a group that is small and whose relatives start late. At the end of 2023, just under 5.7 million (Federal Statistical Office) people in Germany were classified as needing care within the meaning of Book XI of the Social Code. Around a third, precisely 34 per cent (Federal Statistical Office), were at least 85 years old. That age figure explains why an admissions page is rarely read by the person it concerns: it is read by the daughter, the son, the niece, often from another city and usually late at night. Writing for the future resident means writing past the actual readership.
At the end of 2023 there were 16,505 care homes (Federal Statistical Office) in Germany, 11,250 of them offering permanent residential care. Ageing alone could push the number of people needing care to 6.8 million (Federal Statistical Office) by the end of 2055. The search happens online: 80 per cent (Federal Statistical Office) of people aged 45 to 64 have looked for information about goods and services on the internet, and that is exactly the age group of the researching children. A page that shows a mission statement and a site plan but hides the process loses the enquiry to the house next door. How a care home site is structured overall is covered in care website structure.
Read on someone else's behalf, and for years
What the law requires before the contract
Much of what makes an admissions page useful is mandatory anyway. Under the Residential and Care Contracts Act the operator must inform the consumer in good time before signing, in text form and in easily comprehensible language. The general range of services covers three items (Care Contracts Act): fittings and location of the building including facilities for communal use, the services included by type, content and scope, and the results of quality inspections where these are subject to publication. For the services under consideration a further five items (Care Contracts Act) apply, among them the fees payable, the separately chargeable investment costs and the total fee. The website can hold the details and offer them as a document to take away.
The contract itself stays analogue. It must be concluded in writing, conclusion in electronic form is expressly excluded, and the consumer must be handed one copy (Care Contracts Act) of the contract. The law names four mandatory elements (Care Contracts Act): the services described individually, the fees separated by accommodation, care, catering and further services, the pre-contractual information as the basis of the contract with deviations marked separately, and the details on consumer dispute resolution. For the website this draws a line: it prepares the signing, it does not replace it.
The five steps at a glance
An admissions page does not get better by explaining more, but by cutting the process into sections a family can work through in one evening. Five steps carry that load: first contact, viewing, documents, contract, move-in day. Each answers a single question, names a single document and, where one exists, a single deadline. That structure stops the cost question from eating the page and gives every step its own reason to show a way of getting in touch. We use it on sites for residential care providers because it doubles as a conversation guide in the admissions interview.
| Step | The relative's question | What belongs on the page | Deadline or evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| First contact | Who do I call, and what do I need? | Direct line, opening hours, short form with care level and date | Assessment instructed within three working days (Social Code XI) |
| Viewing | Can I see the house beforehand? | Two fixed windows, a named contact, what to bring | Inspection at at most one year intervals (Social Code XI) |
| Documents | What does it cost in the end? | Pre-contractual information, fee sheet, out-of-pocket breakdown | First-year out-of-pocket share nationwide 3,364 euros (Substitute Health Funds Association) |
| Contract | Can I get out again if it does not fit? | Notes on written form, termination and fee increases, named contact | two weeks (Care Contracts Act) to terminate after the start |
| Move-in day | What happens on the day? | Timed schedule, packing list, contact on the residential unit | Fee charged from the day of admission (Social Code XI) |
Steps 1 and 2: first contact and viewing
First contact usually begins with an open question: is the care level enough? The page cannot answer that, but it can show the route. The care fund must pass the assessment instruction to the Medical Service within three working days (Social Code XI) of the application arriving. If no assessment has taken place 20 working days (Social Code XI) later, the fund must send a list of at least three independent assessors. Anyone needing a place straight from hospital or rehabilitation has, under conditions, a shorter deadline: assessment by the fifth working day (Social Code XI). A guide page on this is covered in applying for a care level.
- Name the hard outer deadline. The care fund must notify its decision in writing no later than 25 working days (Social Code XI) after the application arrives. If that is missed, it pays the applicant 70 euros (Social Code XI) for every week begun.
- Make the viewing bookable. Two fixed windows a week, a named contact and a three-field form beat any telephone queue. A booking route for advisory appointments saves the callback and the wait.
- Link the inspection report instead of hiding it. Approved providers are inspected at intervals of at most one year (Social Code XI), and the law counts publishable inspection results as part of the pre-contractual information. Anyone who looks and does not find reads the absence as an answer. Presenting results comprehensibly is covered in care quality inspections in 2026.
- Separate the urgent route from the routine one. A second, clearly marked lane for hospital enquiries, with a direct line and a secure mailbox for the social services desk, keeps the urgent request out of the inbox that holds job applications.
Step 3: documents and costs
Cost is where many admissions pages look away. That is a mistake: the question does not disappear, it moves to the telephone. In the first year of residence, residents paid an average of 3,364 euros (Substitute Health Funds Association) a month nationwide out of their own pocket. That contains accommodation and catering at an average of 1,068 euros (Substitute Health Funds Association) and investment costs for construction and upkeep at 521 euros (Substitute Health Funds Association) a month. The uniform provider-wide share for care itself rose within a year by more than twelve per cent (Substitute Health Funds Association) to 1,775 euros a month. Setting the components side by side instead of one total takes some fright out of the number.
National averages are only a placeholder on a provider's own page, though. Almost nine hundred euros separate cheapest and most expensive state: from 2,891 euros (Substitute Health Funds Association) in Saxony-Anhalt to 3,761 euros (Substitute Health Funds Association) in Bremen, each in the first year of residence. Set against that are the care insurance benefits. In full residential care the entitlement runs, by care level, from 805 and 2,096 euros (Social Code XI) per calendar month; anyone moving in with care level 1 receives only a subsidy of 131 euros (Social Code XI) a month. On top comes the benefit supplement, which grows with the length of stay from 15 to 75 per cent (Social Code XI) of the payable share of care-related expenditure. A cost calculator on the website can model that scale without making a promise.
What must not appear on the cost page
Step 4: contract, deadlines and the way back
The worry that appears on hardly any admissions page is the fear of finality. The way back answers it, and it is written into the law. Within two weeks (Care Contracts Act) of the start of the contractual relationship the consumer may terminate at any time without a notice period. After that the monthly rule applies: notice must be given in writing by the third working day (Care Contracts Act) of a calendar month with effect from the end of that month. Both belong at the contract step as a plain two-liner, not in an annex.
- Name the written form and rule out electronic signing. The contract must be concluded in writing and electronic conclusion is excluded. A form at the contract step collects details for the conversation, not signatures, and says so.
- Link the pre-contractual information. It is the basis of the contract under the law, and deviations must be marked separately. A page carrying the current version with a date saves follow-up questions.
- Collect form data sparingly. Health data appears on the admissions route earlier than expected. What to watch for is set out in privacy in care forms and on our page about data protection in care.
- Show short-term care as an intermediate step. The entitlement to short-term care is limited to eight weeks (Social Code XI) per calendar year; respite care and short-term care share a joint annual amount of up to 3,539 euros (Social Code XI). For many families this step comes before the permanent move and belongs visibly on the page.
Step 5: move-in day
Move-in day is the step described least often and feared most. It tolerates the most concrete language on the page: arrival time, parking, who stands at the door, which room, what to bring and what to leave at home. One detail has to be there, or it turns up as a surprise on the first invoice: the total home fee is charged for the day of admission (Social Code XI) and every further day of the stay. Writing that down in advance avoids the conversation at the end of the month.
The same step covers absences, one of the most frequent calls after the move. In a temporary absence the place must be kept free for up to 42 days (Social Code XI) in a calendar year. A hospital or rehabilitation stay is the statutory exception rather than a case covered by that limit: the absence period is extended for the duration of the stay (Social Code XI). Setting rule and exception side by side answers the hospital question in advance, instead of leaving relatives to expect the loss of the place after six weeks. Closing the step with an outlook, with the relatives' committee, visiting hours and an events calendar, turns the end of the admissions route into the beginning of the relationship. What relatives otherwise expect is covered in content for relatives; the same structure for a different living arrangement is shown in the shared care community website.
Building the step chain technically
A step chain has known weak points, starting with the form. Only 15 per cent (Web Almanac 2024) of mobile websites use a genuine labelling element, and 57 per cent (Web Almanac 2024) rely on placeholder text alone, which disappears as typing starts. On an admissions page the person typing is agitated, on the phone and entering someone else's details; disappearing labels cost not convenience but the enquiry. The second weak point is legibility: 23 per cent (Web Almanac 2024) of mobile pages prevent zooming, and only 29 per cent (Web Almanac 2024) pass the contrast check, and both hit the readership an admissions page has.
- Keep labels visible. Every field gets a permanently visible label, with placeholder text as an addition at most. Required fields are spelled out, not marked with an asterisk that means nothing without a legend.
- Allow zooming and measure contrast. No scaling lock, body text from sixteen pixels up, contrast measured rather than estimated. Our page on accessibility in care and the article accessible care website describe the procedure.
- Set skip links. Only 24 per cent (Web Almanac 2024) of pages offer a skip link to the content. On a long step chain, a jump list above the five steps is the difference between reading and scrolling.
- Make every step separately addressable. Fixed anchors per step, so a hospital social services desk can link straight to the documents step. That is how this page usually gets passed on.
Direct line, not switchboard
One number per step: admissions, office, residential unit. Every transfer costs calls.
Name the document
Every step names one document and links it. Twelve attachments on one collection page produce the same helplessness as no download.
Deadlines, not promises
Statutory deadlines can be quoted without committing. Your own processing times belong there marked as experience and dated, not as a promise.
Directions for move-in day
Parking, entrance, lift, arrival time. Those four save more calls at reception than any extra dining-room photographs.
A sparing form
On the website only what the appointment needs. Health data belongs in the conversation or a secure channel, not in an open free-text field.
Show the maintenance state
Fee status, inspection report and occupancy note all carry a date. A visible date is the cheapest evidence that the page is maintained.
Whether the page carries its weight can be established without an analytics tool. Count over four weeks how many enquiries already contain the care level, the preferred date and the hospital contact. If that share rises, the step chain works; if it stays flat, one step is missing the question the family actually has, and three weeks of noting what gets asked on the phone will find it. How a website behaves in an emergency is covered in the article care website in a crisis. We build complete provider sites as a website for residential care, and anyone who wants to sort things out first can start via contact.
Sources and studies
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