Check each day’s rota against booked dogs before you open, on a sheet that flags any day or session that needs another person (England)

Staffing is a licence condition that changes every day with bookings. Defra’s statutory guidance for dog day care in England says each member of staff should have 10 dogs or less to care for, and lists one full-time member of staff per 8 dogs as an optional higher standard; Liverpool City Council’s page gives the same two figures. Defra’s guidance for kennel boarding and for home boarding sets its own staffing figures, so a boarding business copies the figures from the guidance for its own activity. In 2022 a council licensing committee found that the staff-to-animal ratio had been exceeded at a day care on the day a puppy died, and in 2025 another council revoked a day care licence. A simple sheet that sets tomorrow’s booked dogs against tomorrow’s rota, session by session, with a flag when a session needs another person, turns a mental check into a written one you can show an inspector. The AI lays out the blank sheet and the wording for the flag. It does no counting: you add the formula in your own spreadsheet and test it. A ratio figure is a minimum, not proof of welfare: whether every dog’s needs are met is your judgement, and the inspector decides on the licence.

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Steps

1. Copy into your own document the staffing lines that apply to your licence: the wording of Defra’s guidance for your activity (day care, kennel boarding or home boarding) and any condition on your own licence or from your council. If your licence or star rating was based on a higher staffing standard, use that figure. If unsure, ask the council. Do not ask an AI tool.
2. Run the prompt below with its brackets left as they are. You get back a blank daily sheet and the wording for a flag and an action note.
3. Build the sheet in your own spreadsheet. Add the formula that divides booked dogs by staff on duty yourself, then test it with a few days whose answer you already know.
4. Each afternoon, a named person enters tomorrow’s bookings by session and the rota, using staff initials and booking counts only, and checks the flag column.
5. If a session is flagged, the licence holder decides what to do (another person on the rota, fewer bookings in that session) and records the decision on the sheet.
6. Keep the sheets with your other licence records for as long as your licence says, and back them up.

The exact prompt

Write two things for a licensed dog day care business in England, [BUSINESS NAME].
1. A blank daily staffing sheet with columns: date, session ([SESSION TIMES CHOSEN BY THE LICENCE HOLDER]), dogs booked (number), dogs with extra needs noted by the licence holder (number), staff on duty (initials), staff count (number), dogs per staff member (left empty for the licence holder’s own formula), the figure from the licence conditions ([FIGURE COPIED FROM THE LICENCE OR GUIDANCE]), flag (yes or no), action decided, decided by ([ROLE]). Leave fourteen rows empty.
2. A one-line flag message and a short action note template: Session [SESSION] on [DATE] needs review: [REASON]. Action decided: [ACTION]. Decided by [ROLE] at [TIME].
Do not fill in any figure, do not calculate anything, and do not say whether any staffing level is enough.
RULES FOR THIS CHAT: I will give you only my own business wording, headings, dates and rules that I have typed in, and text I have copied from official guidance or my licence. I will not give you, and you must not ask for, any dog owner’s name, address, phone number, email or emergency contact, any dog’s name, microchip number, medical, behaviour, vaccination, insurance or vet details, any staff name, or any payment detail. Use the blanks in square brackets exactly as I give them. Do not invent rules, ratios, times, treatments, procedures, ratings or facts about any dog, person, vet or council, and do not say what is enough, safe, required, compliant or legal. Do not give veterinary, welfare, safety, legal or licensing advice, do not say whether any dog is fit to attend or mix, and do not do any arithmetic. Where something is missing write [FOR THE LICENCE HOLDER TO COMPLETE]. Everything you write is a draft that a named person will check before it is used.