How to arrange live-in care
If you’ve decided to arrange live-in care for yourself or a loved one, it can be difficult knowing where to start. Since you’ll be trusting someone with your home and possibly vulnerable individuals, you want to be absolutely certain that you choose the right provider.
This guide will walk you through the process of how to arrange live-in care. Learn about the different home care services available including helpful tips for finding the right live-in carer for you and your unique care needs.
The Good Care Group has been providing individuals and their families with award-winning live-in care for over 10 years. To discover how live-in care can help you or your loved ones receive highly personalised care while remaining in the comfort and familiarity of home, contact our friendly team.
What types of home care can you arrange?
Home care is a term used to describe a wide variety of care services. With home care, a professional carer provides personal care, companionship and emotional support directly in your own home. This allows anyone with care needs to receive the quality care they require while continuing to live happily and independently at home.
Whether you need short-term respite care after a hospital stay or have ongoing care needs as the result of a chronic illness or disability, a home care arrangement can be completely tailored to meet your care needs while allowing you to maintain the lifestyle you are accustomed to.
There are many different types of home care available including:
The benefits of live-in care
While home care takes many forms, few other types of care offer as many benefits as live-in care. Live-in care is an increasingly popular alternative to residential nursing or care homes that allows those with care needs to avoid the upheaval and disturbance of moving into a care home.
The benefits of choosing live-in care include maintaining independence and freedom, relief from the burden of domestic chores and considerable and proven benefits to overall health and well being. Since a live-in carer will move into your home and provide you with bespoke and highly dedicated one-to-one care, it is vital to choose a qualified and professional carer.
How much does a live-in carer cost?
It’s a common misconception that live-in care is far more costly than a care home. In reality, the cost of live-in care is comparable to that of a care home, and may be considerably less for couples that would require two separate rooms in a care home.
When considering the cost of live-in care, it’s important to think about the different costs and benefits between an introductory service or a fully-managed care service. Each is available at a different price point and provide a different quality of care.
An introductory service will charge a fee for introducing you to a private carer that you will then have to employ. Although an introductory service is typically less expensive than a fully-managed care service, you will be responsible for paying your carer and managing their sickness and holiday cover.-
A fully-managed care service vets, trains and manages all their carers. The price you pay covers all the necessary costs associated with having round-the-clock live-in care and relieves you of the burden of becoming an employer.
Depending on your personal circumstances, you may be eligible for NHS continuing healthcare funding or social care funding. To determine if you’re eligible, you will need to undergo a care needs assessment from the local authority.
Taking a care assessment
After you have decided your care needs, taking a care assessment is an important next step in arranging for live-in care. If you are deemed eligible, local authority care funding will help pay for some or all of the costs associated with your care.
Through a Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), your care needs will be assessed to determine in which areas you may need particular help. For instance, your medical, physical and emotional needs will be evaluated along with other factors such as the suitability of your environment for home care and your social support network.
It’s important to note that to access social care funding, a financial assessment (a means test) will be undertaken to determine your ability to pay for your own costs of care.
Unfortunately, sometimes people are denied funding for the care they need. For over 10 years, The Good Care Group has helped families and their loved ones that have been denied funding. We work closely with SOLLA specialists in care financing for the older generation and would be happy to put you in touch with one of their experts to discuss the financing care options available.
How to arrange professional live-in care
There are three primary ways of hiring a live-in carer: privately as an employer, through an introductory service or through a fully-managed care provider. Here, we examine some of the benefits of each to help you make an informed decision.
Private carers
The first option is to find and hire a carer independently. Although this allows you much freedom in choosing a potential candidate, you will also take on the role and responsibilities of an employer.
You will first need to spend time advertising, creating a short list and then interviewing potential candidates. Choosing a carer is not easy as it requires a high level of trust to have someone move into your home and provide personal, one-to-one care.
Before employing someone, you must check that they are legally entitled to work in the UK. You may also wish to ensure that your candidate has gone through a criminal background check through the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).
Once you hire an individual carer, you will become an employer and have to register as such with the HMRC. As an employee, your carer will be legally entitled to many employee rights and protections. Families that employ carers will therefore assume certain legal duties and obligations such as:
- You must provide a contract of employment narrating all the specific tasks your carer will be responsible for along with mandating working hours, rate of pay, duration of the contract and holiday entitlements.
- As an employer, you will be responsible for the health and safety of your carer whilst at work. You must take out employer’s liability insurance and have the option of adding public liability insurance.
- You will have to operate PAYE and Statutory Sick Pay (SSP).
- Families are responsible for deducting income tax and National Insurance contributions from your employees’ wages and paying this to HMRC every month.
- Families must also pay additional National Insurance Contributions as an employer.
- If your carer earns more than £192/week and are between 22 and the state pension age, you will be responsible for providing a workplace pension scheme.
If the arrangement between yourself and your carer is no longer suitable, you will have to start the process over again from the beginning.
Introductory service
An introductory service simply acts as an intermediary between you and a carer. For a fee, an introductory agency will guide you through the process of selecting a carer that is registered with their agency. This provides for a convenient and cost-effective alternative to hiring an independent carer, but they will not manage the carer for you once selected.
Although every introductory service will have its own selection process to determine the suitability of their candidates, they are not regulated through the Care Quality Commission and it is therefore difficult to determine what standard of care will be provided.
Most agencies only accept careers that are registered as self-employed, removing the burden of having to deal with employment taxes and National Insurance.
Fully-managed care provider
The easiest, safest and most convenient option for choosing a carer is through a fully-managed care provider. Fully-managed care providers, such as The Good Care Group, directly employ all their professional carers, meaning you never have to worry about the hassle of training, paying or managing your care.
Most importantly, fully managed services are regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). This means that all the care you receive from a regulated care provider must meet the commission’s strict quality guidelines and families can rest assured about the quality of care they receive.
With a fully-managed care provider, there is no need for families to be involved with the complicated employment requirements and processes. A fee is simply paid to the provider and, in return, the provider vets, trains and manages all of their professional carers. You will still be an active participant in the carer selection process, while enjoying the peace of mind that each carer has already been rigorously vetted by the provider.
How The Good Care Group can help you find a live-in carer
For over 10 years, The Good Care Group has been providing award-winning and industry-leading live-in care. Hiring a live-in carer and entrusting them with your home and vulnerable loved ones can be overwhelming. By choosing The Good Care Group, you never have to worry about the quality of care being provided or have to deal with the hassle of becoming your own employer.
Unlike introductory agencies, we are fully regulated and are the only dedicated live-in care provider in England to achieve an ‘Outstanding’ rating by the CQC. All of our professional carers are trained beyond industry standards and managed by an expert care manager. With our fully managed care service, you can rest assured you’ll be receiving highly personalised and quality care, right in the comfort of your own home.
To arrange live-in care, contact our friendly and approachable team to learn how we can help you and your family.
Talk to us about your care needs
To talk about your care needs, contact one of our friendly advisors. Calls from landlines are free.