Can one carer work 24 hours a day?

The first is somebody in the house at every hour who can help when your relative calls, and one live-in carer does that. They help through the day, take a break of their own, and sleep at night in a room near your relative, getting up if they are needed.

The second is somebody awake at every hour: watching, turning, settling and checking through the night as well as the day. One person cannot do that for more than a night or two, because they need to sleep. A carer who is up most nights and working most days becomes too tired to help safely, and the risks they are there to prevent, such as a fall on the way to the toilet or a missed medicine, become more likely.

So the answer to whether one carer can work twenty-four hours depends on the nights. The 24-hour care hub sets out the arrangements, and live-in care or 24-hour care goes through the signs that one sleeping carer is no longer enough.

The break matters. A carer who never stops all day is less careful by the evening, when much of the personal care happens. The live-in carer's daily break covers how families decide whether their relative can be left for two hours, and what cover costs if they cannot. How many hours a live-in carer works explains the 8 to 10 hours of hands-on help a day that live-in care is planned around.

If the nights have started to slip, waking night or sleeping night explains where the line falls between a carer who sleeps and gets up when called and a carer who stays awake.

Carers who offer their services through PrimeCarers are self-employed. gov.uk explains that employment law does not cover self-employed people in most cases, because they are their own boss, although health and safety protection still applies to them. The Working Time Regulations 1998, which set rest breaks and the 48-hour average week for workers, are written for employees and workers, so a self-employed carer's rest is agreed under their contract instead.

The PrimeCarers client contract says that the carer is responsible for managing their own rest breaks, that they may agree suitable times with you, and that for live-in care the carer is expected to have opportunities for rest, which the two of you agree. The timing of those breaks is the carer's decision, and if finding the time is proving difficult, you and the carer can talk about changing the schedule.

If you employ a carer yourself, for example as a personal assistant paid with direct payments, you become their employer and the rules change. gov.uk lists the rights a worker normally has: a 20-minute break when working more than six hours, 11 hours of rest between working days, and 24 hours off each week or 48 hours each fortnight. Regulation 19 sets some rules aside for somebody employed as a domestic servant in a private household, including the 48-hour average weekly limit and the limits on night work. The 20-minute break, daily rest and weekly rest are not on that list, but other exceptions can apply, so it is worth checking your rota with Acas before you set it.

Pay for nights is a separate question. In Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake, decided on 19 March 2021, the Supreme Court held that a care worker who sleeps in, with nothing to do except respond if needed, is not working for minimum wage purposes while asleep. The hours they are awake and working do count, and from April 2026 the National Living Wage is £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over. None of this applies to a self-employed carer's live-in rate, which covers the whole week.

Self-employed carer or employee explains the difference in more detail, and employing a carer: the legal and financial side covers payroll and the other duties of an employer.

Two live-in carers who take turns, a week or two each, keeps each of them rested without adding to the weekly cost, because only one is in the house at a time. Live-in care rotas sets out the cycles families use, and how many carers a rota needs does the arithmetic for longer arrangements. If the only gap is the daily break, an hourly carer to cover it costs £18 to £25 an hour.

When the nights are broken, a waking night carer on the hard nights alone costs less than seven. What 24-hour care costs puts every arrangement side by side by the week and the month.

When you are ready, you can search for carers near you and compare their rates, and ask the ones who look right about the nights, the break and their time off. Live-in and night carers are separate searches.

1. 1

   When the break usually falls

   Every day

   Agree roughly when the carer takes their time off, remembering the timing is theirs to decide, and whether your relative can be on their own then or somebody else will be there.
2. 2

   What happens at night

   Every night

   Talk through how often your relative wakes now, and what you will both do if the nights get worse. The contract does not set extra pay for disturbed nights, so you and the carer agree it.
3. 3

   Who covers days off and holidays

   Before day one

   A second carer, a relief carer or family, agreed before the first week so nobody is arranging it in a hurry.
4. 4

   Bank holidays and notice

   From the contract

   Bank holidays are charged at one and a half times the carer's rate and Christmas Day at twice. For live-in care, notice is 7 days once the carer has worked 168 hours, and 48 hours before that.

What live-in carers are entitled to lists the room, food and time off worth agreeing at the same time, and when your carer is ill or on holiday covers arranging cover.