The short answer
- Your safety at work is your responsibilityYou are self-employed, so there is no employer to plan your safety for you. Health and safety law applies to a self-employed person whose work could put somebody else at risk.
- Always make sure somebody knows where you arePrimeCarers does not supervise or monitor your work, so nobody is waiting for you to finish a visit. Arrange your own check-in with somebody you trust.
- The client must tell you about known risksUnder the contract the client provides a safe working environment and tells you in advance about risks such as challenging behaviour or hazards in the home.
- You decide whether it is safe, and you can leaveYou may stop work if you reasonably believe conditions are unsafe, and leave at once if staying would endanger you. Notice rules do not stop you.
Legal and safety points on this page are checked against HSE, legislation.gov.uk and gov.uk, 22 September 2026. Contract points are from the PrimeCarers client and carer contract. In an emergency, call 999.
This guide is part of carer resources, which has the rest of the guides on working for yourself as a carer. Doing a risk assessment on your first visit covers the written assessment of a client's home, and moving and handling for private clients covers lifting, hoists and transfers.
Your duties
Your own health and safety duties when you are self-employed
An employed care worker has an employer who must assess the risks of working alone, train them and keep in contact. When you work for yourself, most of that falls to you.
HSE describes a lone worker as somebody who works by themselves without close or direct supervision, and it notes that working alone can put you at greater risk because there is nobody nearby to help if things go wrong. That describes most private care work.
The law for the self-employed is in section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. It places a duty on a self-employed person whose work is of a prescribed kind to make sure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that they and other people affected by their work are not exposed to risks to their health or safety. HSE's guide on when health and safety law applies puts it in plain terms: the law applies to you if you employ anyone, or if your work activity poses a potential risk to the health and safety of others.
HSE's own questions for deciding whether your work creates a risk to others include whether somebody could be burnt, scalded, crushed, trip over or fall. Helping a client to wash, move, eat or take a hot drink can raise every one of those, so it is sensible to work on the basis that the duty applies to you.
You
The client
PrimeCarers
The decision
Before a new client
Meeting a new client and letting somebody know where you are
Most of what keeps a lone carer safe is done before the first visit: knowing who and what to expect at the address, and making sure somebody will notice if you do not check in.
- 1
Ask about risks before you agree to the work
Ask who lives at the address or visits often, whether there are animals, how the client is with new people, and whether anything in the home is broken or hazardous. The contract requires the client to tell you about known risks, so these are fair questions. - 2
Check the address and the way in
Look up the address before the day, where you can park or get off the bus, and how you will get in: a key safe, a relative at the door, or the client answering. Agree it in writing. - 3
Choose somebody to check in with
Give a friend or family member the address, the time you expect to arrive and finish, and the name of the client. Agree what they will do if they do not hear from you, and by when. - 4
Keep your phone charged and on you
Carry it on your person rather than leaving it in a bag in another room, with a charger or power bank for long days and live-in placements. - 5
Trust what you notice at the door
If something does not feel right when you arrive, you do not have to go in. Step back, phone the person who booked you, and explain.
On a live-in placement the same idea applies over a longer stretch. Agree a regular time to message somebody at home, and tell them the address and how long you expect to stay. Your first live-in placement and what to agree before a live-in placement cover the rest of the arrangements to settle before you arrive.
Dogs, anger, unsafe homes
What to do about dogs, anger and unsafe homes
Three situations come up again and again for carers working alone. In each one the client has a duty to warn you in advance and you have the final say on whether to carry on.
A dog in the home
Before the visit
Ask whether there are animals in the house and how they are with visitors. Ask for any dog you are wary of to be in another room or the garden before you arrive.
While you are there
Do not go in if a dog is loose and you are not comfortable. Wait outside and phone. The law on a dog being dangerously out of control applies in the owner's own home.
Afterwards
Write down what happened and agree an arrangement for next time, in writing, before you go back.
Anger, abuse or threats
Before the visit
Ask whether the client or anyone in the house has become angry or upset with carers before, and what helps. The client must tell you about known challenging behaviour.
While you are there
Keep your phone on you and your route to the door clear. Step back and leave the room, or the house, if it is getting worse. Call 999 if you are in danger.
Afterwards
Write it down while it is fresh, tell the client or their family, and tell PrimeCarers. HSE counts verbal abuse and threats as work-related violence, alongside physical attacks.
An unsafe home
Before the visit
Ask about stairs, access, equipment and anything broken, and walk each room on the first visit as part of a risk assessment.
While you are there
If you smell gas, do not smoke or touch electrical switches, open doors and windows, and call the gas emergency line on 0800 111 999. For anything else, you decide whether it is safe to carry on.
Afterwards
Tell the client in writing what needs putting right, and which tasks you will leave until it is.
Dogs are worth a direct question even when a family has not mentioned one. gov.uk says it is against the law to let a dog be dangerously out of control anywhere, including in the owner's home, and that a dog counts as dangerously out of control if it injures somebody or makes somebody worried that it might. Asking for a dog to be shut away during your visits is a reasonable request.
Anger and aggression can come from a client who is confused, frightened or in pain, or from a relative who is under strain. HSE's advice for workers on violence covers calming a situation down and recording what happened, and HSE defines work-related violence to include verbal abuse and threats as well as physical attacks. Where a client's behaviour is linked to dementia, caring for clients with dementia has practical approaches. If what you see suggests the client is being harmed by somebody else, safeguarding for self-employed carers explains who to tell.
Use 999 when you or anyone else is in immediate danger, and 101 to report something to the police that is not an emergency, as gov.uk sets out. If you call 999 from a mobile and cannot speak, the police Silent Solution lets you press 55 when prompted to show that it is a real emergency.
Travelling at night
Travelling to and from visits, especially late at night
Early morning and bedtime visits mean walking to a car, waiting at a bus stop or crossing an estate in the dark. A little planning makes those journeys safer.
Worth doing
- Plan the route home before you set out, including the last bus or train.
- Park somewhere well lit and as close to the door as you can, and have your keys ready.
- Book a licensed taxi or private hire car in advance if you need one late at night.
- Tell your check-in contact when you have left the last visit and when you are home.
Worth avoiding
- Walking with headphones in, or looking at your phone, on a dark street.
- Accepting a lift from somebody you do not know, or an unbooked car that stops for you.
- Taking a short cut you do not know in the dark to save a few minutes.
- Agreeing to a late visit you cannot get home from safely.
A taxi home after a late visit is your own cost unless you and the client have agreed in advance that they will pay it. The contract only reimburses out-of-pocket expenses that were agreed beforehand and backed by receipts. Travel time and mileage for carers explains how to agree travel costs with a client, and night shifts, sleeping and waking nights covers overnight work.
The Suzy Lamplugh Trust is a UK charity working on personal safety, and its website is worth a look.
Stopping work or leaving
You can stop work or leave when staying would put you in danger
The contract between you and each client gives you the right to decide that a situation is unsafe and to act on it. You do not need anybody's permission.
The client agrees to provide a safe working environment and to cooperate with you on reasonable health and safety concerns. The contract then says that you remain responsible for deciding whether the environment is safe for you to work in, and that you may stop work if you reasonably believe conditions are unsafe. The client also agrees not to pressure you into anything you feel unable to do safely.
Leaving without notice normally has consequences. Notice is 48 hours for hourly care, and 7 days for live-in care once 168 hours have been worked. A carer who ends an arrangement without notice is not paid for the visits in that period and may be asked to cover the client's reasonable costs of replacement care. The contract is clear that none of this prevents you from leaving immediately where remaining would endanger your own safety.
- At once
Get yourself safe
Leave the room or the house. Call 999 if you or the client are in immediate danger. If the client cannot be left alone, call the emergency services or the family from somewhere safe.
- Same day
Tell the client or their family
Explain in writing that you have stopped work, and why. Keep it factual.
- Same day
Tell PrimeCarers
The carer terms ask you to raise issues with clients so they can be reviewed, and to report anything involving vulnerable people.
- Before going back
Agree what changes
Put in writing what the client will do to make the home safe. You are not obliged to return until you are satisfied.
On a live-in placement it can also work the other way. The client can ask you to leave at once over safety concerns or a breakdown of trust. You then make reasonable efforts to leave within a practicable period, taking into account transport and your own safety, and you are still owed for work already done. Keep enough money and a charged phone to get home at short notice.
An injury at work means time without income, because a self-employed carer has no sick pay. Holiday pay, sick pay and pensions when self-employed covers planning for that, and do I need insurance? explains the types of cover. When you are ready to choose clients on these terms, you can register as a carer on PrimeCarers, or see the carer jobs open near you first.
Questions
Questions carers ask about working alone
Yes. Nothing in health and safety law stops a carer working alone. As a self-employed carer you are responsible for thinking through the risks and for your own safety.
It applies if you employ anyone, or if your work could put other people at risk. HSE asks, for example, whether somebody could be burnt, scalded, crushed, trip over or fall because of your work. Personal care can raise those risks, so it is safest to assume the law applies to you. HSE explains the test.
Yes. The contract lets you stop work if you reasonably believe conditions are unsafe, and says nothing in the notice rules prevents you leaving immediately where remaining would endanger your own safety. Get safe first, then tell the client and PrimeCarers in writing.
Move away from them and leave if it continues. Call 999 if you are in danger. Afterwards write down what happened, tell the client or their family, and tell PrimeCarers. You do not have to go back until you have agreed in writing what will change.
Somebody you trust who will act if you do not check in. Give them the address, your expected finish time and what to do if they cannot reach you. PrimeCarers does not supervise or monitor visits, so this has to be your own arrangement.