The short answer
- Give the notice your agreement sets out48 hours for hourly care, 7 days for live-in once you have worked 168 hours. Missing it can cost you the visits inside that window.
- Tell the client through the app, as soon as you knowUse 'Can't make this visit?' on the visit itself, rather than leaving a client to find out when you simply do not turn up.
- One absence, handled well, rarely ends a bookingIt is the pattern a client remembers, not the single day, and the reviews on your profile reflect that over time.
- Build the buffer in before you agree to a slotTravel time, your other clients and your own health are easier to protect before a booking starts than to explain afterwards.
Notice periods and cancellation terms are set out in the working agreement between you and each client, checked against PrimeCarers' contract, September 2026.
Why it matters more here
Why reliability carries more weight without an agency behind you
An agency carer who is off sick is usually replaced from a rota, and the family barely has to think about it. Working privately, there is normally no substitute lined up, so when you are not there, the visit is not covered unless you and the client sort something out between you.
An agency shift
A private booking
This is one of the trade-offs of the three ways into paid care work: working through a platform or fully independently keeps you self-employed and lets a family choose you directly, but it also means the responsibility for turning up, or for saying early that you cannot, sits with you rather than an employer. What are the benefits of having a private carer? sets out what a family is choosing when they pick continuity over a rota, and it is worth reading if you want to understand what you are being trusted with. Why become a private carer? covers the wider trade-offs of working this way.
The notice period
What your working agreement requires when you can't make a visit
Every booking on PrimeCarers runs on a working agreement between you and the client, and it sets out exactly how much warning either of you owes the other before ending an arrangement.
Hourly care
48 hours
- Give it
- The arrangement ends for the visits still inside that window. Neither of you owes the other anything further for them.
- Miss it
- You are not entitled to payment for the booked visits still inside the 48 hours, since they were not worked, and the client may recover reasonable costs of arranging replacement care.
Live-in care
7 days
Once you have worked 168 hours with that client, about a week. Before that point, 48 hours applies, the same as hourly care.
- Give it
- The placement ends for the days still inside that window. Neither of you owes the other anything further for them.
- Miss it
- You are not entitled to payment for the days still inside the notice period, since they were not worked, and the client may recover reasonable costs of arranging replacement care.
If you are running late rather than cancelling outright, tell the client as soon as you can. Continual lateness, even when each occasion has a reason, can be treated the same as a cancellation under the agreement. None of this is PrimeCarers deciding what happened between you and a client; PrimeCarers can help pass on a message, but the agreement is between you and them, and it is set out in full in the PrimeCarers working agreement.
Telling the client
How to tell a client as soon as you know, using the app
The moment you know you cannot make a visit as planned, or need to change the time, is the moment to say so, not the moment the visit was due to start.
- 1
Open the visit in your app
As soon as you knowFind the visit and use "Can't make this visit?" rather than waiting for the client to notice you have not arrived. - 2
Choose the right request
Two options"Request this change" is for shifting the time or asking for something small, such as starting an hour later; PrimeCarers' team follows up to help sort it out. "Request cancellation instead" is for when you cannot do the visit at all, and it goes straight to the client to approve. - 3
Message the client directly if you have their number
Especially at short noticeThe app records the request, but a short message in your own words, particularly at short notice, tells the client you have not simply gone quiet. - 4
Offer what you can
If it helpsA different time that day, or something that backs up your reason, such as a hospital letter or a garage receipt, is not required, but it answers the question a client is otherwise left to guess at.
Building trust
Why one absence is not the problem, but a pattern is
A client who books you regularly is placing real trust in you, often for a parent or partner who cannot easily manage without the visit. What erodes that trust is rarely a single difficult day. It is a pattern, or silence when something has gone wrong.
Turn up when you say you will
Be honest about the reason
Show empathy for their situation, not just yours
Handle a bad day calmly, then say what happened
The client on each booking is asked to rate and give feedback on your work, and that feedback can be published on your profile for other families to read. How to earn more as a carer on PrimeCarers sets out how a complete profile and a reputation for turning up feed into the bookings you are offered over time, which is a better use of the effort than trying to explain away a pattern after it has formed.
Before you say yes
Building reliability into how you take on a booking, before it starts
Most avoidable cancellations come from something that was foreseeable at the point you agreed to the visit, not from a genuine emergency on the day.
- 1
Build in travel time
Before you agreeA visit that only works if every train or bus connects on time will eventually fail. Leave a margin, especially for a first visit to somewhere new. - 2
Keep one calendar for every client
OngoingDouble-booking two families for the same slot is one of the most common causes of a last-minute cancellation, and it is entirely avoidable with one place you check before saying yes. - 3
Say no before you say yes
At the point of bookingIf a regular slot clashes with something else in your week, or you are not confident you can commit to it long term, say so at the start rather than letting the client find out later. - 4
Look after yourself so you can keep showing up
OngoingOvercommitting to hours you cannot sustain is a common route to burnout, and a carer who is exhausted is more likely to become the carer who cancels.
How do you look after yourself as a carer? has practical ways to pace yourself so a heavy week does not turn into the reason you have to cancel the next one.
Questions
Questions carers ask about reliability
Open the visit in your app and use "Can't make this visit?" as soon as you know. Choose to request a change if it is something small, like a different time, or request a cancellation if you cannot do the visit at all, which goes to the client to approve. Whether you are paid, and whether the client can recover any cost, depends on how much notice your working agreement required and whether you gave it.
48 hours for hourly care. For live-in care it is 7 days once you have worked 168 hours with that client, and 48 hours before that point. The notice period only applies to visits already agreed; it does not create any obligation to offer or accept future work. The full working agreement sets this out in detail.
If you give the notice your agreement requires, neither of you owes the other anything further for the visits inside that window. If you cancel without the required notice, and it is not illness or a serious emergency, you are not entitled to payment for the visits still inside the notice period, and the client may recover reasonable costs of arranging replacement care.
Illness and serious emergencies are recognised in the working agreement as different from an ordinary cancellation, and nothing stops you leaving immediately if staying would be unsafe. Beyond that, the agreement allows any other reason the client agrees to. PrimeCarers does not rule on whether a particular reason qualifies; that is a matter between you and the client.
No. PrimeCarers operates as an introductory and payment service, not an agency, and does not manage, schedule or allocate care. If you cannot make a visit, the arrangement is between you and the client, though PrimeCarers can help pass on a message between you if it would help. The three ways into paid care work explains how this differs from working for an agency.
You are not required to, but offering something that backs up your reason, when you can, tends to reassure a client faster than an explanation alone. Being honest about what happened matters more than the evidence itself.
Clients are asked to rate and give feedback on each booking, and that can be published on your profile for other families to read, so a pattern of cancellations is likely to show up there over time. A single absence explained early and handled well is not the same as a pattern, and most families judge the two very differently.