Carer-supported holidays: the full guide

Most families choose between three shapes of trip. A relative or friend who already helps with day to day care can come along informally. A carer who is already paid for visits at home, whether through PrimeCarers or otherwise, can sometimes be asked to travel too, for their normal rate plus their own costs. Or the person needing care stays at home, and a carer covers the days a family carer would normally be there, so it is the family carer who gets the break instead.

None of the three is automatically the right answer. It depends on how much your relative wants to travel, how much support they need for the whole day rather than the odd hour, and how much of a break the family carer needs from the routine of caring for them. The rest of this guide, and the six detailed articles it links to, work through each of those in turn.

For your relative, a change of surroundings and a different pace of day can lift a mood that has settled into the same four walls for a long time. Meeting new people, or simply sitting somewhere different with a cup of tea, is a small thing that can matter more than it sounds when the daily routine has narrowed a great deal. That is not a reason to force a trip nobody wants, and later in this guide there is a section on when staying at home works better, but it is a reason to take the idea seriously rather than dismiss it as too much trouble.

For a family carer, the case is more straightforward. NHS guidance on carers' breaks and respite care describes respite as taking a break from caring while the person you care for is looked after by someone else, precisely so that continuous caring without any time off does not wear a family carer down. A holiday, in the sense this guide uses it, is one way to get that break: either your relative comes too and a paid carer takes on the caring for the trip, or your relative stays at home with a carer and you go without them. Either way, the point is the same. A few days where somebody else is doing the watching and the worrying is not selfish, and it tends to make the caring that follows easier rather than harder.

If you simply want to know whether bringing somebody along is possible at all, can you take a carer on holiday with you? is the place to start: it sets out who can come, what changes about the cost, and how to plan the trip itself. If a physical disability rather than a memory condition is the main thing to plan around, where can I go on holiday as a disabled person living in the UK? covers how to check a destination properly rather than trust a brochure's word for it, and where can I take an old person on holiday in the UK? sets out five UK regions that work well when age itself, rather than a specific condition, is the main factor.

Three of the six guides deal with dementia specifically, because it changes what a good holiday looks like more than almost any other condition. Should people with dementia go on holidays? is where to start if you are still deciding whether to travel at all. Dementia-friendly holidays for a refreshing break sets out what to look for in the accommodation and the routine once you have decided to go. And if a cruise is what your relative has in mind, should a person with dementia go on a cruise? covers what to weigh up before you book, since it depends far more on the stage of the dementia than on the ship.

If loneliness rather than a holiday is the more pressing problem, how do you help an elderly person who is lonely? covers what tends to help day to day, and what are dementia cafes? covers a lower-cost, closer-to-home way to get some of the same benefit of company and a change of scene.

A carer's rate does not go up just because the visit happens somewhere other than home. Under the standard PrimeCarers contract it stays £15 to £20 an hour for company, or £18 to £25 if personal care is needed, with the usual bank holiday and Christmas Day uplifts applying wherever the visit takes place. What changes is that you also agree the carer's own travel, room and meals with them directly, in writing, before you book anything. Can you take a carer on holiday with you? has the full breakdown of what changes and what does not.

1. 1

   Attendance Allowance

   £77 or £115 a week

   Paid in cash with no rule about how it is spent, so it goes towards a carer's fee on holiday the same as it would at home. Neither rate is means-tested.
2. 2

   A council direct payment, if your relative already has one

   Can continue while you travel

   Care and support statutory guidance allows a direct payment to keep being paid while your relative is on holiday in Great Britain, for up to four weeks in a year, as long as the council has the dates and the address in advance. It will not usually fund the flights, the hotel or the days out themselves.
3. 3

   Paying for it yourselves

   From £15 an hour

   Most families cover some or all of a holiday's care cost themselves, the same as they would at home. Search your postcode to see actual carer rates before you plan the trip around a guess.

Attendance Allowance: who qualifies and how to claim covers the benefit above in full, and how local authority funding works covers direct payments and what a council will and will not fund. If it is the family carer rather than your relative who needs the break, Carer's Allowance is worth checking too, though it is paid for the caring you do rather than for a holiday specifically. Companion carer costs sets out the fuller figures for what company and personal care cost at home, which is the baseline every one of these prices starts from.

What are dementia assistance cards? covers the ID card option in more detail, and the seven stages of dementia is worth reading if you are not sure how much supervision your relative is likely to need on a trip.

If your relative would find travel itself too much, or simply does not want to go, respite care lets them stay in familiar surroundings while you go away, and it usually costs less than a family member's flight and hotel on top of a carer's rate. If it is you who needs the break rather than your relative, the same idea works the other way round. Neither of these is a lesser choice than a holiday together, and either one can be tried once, close to home, before you commit to anything bigger.

PrimeCarers is an introductory service. It is not a care agency and does not employ, manage or provide care itself; every carer works for themselves and agrees terms directly with the family they work for. Before a carer's profile appears on the site, four checks have been completed: an identity check, a right to work check, an enhanced DBS check kept current on the Update Service, and an online interview. Carers are insured while they work. PrimeCarers does not check qualifications, training or references, though many carers list references on their own profile, and none of this amounts to a promise that any one carer will suit your relative; that is something you judge yourself once you have spoken to them.

How we vet carers has the fuller detail of the process, and find a carer is where to search by postcode, whether that is near your relative's home or near the destination you are planning to visit.

1. 1

   Work out which of the six questions is yours

   Today

   Use the table above to find the guide that matches your relative's situation, whether that is a physical disability, dementia at a particular stage, or simply choosing a UK destination.
2. 2

   Check what could help pay for it

   Free to ask

   Attendance Allowance and, if your relative already has one, a council direct payment can both go towards the cost. Neither takes long to check.
3. 3

   Ask your usual carer, or search near the destination

   Free to search

   If your relative already has a carer through PrimeCarers, ask directly whether they would consider coming away. If not, search by postcode for someone near home or near where you are going.
4. 4

   Write the routine down, and agree the details in writing

   Before you book

   Medication times, what helps on a bad day, and the carer's rate, travel and room, settled before anyone travels rather than worked out once you arrive.