Domiciliary care from a carer you choose
Domiciliary care is help in your relative’s own home: getting up and dressed, washing, meals, tablets and company. Search vetted, self-employed carers near them, see each carer’s rate before you talk, and keep the same person from visit to visit.
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What it means
What is domiciliary care?
Domiciliary care is paid care given to somebody in the home they already live in. The word comes from the Latin for a home, and it is the formal name for care that comes to a person, rather than care they move somewhere to receive. You are most likely to meet it on a hospital discharge form or in a letter from the council.
The names you will hear for the same service
- Domiciliary care
- The formal name, used by councils, hospital discharge teams and the regulators. It does not mean a more medical service than home care.
- Home care, or care at home
- The everyday names for the same thing. The NHS says the service is known as homecare, domiciliary care, or sometimes home help.
- Domiciliary carer
- The person who comes to the house. Care worker, care assistant and home carer describe the same job.
- Domiciliary care agency
- An organisation that employs care workers and sends them to people’s homes. In England it must be registered with the Care Quality Commission.
The wording comes from the NHS guide to help at home from a paid carer and the Care Quality Commission’s guidance for homecare agencies.
What a domiciliary carer helps with
- Getting up and going to bed
- Washing, bathing and help in the bathroom
- Dressing, and the care of skin, hair and teeth
- Meals, drinks and help with eating
- Reminders to take medicines
- Shopping, prescriptions and light housework
- Company, a walk, and getting to appointments
Most of these fall within what the law calls personal care. The 2014 regulations define it as physical help with eating or drinking, going to the toilet, washing or bathing, dressing, oral care and the care of skin, hair and nails, or prompting somebody through those tasks.
Nursing is a separate service. Dressing wounds, giving injections and clinical catheter care come from the NHS district nursing team, arranged through the GP surgery. Ask any carer what they have done before, and agree the tasks with them in writing before the first visit.
The word covers more than visits. In law the service is defined by where the care happens, so overnight care and live-in care in somebody’s own home are domiciliary care too. Each part of the UK has its own regulator: the Care Quality Commission in England, the Care Inspectorate in Scotland, Care Inspectorate Wales, and the RQIA in Northern Ireland. What the care words mean goes through the rest of the vocabulary.
How much help
One visit a week, or a carer who lives in
The help is the same at every level. What changes is how much of the day and night somebody is in the house. These are the prices carers on PrimeCarers charge, with our fee included.
It is fine to start small and add visits as you learn what is needed. Past about 35 hours of visits a week, live-in care usually costs less than the visits and covers the hours in between.
Three ways to arrange it
The council, an agency, or a carer you choose
The help in the house can look much the same whichever way you go. What differs is who chooses the person at the door, who organises cover, and what you pay for the hour.
The same help at home, arranged three ways
The council arranges it
Means-tested
You may pay nothing, part or all of the cost, depending on the financial assessment.
- Who arranges it
- The council, after a care needs assessment finds eligible needs. It usually buys the visits from a registered agency it holds a contract with.
- Who chooses the carer
- The agency, from its rota. You can ask for a direct payment instead and choose for yourself.
- Who regulates it
- The agency is registered with the Care Quality Commission, which inspects and rates it.
- Who you pay
- The council, for your assessed contribution. It pays the agency.
A registered agency you pay yourself
£28 to £35
an hour, the typical UK range for an agency visit.
- Who arranges it
- The agency. It employs the care workers, writes the rota and arranges cover when somebody is off sick.
- Who chooses the carer
- The agency decides who comes. You can ask for the same people, and NICE guidance tells agencies to put continuity first.
- Who regulates it
- The Care Quality Commission registers the agency, inspects it and publishes a rating.
- Who you pay
- The agency, on its own contract, notice and cancellation terms.
A self-employed carer you choose
£18 to £25
an hour for carers on PrimeCarers, with our fee included.
- Who arranges it
- You and the carer, together. PrimeCarers introduces carers and handles the contract and payments.
- Who chooses the carer
- You do, from profiles showing each carer’s rate, experience and reviews, after talking to them.
- Who regulates it
- No CQC registration, by design of the regulations. The checking is shared between the introducer and you.
- Who you pay
- The carer, through the platform, on a written contract between the two of you.
Agency figures are the typical UK range for hourly home care. PrimeCarers figures are the rates carers advertise, with our fee included. Regulation from the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Checked October 2026.
Where PrimeCarers fits
PrimeCarers is an introductory service, not a care agency or a care provider, and it holds no CQC registration. The regulations exclude the introduction of carers to an individual by somebody with no ongoing role in directing or controlling the service, and the Care Quality Commission’s guidance on introductory agencies explains where that line sits. The carer you choose is self-employed and works for you.
That gives you the choice of who comes and a lower hourly rate. In return you agree the visits with the carer yourself, and nobody sends a replacement automatically if they are ill or on holiday, so agree at the start how cover will work. If you would like help with scheduling and holiday cover, the optional Managed service adds 5%. Paying for domiciliary care privately sets the agency and self-employed routes side by side.
What it costs
What a week of domiciliary care costs
A registered agency typically charges £28 to £35 an hour. Self-employed carers on PrimeCarers set their own rates, usually £18 to £25 an hour with our fee included, and the rate is on their profile before you speak to them.
| A carer on PrimeCarers | A registered agency | |
|---|---|---|
| An hour a day7 hours a week | £126 to £175 | £196 to £245 |
| Morning and evening14 hours a week | £252 to £350 | £392 to £490 |
| Morning, lunch and evening21 hours a week | £378 to £525 | £588 to £735 |
| A carer who lives inA week, one person | From £1,050, typically £1,120 | About £1,400 |
PrimeCarers figures are the rates carers advertise, with our fee included. Agency figures are the typical UK range and are not our prices. Under the standard contract, bank holidays are charged at one and a half times the carer's rate and Christmas Day at twice. Travel and mileage are charged only where agreed in advance in writing.
If the council arranges the care, what your relative pays depends on a financial assessment instead. What domiciliary care costs covers the means test, a month and a year of visits, and who can help pay.
How it works
From “something has to change” to a carer at the door
No assessment visits, no waiting list. Some families are talking to a carer the same day.
Search your postcode
See the carers who cover it, with photos, rates, experience and reviews. Filter by hourly, live-in or overnight.
Talk to the ones you like
Message them directly, or tell us what you need and we can suggest some carers to look at. The choice is always yours.
Meet before deciding
A call, a video chat or a visit, free and before anything is booked. A lot of families have a good idea within the first ten minutes.
Book, and change it as needs change
The contract and payment run through us, and visits booked here are covered by the carer insurance policy we arrange, within its terms. You can add visits, add nights, or move to live-in care as things change, and you only pay for care that happens.
Who comes to the door
How carers are checked
Letting somebody into your relative’s home takes trust. Here is what we check before a carer can be found on PrimeCarers, and what is left for you to ask.
Checked before their profile appears
Every carer has had an identity check, a right to work check, an enhanced DBS check (or PVG in Scotland, Access NI in Northern Ireland) issued within the last 2 years, and a recorded online interview.
Skills and training are yours to ask about
We do not check qualifications, training or references. A profile can show reviews and references from past families, which we do not verify, so talk to the carer about what your relative needs.
A written contract and card payment
You and the carer sign a written contract that PrimeCarers provides. You pay by card through PrimeCarers after the visits happen, with no cash to hand over.
Insurance for platform visits
Visits booked through PrimeCarers are covered by the carer insurance policy we arrange, within its terms. It does not cover clinical procedures (other than prompting or handing over oral medicines), so check it covers the work you agree.
Reviews
What families say about their carers
Margaret N
"Excellent - Lovely lady. My mother is so pleased with the work she does in helping her."
Read the full review
Julia S
"Julia is a highly skilled and companionate carer who is able to give so much of herself and adapt to any situation."
Read the full review
Andres Felipe C
"My son who he is caring for automatically welcomed Andres and can be heard laughing & having fun with Andres."
Read the full reviewCommon questions
Domiciliary care, answered
The questions families ask most about care at home. If yours is not here, talking it through takes ten minutes.
Free and no obligation.
Yes. Domiciliary care is the formal name and home care is the everyday one, and they describe the same service: paid care given to somebody in the home they already live in. The NHS says the service is known as homecare, domiciliary care, or sometimes home help, and the Care Quality Commission registers homecare agencies, which it also calls domiciliary care agencies.
A domiciliary carer helps somebody with the parts of daily life they cannot manage safely alone: getting up and going to bed, washing and dressing, meals and drinks, help in the bathroom and reminders about medicines, along with shopping, light housework and company. They do not carry out nursing tasks such as dressing wounds or giving injections, which the NHS district nursing team does. What a carer can do in an hour shows how the tasks fit into a visit.
A registered agency typically charges £28 to £35 an hour. Self-employed carers on PrimeCarers set their own rates, usually £18 to £25 an hour with our fee included. Live-in care on PrimeCarers starts at £1,050 a week. What domiciliary care costs works through a week of visits each way.
It depends on your relative’s money and on who arranges the care. If the council assesses your relative as having eligible needs, a financial assessment works out what they pay. In England in 2026/27, somebody with more than £23,250 in savings pays the full cost, and the value of the home is not counted for care at home. Reablement after a hospital stay is free for up to six weeks. A council direct payment can be used to pay a self-employed carer you choose. Direct payments explains how to ask.
Yes. In England an organisation that provides personal care in somebody’s home has to be registered with the Care Quality Commission. A self-employed carer a family engages directly does not register, and nor does an introductory service with no ongoing role in directing the care. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own regulators. How home care is regulated has the detail.
Carers on PrimeCarers are self-employed. You choose the carer and agree the visits with them, and the written contract is between you and the carer. They are responsible for their own tax and National Insurance, so you do not take on the duties of an employer. How private carers work.
You choose and book a named carer, subject to their availability, so you can keep the same person from visit to visit. Agree a backup plan at the start: the contract lets a carer arrange a suitable substitute, and you can object on reasonable grounds, but replacement cover is not guaranteed. Some families agree a second regular carer for holidays.
If you are paying yourself, care can start as soon as you have found a carer with availability, sometimes within a few days. Care the council arranges starts after the needs assessment and the care plan, which can take longer, and you can arrange some help privately in the meantime. How quickly home care can start covers the timings.
Yes. Adding a visit or changing a time is a conversation with the carer. Under the standard contract, hourly care ends on 48 hours’ notice from either side, and a visit you cancel is payable unless the reason is unplanned hospitalisation, illness, or something the carer agrees to. PrimeCarers charges nothing itself to change or stop care.
Live-in care is one form of domiciliary care. With visits, a carer comes for an agreed time and then leaves. With live-in care, a carer lives in the home, works through the day with a daily break and sleeps there at night, which needs a spare room. Past roughly 35 hours of visits a week, live-in care usually costs less. Live-in care explains the arrangement.
Go deeper
Guides to domiciliary care
Plain guides to the questions families ask next: the cost, paying privately, how to choose, and when visits stop being enough.
Domiciliary care near you
Each county has its own page, with what carers charge locally and the towns they cover. Type your county to narrow the list.
Care at home by county, with local rates and carers
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