The short answer
- No one can promise you a start dateCarers here are self-employed and set their own availability. The start depends on who replies, whether they are free on your dates, and how far they have to travel.
- Message several carers, not oneOne message to one person means waiting on one person. The same description sent to several gets you answers sooner and gives you a choice.
- Get the spare room ready first, not lastA live-in carer needs a bedroom of their own with a bed in it. Clearing it while you are still messaging saves a day at the end.
- Live-in care starts at £1,050 a weekThat is what families pay on PrimeCarers with our fee included, and £1,120 a week is typical. A live-in care agency charges from £1,400.
PrimeCarers is an introductory service rather than a care agency. Carers are self-employed, set their own rates and availability, and you agree the start date and the terms with them directly.
What decides the start
What decides how quickly somebody can start
Four things have to happen between today and a carer's first night in the house, and only the first is yours to decide. That is where the effort belongs.
You search and send the first messages
Decided by: You, or our urgent care finder on your behalf
What makes it quicker
- Writing one description of the week and sending it to several carers at once
- Putting the postcode, the dates and the help needed in the first message
- Saying plainly that you are looking for somebody to start soon
What holds it up
- Messaging one carer and waiting for a reply before messaging the next
- Holding off on the search until the council or the ward rings back
- Leaving out the hard parts, which come up later and cost you a day
Carers read it and say whether they are free
Decided by: Each carer
What makes it quicker
- Carers whose profiles already show live-in availability near the postcode
- A start date they can reach without leaving another family short
- Care they have done before, described in words they recognise
What holds it up
- A start date that falls inside somebody else’s rota
- Needs a carer tells you they are not trained or insured to take on
- Sending it late in the evening, when people are working or asleep
You talk to them and agree the arrangement
Decided by: You and the carer together
What makes it quicker
- One phone or video call with everybody who has a say on it
- Knowing your own answers on the room, the food and who pays
- Agreeing a short first booking rather than an open-ended one
What holds it up
- A decision waiting on a relative who cannot talk until the weekend
- Questions about the house nobody has been round to check
- Discovering at this point that the spare room is full of boxes
The carer packs, travels and moves in
Decided by: Distance, trains and the carer’s own week
What makes it quicker
- A carer who lives within driving distance, or a house near a station
- A room made up before they set off, so the first night is not spent sorting it
- An arrival time in daylight, with somebody there to let them in
What holds it up
- A long journey booked at short notice, which is dearer and slower
- A carer finishing with another family first
- Keys, parking or a key safe that nobody has arranged
PrimeCarers introduces families to self-employed carers and handles the contract and the payment. Our urgent care finder can do the first stage for you, ringing round carers near you, but we do not schedule carers, allocate anybody to a household or place a carer with you. Carers set their own availability and decide for themselves which work they take, so no date on this page is ours to promise.
When a website advertises a number of hours, it is describing its own office rather than a carer's week. On PrimeCarers you search, read profiles, send messages and agree the start directly with the carer. That takes as long as people take to answer their phones, and a carer is probably working when your message arrives.
If you would rather not do that ringing round yourself, the urgent care finder takes the first stage off you. It does not touch the three after it: a carer still decides whether to take the work, and still has to travel.
Either way you are approaching people who are already checked. An identity check, a right to work check, an enhanced DBS kept under continuous monitoring and an online interview all happen before a carer appears, and insurance covers them while they work. We do not check qualifications, training or references, so those are yours to ask about: how to interview a live-in carer has the questions worth asking.
What to do today
What to do today, in order
These can all be started this morning. The order matters: the two slowest steps, carers replying and the council answering, should be running while you do everything else.
- 1
Write the week down on one page
20 minutesWhat help is needed getting up, washing, dressing and eating. How the nights go and how often somebody is up. Medication, mobility, memory and anything about your relative's behaviour a carer should know before arriving. Several people will be told this, so write it once. - 2
Search by postcode and message several carers
Today, freeProfiles show the carer's weekly rate, experience, reviews and the dates they say they are free. Send your one page to everybody who looks right, and say in the first line when you hope somebody could start. - 3
Or ask us to do the ringing round
Free to ask, £40 only if you go aheadGive the postcode, your number and what has happened. We ring back within 30 minutes, start calling carers near you and introduce you to whoever we find. Nothing is charged if we find nobody, and the fee applies only if you go ahead with a carer we found. - 4
Ring the council and use the word urgent
Today, office hoursAsk adult social care for a care needs assessment and say the need is urgent. A council can meet needs that appear urgent before it has assessed or means-tested anybody. Out of hours, look on the council website for the emergency duty team. - 5
Clear the room while you are waiting on replies
Today and tomorrowA bedroom with a door that shuts and a bed that is made up, somewhere to hang clothes, a plug socket and the wifi password written down. Leaving it until somebody has said yes turns an agreed start into a start a day later. - 6
Book cover for the nights in between
TonightWhatever gets your relative safely through the next few nights: a family rota, hourly visits at either end of the day, or an overnight carer. It takes the panic out of the phone calls.
If a hospital ward is involved, the timing is not entirely yours either. Discharge is tomorrow and there is no care in place covers what to ask and what you can insist on. If an agency has given notice or stopped turning up, start with what to do when an agency cancels: who has to replace the care depends on who commissioned it.
What to have ready
What a carer will ask before they say yes
A carer deciding whether to take on a new household at short notice is working out whether they can do it safely and whether they can get there. Having the answers written down turns three calls into one.
Have an answer to each of these before you message anybody
0 of 11 ticked
The person
Medicines and the health team
The house
Name one person who is agreeing the booking and paying, which moves faster than a group chat. None of this is only good manners. Under the client and carer contract the client agrees to give the carer full and accurate information, in advance and as things change, about known risks: mobility and handling, cognitive impairment, behaviour that could be challenging, safeguarding concerns, infections and hazards around the house. The same contract says a carer should not take on work they feel unqualified to perform. A carer who knows what they are walking into can decide properly. What a live-in carer needs covers the house itself.
The nights in between
Covering the house until a live-in carer moves in
Treat tonight and next month as two separate problems. Cover the next few nights with whatever can be arranged quickly, and let the live-in search run underneath it.
An overnight carer
£130 to £145 a sleeping night
Visits at either end of the day
£18 to £25 an hour
A family rota, written down
Free, for a few days
A short live-in booking with whoever can start first
One or two weeks
Free help to ask for
What the council and the NHS can do while you arrange this
These four cost nothing to ask for and run on their own clocks. Start them today even if you expect to pay for the care yourself, because some can arrive before any carer does.
| How to ask | What it can give you | |
|---|---|---|
| Care met as an urgent need | Ring adult social care at the council and say the need is urgent. | A council may meet needs that appear urgent without having yet done a needs assessment or a financial assessment. Those still happen, but afterwards. |
| A care needs assessment | Ask the council. Anyone can ask, and it is free. | A social worker or occupational therapist works out what help is needed and writes it down. It settles the question of hours and opens the door to council funding after a means test. |
| Reablement or intermediate care | Ask the ward before discharge, or the council if your relative is at home. | Free care and support for up to six weeks after a hospital stay, or to prevent one. It is not available everywhere, and it is meant to get somebody back on their feet rather than to last. |
| Equipment and small adaptations | Ask the council for an occupational therapy assessment. | Home adaptations and equipment are free where each item costs under a thousand pounds: grab rails, a ramp, a walking frame, a perching stool. Equipment can decide whether one carer manages alone or you need two. |
Care met as an urgent need
- How to ask
- Ring adult social care at the council and say the need is urgent.
- What it can give you
- A council may meet needs that appear urgent without having yet done a needs assessment or a financial assessment. Those still happen, but afterwards.
A care needs assessment
- How to ask
- Ask the council. Anyone can ask, and it is free.
- What it can give you
- A social worker or occupational therapist works out what help is needed and writes it down. It settles the question of hours and opens the door to council funding after a means test.
Reablement or intermediate care
- How to ask
- Ask the ward before discharge, or the council if your relative is at home.
- What it can give you
- Free care and support for up to six weeks after a hospital stay, or to prevent one. It is not available everywhere, and it is meant to get somebody back on their feet rather than to last.
Equipment and small adaptations
- How to ask
- Ask the council for an occupational therapy assessment.
- What it can give you
- Home adaptations and equipment are free where each item costs under a thousand pounds: grab rails, a ramp, a walking frame, a perching stool. Equipment can decide whether one carer manages alone or you need two.
Sources: Care Act 2014 section 19(3), and the NHS guides to getting a needs assessment and care you can get for free.
The council route and the private route are not alternatives, so run both. If cover arrives from both directions you can stand one down, a far smaller problem than a night with nobody there. How to get local authority funding explains the means test, and the GOV.UK postcode lookup finds the right council.
Cost and commitment
What live-in care costs, and what you are agreeing to
Arranging care in a hurry should not mean agreeing to something open-ended. A live-in carer's rate does not go up because you need them soon, and the terms are the same as with six weeks to decide.
£1,050
a week at the lower end
What families pay on PrimeCarers, the carer's rate with our fee included.
£1,120
a week is typical
About £160 a day, for a carer living in the house.
£1,340
a week where the care is complex
Hoisting, two-person moves and similar. The band runs £1,260 to £1,750.
From £1,400
a week from a live-in care agency
Shown for comparison. Not our price, and not a rate we set.
PrimeCarers rates, September 2026, our fee included. A carer sets their own rate, and it is on their profile before you speak to them.
The rate on a carer's profile is the whole price for that week. Our fee and the VAT on it are already inside it, there is no deposit and no joining fee, and you pay by card through PrimeCarers after the care has happened. The cost families forget is food, because a live-in carer eats with the household and that goes on the weekly shop.
Before you agree a start date, these terms from the client and carer contract decide what happens if it does not work out:
- Notice is 48 hours until the carer has worked a full week, meaning 168 hours in the house, and 7 days after that. Either side can give it.
- A booking the client cancels is payable in full, unless the reason is unplanned hospitalisation, illness, or another reason you and the carer agree. The carer may waive part or all of it, and PrimeCarers charges nothing for a cancellation.
- Bank holidays are charged at one and a half times the carer's normal rate, and Christmas Day at double.
- Travel and mileage are not chargeable unless agreed in advance and in writing, with the rate and the circumstances.
- The rate stays as agreed for the length of the contract. A different rate needs a new contract, agreed in writing.
Questions
Questions families ask when live-in care is needed quickly
There is no set answer. A live-in carer on PrimeCarers is self-employed and decides for themselves whether to take the work, so the start depends on which carers reply, whether they are free on your dates and how far they have to travel. What you can influence is the first of those: reach several carers rather than one, put the postcode, the dates and the help needed in the first message, and have the room ready before anybody says yes.
Sometimes a carer is between arrangements and lives close by, and sometimes nobody near you is free for a week. Neither is something anybody can promise you in advance. If tomorrow is the deadline, book cover for the next few nights while the search continues: hourly visits, an overnight carer, or a family rota with names against dates.
There is an urgent care finder on our emergency care page. You give the postcode and what has happened, we ring back within 30 minutes and start calling carers near you, and we introduce you to whoever we find. Asking costs nothing, nothing is charged if we find nobody, and the one-off £40 fee applies only if you go ahead with a carer we found. Searching yourself stays free. It changes who does the ringing, not who decides, so a carer still has to be free and still has to travel. For anything medical ring NHS 111, 999 if somebody is at immediate risk, and the council's emergency duty team for social care out of hours.
No. A carer sets their own rate and it is on their profile before you speak to them. Live-in care on PrimeCarers starts at £1,050 a week with our fee included, and £1,120 is typical, whether you arranged it two months ago or yesterday. Where the care is complex the band runs £1,260 to £1,750.
Yes, and a short booking costs the same per week as a longer one. It suits a decision made under pressure, a discharge that has yet to settle, or a relative who normally gives the care and is recovering. Hiring a live-in carer temporarily covers how it works.
A bedroom of their own with a bed in it, a door that shuts, somewhere to put their clothes, and wifi. They eat with the household, which goes on the weekly shop rather than the bill. They also need to know where the keys are, where to park and who to ring at night. What a live-in carer needs has the detail.
Notice is 48 hours until the carer has worked 168 hours in the house, and 7 days after that. Either side can give it. The contract also says a live-in carer is in the house with the client's ongoing consent, so where there is a safety concern, serious misconduct or a breakdown of trust the client can ask them to leave straight away.