The short answer
- Agree the job before day one, and write it downWhich days, which turns or rota, what tasks, what happens at night, the room, the food and the rate. A carer who arrives to find a different job from the one described has a reason to leave.
- Protect their rest and their nightsLive-in arrangements are usually built around 8 to 10 hours of hands-on help, a 2-hour daily break and a night asleep. If the nights change, the cover has to change with them.
- Raise small things while they are smallAgree how you will talk about the arrangement, and have a short conversation at the end of the first week and every few weeks after.
- Keep your side of the agreementPay on time and in full, give accurate information about your relative's needs, and do not press a carer into a task they feel unable to do safely.
PrimeCarers is an introductory platform, not a care agency, and holds no CQC registration. Carers on PrimeCarers are self-employed: you agree the arrangement with them directly, and they decide how they carry out the work.
Keeping the same carer matters, because a familiar face matters to the person being cared for. Nothing on this page can make a carer stay, and a carer may move on for reasons that have nothing to do with your family. What a family can do is make the placement one that a good carer would want to keep. If you are still at the stage of choosing someone, how to hire a live-in carer and what to look for in a live-in carer come first.
Agree it in writing
Agree the job before the carer arrives, and write it down
Much of what makes a live-in placement work can be settled before the carer unpacks. When the days, the hours, the tasks and the household arrangements are written down, both of you know what was promised, and there is something to come back to when a question comes up.
What to agree before the first day
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The pattern
The work
The household
The money and the notice
On PrimeCarers, the visits are agreed under a standard contract between you and the carer, and the rate is set by the carer and shown on their profile before you speak to them. What live-in carers are entitled to sets out what is usually agreed, and the client and carer contract is on the site in full.
Rest, nights and time off
Protect the carer's daily break, their nights and their time away
A live-in carer lives where they work, so rest does not happen by itself. A carer who cannot rest becomes tired, and a tired carer is less able to look after your relative. It is the first thing to plan, and the first thing to check when a placement starts to feel strained.
A daily break
Usually 2 hours
A night asleep
Getting up once or twice
Time away from the placement
Agreed in advance
Somewhere to rest that is theirs
Their own room
The live-in carer's daily break covers who can sit with your relative for those two hours. How many hours a live-in carer works shows how the day is usually divided, and live-in care rotas compares one carer with two carers taking turns.
A home they can live in
Make the house somewhere the carer can live, not only work
For the weeks of a stay, your relative's home is also the carer's home. Small things decide whether it feels like one: a room of their own, food they can eat, a way to keep in touch with their own family, and being treated as a person living in the house.
| What it covers | What helps | What wears a carer down | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The room | Where the carer sleeps and rests | A private bedroom with a door that closes, kept as theirs | A shared room, a sofa bed, or family coming in and out |
| Food | Meals while they live with you | Food in the weekly shop, or a food allowance agreed at the start | Being unsure what they are allowed to eat |
| Keeping in touch | Their phone and their own family | The wifi password on day one, and an agreement about phone use while caring | No signal and no wifi for a fortnight |
| Privacy | Their belongings and their time off | Knocking before going into their room, and leaving their break alone | Cameras in their room, or questions about every hour off |
| Family visits | Relatives calling in | Letting the carer know who is coming and when | A house full of visitors expecting meals |
The room
- What it covers
- Where the carer sleeps and rests
- What helps
- A private bedroom with a door that closes, kept as theirs
- What wears a carer down
- A shared room, a sofa bed, or family coming in and out
Food
- What it covers
- Meals while they live with you
- What helps
- Food in the weekly shop, or a food allowance agreed at the start
- What wears a carer down
- Being unsure what they are allowed to eat
Keeping in touch
- What it covers
- Their phone and their own family
- What helps
- The wifi password on day one, and an agreement about phone use while caring
- What wears a carer down
- No signal and no wifi for a fortnight
Privacy
- What it covers
- Their belongings and their time off
- What helps
- Knocking before going into their room, and leaving their break alone
- What wears a carer down
- Cameras in their room, or questions about every hour off
Family visits
- What it covers
- Relatives calling in
- What helps
- Letting the carer know who is coming and when
- What wears a carer down
- A house full of visitors expecting meals
Cameras: tell the carer about any camera in the shared rooms before they arrive, and never put one in their bedroom.
Where live-in carers sleep covers what the room needs, whether live-in carers buy their own food covers the food budget, and does a live-in carer need the internet covers wifi and privacy. If relatives live in the house too, live-in care with family in the house is worth reading before the carer arrives.
When the job grows
Revisit the arrangement when your relative's needs change
The job a carer agreed to can grow slowly, one extra task at a time, until it is a different job. This happens because your relative's needs change, and from the outside it is easy to miss.
- You notice
Something is taking more time than it did
More help at night, two people needed to move your relative, more time on personal care, a new medicine, or a fall.
- The same week
Ask the carer what has changed for them
The carer is with your relative every day, so ask them what they are now doing that was not in the agreement, and how they are managing their rest.
- Before you agree anything new
Decide whether the arrangement still fits
Some changes fit within what was agreed. Others need extra help: waking-night cover, a second person for moving and handling, or a district nurse for a clinical task.
- Once you have agreed it
Update the written agreement and the information you gave
Under the contract with the carer, you agree to tell the carer promptly when your relative's circumstances change. Put the new arrangement in writing, as you did the first one.
If your relative's needs have grown a great deal, live-in care for someone who is bedbound or hoisted and live-in care for dementia cover what changes in those situations.
Raising things early
Raise small things early, and agree how you will talk
Strains in a live-in placement can start small: a routine that does not suit, a misunderstanding about the kitchen, a relative who gives instructions the carer did not expect. When they are talked about early, they are usually easier to sort out than when they have been left to build up.
- 1
Agree how you will talk about the arrangement
Before day oneWho the carer speaks to in the family, and how: a call, a message, or a short chat at the changeover. One named person is easier for the carer than several relatives with different views. - 2
Have a short conversation at the end of the first week
Week oneAsk what is working, what is not, and whether anything has turned out different from what was agreed. - 3
Repeat it every few weeks
OngoingPut it in the diary rather than waiting for a problem. It is a chance for the carer to raise things they might not raise unprompted. - 4
Describe the outcome you want, not how to do the work
Every timeA self-employed carer decides how they carry out the work. Under the standard contract you can say what you would like to happen for your relative, but not direct or supervise how the carer does it. - 5
Say thank you, and leave a review
When it is deservedUnder the contract with the carer, you agree to rate the carer during or at the end of their work. A fair review helps the carer when other families look at their profile.
The first week with a new carer has the questions worth asking at that first conversation. When a conversation does not settle something, handling problems with a carer sets out the next steps, including mediation. If you are worried about your relative's safety, that comes before anything else on this page: for a medical emergency call 999.
Paying on time
Keep your side of the agreement, including paying on time
A self-employed carer relies on being paid for the weeks they work. Paying on time, and honouring the rates and terms you agreed, is part of what makes a placement worth keeping.
Pay invoices in full and on time
Under the standard contract
Honour the bank holiday and Christmas rates
Set by the contract
Keep the rate you agreed
For the arrangement
Agree travel before the carer sets off
Only if agreed
If a placement does come to an end, notice for live-in care is 48 hours until the carer has worked 168 hours, then 7 days, on either side. Ending live-in care covers the handover, and notice periods covers what is payable while the notice runs.
Questions
Questions families ask about keeping a live-in carer
For many reasons, some of them nothing to do with the family, such as their own health or family. Within a placement, three strains can be prevented or eased: a job that turns out different from the one agreed, too little rest or broken nights, and small problems nobody raised. Agreeing the arrangement in writing and revisiting it when needs change helps with all three.
Two carers taking turns on a regular rota give your relative two familiar faces rather than a series of new ones. Live-in care rotas compares the patterns families use. Beyond that, the same things help: a clear agreement, protected rest, and early conversations.
There is no fixed legal entitlement, because carers on PrimeCarers are self-employed. A two-hour daily break is usual practice, and the standard contract expects a live-in carer to have opportunities for rest, with the timing left to the carer. The live-in carer's daily break covers who can sit with your relative.
Talk to the carer first, then add cover. A live-in carer needs sleep and daily rest; repeated waking or continuous supervision needs a separate staffing and cover plan, usually a waking-night carer alongside the live-in carer.
Ask the carer first. Under the contract with the carer, you agree not to pressure a carer into anything they feel unable to provide safely, and to tell them promptly when your relative's needs change. Agree any new task with the carer and add it to the written agreement.
If you or the carer feel the rate no longer fits the work, for example because the job has grown, talk about it openly. For hourly care, our client terms say rates should not change during a contract agreement, and a change before the end of a contract has to be agreed by both of you in writing and starts a new contract. For live-in care, agree any change of rate in writing before it applies.
The same as you. Under the standard contract, notice for live-in care is 48 hours until the carer has worked 168 hours, then 7 days, on either side. Notice periods covers the details.
Yes. Under the contract with the carer, you agree to rate the carer during or at the end of their work, and you choose the level of anonymity. Reviews describe past visits and help other families. They are not a check by PrimeCarers.