How do live-in care providers compare?

An introductory service introduces you to a self-employed carer who works directly for you and sets their own rate. A care agency employs its carers as staff, sets the price itself, and is registered with and inspected by the Care Quality Commission. Both can arrange live-in care; they are simply built differently, and that difference decides most of what else is true about the price and the arrangement.

Because the weekly figure covers less. On an introductory service the price is the carer's own rate with a fee inside it. On a fully managed agency it also has to cover the carer's employment costs (wages, employer National Insurance, holiday pay, pension) and the agency's own management and margin. On PrimeCarers that works out at £1,050 to £1,400 a week against £1,120 to £1,750 for a typical fully managed agency. The cost of live-in care has the fuller breakdown.

Of the 20 UK providers compared on this page, these are CQC-registered managed services: The Good Care Group, Helping Hands, Home Instead, Bluebird Care, Trinity Homecare, Agincare, Unique Senior Care, Edyn Care. These run a registered managed service alongside an introductory one: Christies Care, Consultus Care and Nursing, Hometouch, Curam, Avelon Live In Care. These are introductory services with no CQC registration: PrimeCarers, Elder, Country Cousins, TrustonTap, Access Care, Guardian Carers, Able Community Care. Each entry above links to its source, checked on 19 October 2026.

No. Elder describes itself as an introductory care agency that helps families find self-employed carers, and says on its own website that introductory agencies like it are not required to register with the CQC. The same is true of Country Cousins, TrustonTap and PrimeCarers. That is how introductory services work rather than a sign of poor care, but it means there is no CQC rating to look up for the service itself.

Of the price you pay, the carer keeps 87.5%; our standard fee is 12.5%, already included. The fee is a share of the price you pay, not an extra charge, and the VAT on it comes out of the fee. On hourly visits under 6 hours the standard fee is 20%, and on visits of 6 hours or more, including overnights, it is 15%. The optional managed service is the only fee added on top: 5% for Managed, or 10% for Fully Managed, which is for live-in care only.

No, and it would not make sense for it to be. CQC registration applies to organisations that deliver personal care. PrimeCarers introduces families to self-employed carers who then work directly for the client, which is the same reason a self-employed personal assistant hired through a council direct payment does not need to be CQC registered either. PrimeCarers is not an agency, does not employ carers, and does not provide or manage care itself.

On PrimeCarers, live-in care runs from £1,050 to £1,400 a week, typically around £1,120, the carer's own rate with our fee included. A fully managed, CQC-registered agency typically charges £1,120 to £1,750 for the same coverage. The cost of live-in care covers what is and is not included in either figure.

Not on its own. The price mostly reflects the business model rather than the person providing the care. A self-employed carer found through an introductory service goes through the same kind of checks, an ID check, a right to work check and an accepted criminal-record check (Enhanced DBS issued within the last 2 years, DBS Update Service, Scottish PVG or Access NI), as many agencies require of their own staff. What changes with the model is who employs the carer and who manages the arrangement day to day, not automatically the quality of the person.

Search the agency by name on the Care Quality Commission's own directory of care services, which is free to use. Every registered domiciliary care or live-in care agency has a current rating, Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement or Inadequate, and a published inspection report explaining it. An introductory service will not appear there, since it is not the kind of organisation the CQC registers.

You would need to search for and agree a replacement carer yourself, which is one of the trade-offs against the lower price. This is worth planning for before it happens rather than after: keep a shortlist of one or two other carers you liked when you first searched, and agree cover for holidays and illness with your current carer in writing from the start. A fully managed agency takes this responsibility on itself, which is part of what its higher price is paying for.