What does a day of personal care look like?

Most families start with just one of these, usually the morning call, and add others as the need for them becomes clear. If your relative needs someone in the house all day and through the night as well, that is a different kind of care called live-in care, where one carer moves in and lives alongside your relative; how live-in care works sets out that day hour by hour. For working out how many of the visits above your relative needs, the needs-to-hours guide turns tasks into a number of visits and a weekly cost.

Privacy matters most in this visit, because it involves the parts of the day a family member is often the least comfortable helping with, and the parts a parent is often the least comfortable being helped with, which is why asking for a woman or a man for washing and dressing is a reasonable request to make early. A carer who has done this well will knock, explain what they are about to do before doing it, and cover what does not need to be uncovered. If your relative can do part of a task themselves, most carers encourage them to, since keeping some independence matters as much as getting the task done. What is personal care? covers the fuller range of tasks a visit can include, beyond the morning routine.

Which of these a carer does with your relative should be written into the care plan you agree together before the first visit, not assumed on the day. Wound dressings, injections and other clinical treatment are not something a personal carer does; that is the job of the district nursing team, and a referral usually comes from the hospital on discharge, the GP, or by asking the surgery directly. A carer can let you know if something looks like it needs a nurse or a GP, and can be there when the district nurse visits, but the treatment itself sits with them.

The rest of the daytime is more ordinary: a hot lunch and a drink, company at the table rather than eating alone, and in the afternoon whatever your relative enjoys, from a nap to a jigsaw to the television. Carers on PrimeCarers do not have their qualifications or training checked by us, so if a specific skill matters, such as experience with a feeding tube or a particular condition, ask about it directly and look for it on the carer's own profile, where carers list their training and experience themselves.

On visit-based personal care, nobody is in the house once the evening call ends. For many families that is the right shape: your relative is safely settled, and a phone or a pendant alarm covers anything urgent. If falls, confusion or wandering at night are a real worry, overnight care puts a carer in the home for a set block through the night, either awake or asleep depending on how much is likely to happen. If the concern is broader than just the night, and your relative needs someone there most of the time, live-in care is worth reading about: one carer lives in and covers the whole day, at £1,050 to £1,120 a week and up rather than a per-hour visit rate, with proper breaks built into their own day.

PrimeCarers is an introductory service: it helps you find and vet a self-employed carer, rather than being a care agency that employs or manages carers itself, and it is not CQC-registered. The checks above happen before anyone appears in a search, and how we vet every carer sets out exactly what that covers. Beyond the checks, the things that make a visit feel dignified rather than rushed, like knocking before entering a room or letting your relative choose their own clothes, come from the carer you choose and the relationship you build with them; building a good relationship with your carer has more on getting that right from the first visit.

1. 1

   Decide which parts of the day need help

   Today

   Look at the day above and mark which visits your relative needs now, starting with whichever part of the day is hardest. Most families begin with just the morning call.
2. 2

   Search carers near you

   Free

   Every profile shows a carer's rate, experience and availability, and every carer has been through the checks above before they appear.
3. 3

   Talk to two or three carers

   This week

   Describe the day you have in mind and ask how they would approach the parts you are most concerned about, such as washing or medication.
4. 4

   Book the first visit, then adjust

   Week one

   Start with the visit you are sure of and add others once the carer has seen how the day goes. Visits can be changed at any time; there is no fixed package to renegotiate.