The short answer
- The route that fits changes with your situationAn urgent hospital discharge and a need you are planning years around call for different routes. Find the situation closest to yours below and start there.
- A private carer is chosen by you, not sent by a rotaThey are self-employed and work in your relative's own home on the tasks you agree together, rather than being assigned by an agency and swapped when the rota changes.
- Cost differs by a few pounds an hour between routesCarers found through PrimeCarers charge £18 to £25 an hour with our fee included, against £28 to £35 through a care agency.
- One check matters whichever route you takePhoto ID, the right to work, and an enhanced DBS certificate. Confirm all three yourself if nobody already has, whatever route you choose.
PrimeCarers is an introductory service, not a care agency and not registered with the CQC. Carers are self-employed, and their identity, right to work and enhanced DBS are checked, and an online interview completed, before their profile appears.
Which route fits
Which route fits your situation
Arranging a private carer usually comes down to the same handful of questions: how soon you need somebody, how much of the checking you want to do yourself, and how complex or how many hours the care is. Find the situation closest to yours and start there.
Care needs to start this week
An introductory service
Identity, right to work, an enhanced DBS check and an online interview are already done before a carer’s profile appears, so there is nothing left to check before the first visit.
£18–25 an hour
A few weeks to look and compare
An introductory service, or a local carer group
Time to message a few carers, read their reviews and meet more than one before deciding who suits your relative.
£16–25 an hour
Every pound has to count
Finding and checking someone yourself
The lowest hourly rate, in exchange for writing the advert, getting sight of the DBS certificate and arranging cover yourself.
£16–18 an hour
Nursing-level or fast-changing needs
A CQC-registered care agency
The agency employs, trains and covers its own staff, so somebody clinically competent is always on the rota, even at short notice.
£28–35 an hour
Care needed most of the day, most days
Live-in care
Past roughly 35 hours a week, paying for someone to live in costs about the same as a string of visits and covers the night too.
£1,050–£1,400 a week
None of this is a fixed rule, and most families end up somewhere between two rows as things change. A relative discharged from hospital on an introductory service might move to a carer found through a local group six months later, once the mornings have settled into a routine, and that is a normal way for an arrangement to develop rather than a sign the first choice was wrong. How to find a private carer sets out each of these routes in full, including what to put in an advert if you are looking yourself, and agency or private carer compares an agency against a private carer in more depth than this page has room for.
What they do
What a private carer does day to day
Before deciding where to look, it helps to be clear what you are looking for. A private carer is a self-employed person your family chooses and pays directly, working in your relative's own home on tasks you agree together, rather than an employee an agency assigns and can change at will.
Personal care
Medication
Meals and the house
Company and reassurance
What a carer does not do without extra arrangement is anything clinical, such as giving an injection or changing a dressing, unless they hold the specific training and it has been agreed in advance. What is a private carer? covers the role in full, and if your relative's needs are nursing-level or changing quickly, read agency or private carer before deciding, since that is usually where an agency fits better than an individual you have found and booked yourself.
What it costs
What it costs, route by route
The hourly rate moves by a few pounds depending on how you find a carer. The bigger difference is what is included in that rate: checking and a contract. Cover if your carer is ill or on holiday is something you agree directly with them on every route except a care agency, which arranges it as part of what you pay for.
£18–25
An hour through PrimeCarers
Our fee is included in the price
£16–18
An hour finding and checking someone yourself
£28–35
An hour through a CQC-registered care agency
£1,050–£1,400
A week for live-in care
Rising to £1,260–£1,750 for complex or nursing needs
PrimeCarers rates, September 2026, fee included. Agency figures are what agencies typically quote for the same visit.
Finding somebody yourself is usually the cheapest hourly rate, because there is no service in between arranging the introduction, running the checks or covering a holiday. That saving is real, and it is worth weighing against the time it takes to advertise, read replies, chase a DBS certificate and arrange cover yourself. What a private carer costs per hour has the full breakdown by task and region, and the cost of care sets hourly, overnight and live-in care side by side.
This week
If care needs to start this week
A hospital discharge does not wait for a fortnight of interviews. When time is the tightest thing you have, the route that saves the most is the one where the checking is already done.
What saves time
- Search carers whose identity, right to work and enhanced DBS are already checked, and whose online interview is already done, so you are choosing rather than vetting
- Book a single visit to start, an hour in the morning is the usual first booking, and add more once you have a carer you trust
- Ask the hospital discharge team or a social worker whether a care needs assessment can run alongside arranging a carer, since it does not have to delay the first visit
- Say plainly what your relative needs help with and when, so any replies you get are useful rather than generic
What eats the days you don't have
- Posting a free advert and waiting for replies to arrive over the following week
- Trying to order a DBS check yourself. You cannot request one, even for a carer you employ directly in your own home, and waiting for the carer to apply through an umbrella body wastes days you do not have
- Booking live-in care before you know how many hours a week are needed
- Assuming a family member can cover the gap indefinitely while you keep looking
If discharge is imminent, funding care after a hospital stay covers what is sometimes available to bridge the first few weeks, and how to find a private carer has the fuller list of places to look once the first visit is booked and there is more time to compare.
Wherever you look
The one check that matters wherever you look
Whichever route you take, three things are worth confirming before a carer's first visit. Nobody arranges this for you unless you ask for it directly, except on a route where the checking is done before you ever see a profile.
Before anyone starts
0 of 3 ticked
Confirm before the first visit
None of this applies if you book through PrimeCarers, where identity, right to work, an enhanced DBS check and an online interview are all done before a carer's profile appears. Background checks on a private carer sets out exactly what each of the four checks covers and what none of them tells you, and how to check a private carer walks through running the same checks yourself if you have found somebody another way. Training, qualifications and what a previous client thought are separate again, and worth asking about directly; private carer qualities has questions that help.
Getting started
From this page to a first visit
Four steps, whichever route from above fits your situation.
- 1
Pick the route that fits your situation
TodayUse the guide above, or read how to find a private carer for the full comparison of where to look and what each one leaves you to organise. - 2
Search or advertise
Free either wayOn PrimeCarers, search carers near you by postcode and see their rate, experience and reviews. If you are advertising yourself, say the days, the hours and the tasks plainly. - 3
Interview two or three
This weekAsk about the part of the day you are most worried about, and let your relative meet them properly before you decide. - 4
Confirm the checks, then book
Before day oneSee the ID, the right to work confirmation and the DBS certificate or Update Service status, then book the first visit and add hours once you know what is needed.
Questions
Questions families ask about finding a private carer
Search an introductory service where identity, right to work, an enhanced DBS check and an online interview are already confirmed, so there is nothing left to check before the first visit. Free routes such as local groups or classified ads can move quickly too, but the checking is then yours to do before anybody starts, which usually takes longer than the search itself.
Usually, yes. Carers found through PrimeCarers charge £18 to £25 an hour with our fee included, and finding somebody yourself is a little cheaper again, at £16 to £18. A care agency typically charges £28 to £35 an hour, because the agency employs, trains and covers its own staff. Agency or private carer compares what each price includes.
No. An individual self-employed carer you engage directly is generally exempt from CQC registration, and so is an introductory service such as PrimeCarers that only makes the introduction. The CQC regulates providers that employ carers and manage the care themselves, such as home care agencies. Do self-employed carers need to be registered with the CQC? explains when that changes.
Yes. Since 21 January 2026, self-employed workers and personal employees have been able to apply for their own enhanced DBS check, including the barred lists, through a registered umbrella body. You cannot request the check yourself, so ask the carer to show you the certificate, or to check their status on the DBS Update Service if they are on it. Background checks on a private carer covers what each check confirms.
A private carer is self-employed and chosen by your family directly, working the hours and tasks you agree together. An agency carer is employed by a CQC-registered agency, which assigns whoever is on the rota and can change who comes. Agencies usually cost more an hour and suit fast-changing or clinical needs; a private carer usually costs less and gives more continuity. Agency or private carer sets the two out in full.
On PrimeCarers, live-in care starts at £1,050 a week and typically comes to £1,120, rising to £1,260 to £1,750 a week for complex or nursing-level needs. The cost of live-in care has the full breakdown, and how live-in care works covers what a typical week looks like.
It can. A care needs assessment is free, does not depend on income, and if your relative has less than £14,250 in savings the council may pay towards the hours in full, with support tapering away by £23,250. The funding can usually be arranged as a direct payment and used towards a private carer you have chosen. How council funding works explains how to ask for an assessment.