The short answer
- Search where your parent livesCarers travel to each visit, so you need carers who live within reach of your parent rather than of you. Search with their postcode and compare the profiles, rates and reviews before you message anyone.
- Find one person who can be there in personA neighbour, a friend or a relative who lives nearby can let the carer in on the first day and be the person who goes round if something seems wrong. It is the most useful thing to arrange before anything else.
- A video call can do most of the meetingYou can meet carers by video before you agree anything. Include your parent if they are able to take part, and ask the person nearby to meet your first choice at the house if you cannot.
- Agree how you will hear about each weekDecide with the carer how and when they will update you, and who they ring first if your parent is unwell. On PrimeCarers, visit reports and reminders go by email to the relatives on the account who follow the care.
PrimeCarers is an introductory platform, not a care agency, and holds no CQC registration. Carers are self-employed. You choose the carer, agree with them what care is given, and direct it day to day.
This page is about the hiring itself when you cannot be there. If you are still working out what your parent needs, how to hire a private carer walks through the five decisions every family makes first, and caring for elderly parents remotely covers the technology, the legal access and the visits home that sit around the care.
What distance changes
The steps are the same, but some of them need a person on the ground
Hiring a carer from three hundred miles away follows the same steps as hiring one from down the road. What changes is that a few of those steps normally rely on somebody being in the house, and you have to decide in advance who does them.
| The step | What you can do from home | What needs somebody nearby | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working out what is needed | Listing the help your parent needs each day | Talk it through with your parent by phone or video, and with their GP surgery if your parent agrees | Somebody who sees them often can tell you what has changed that your parent may not mention |
| Finding carers | Searching, reading profiles, messaging | All of it, using your parent's postcode | Nothing |
| Meeting carers | A conversation before you agree anything | A video call, with your parent on the call if they can | Meeting your first choice at the house, if you cannot travel |
| Agreeing the arrangement | Days, times, tasks and the rate, in writing | All of it, online | Nothing |
| The first visit | Letting the carer in and showing them round | Joining by phone or video | Being there, or arranging the key |
| Something goes wrong | A missed visit, a fall, a worry | Phoning the carer, your parent and anybody else who needs to know | Going round to check, if they can |
Working out what is needed
- The step
- Listing the help your parent needs each day
- What you can do from home
- Talk it through with your parent by phone or video, and with their GP surgery if your parent agrees
- What needs somebody nearby
- Somebody who sees them often can tell you what has changed that your parent may not mention
Finding carers
- The step
- Searching, reading profiles, messaging
- What you can do from home
- All of it, using your parent's postcode
- What needs somebody nearby
- Nothing
Meeting carers
- The step
- A conversation before you agree anything
- What you can do from home
- A video call, with your parent on the call if they can
- What needs somebody nearby
- Meeting your first choice at the house, if you cannot travel
Agreeing the arrangement
- The step
- Days, times, tasks and the rate, in writing
- What you can do from home
- All of it, online
- What needs somebody nearby
- Nothing
The first visit
- The step
- Letting the carer in and showing them round
- What you can do from home
- Joining by phone or video
- What needs somebody nearby
- Being there, or arranging the key
Something goes wrong
- The step
- A missed visit, a fall, a worry
- What you can do from home
- Phoning the carer, your parent and anybody else who needs to know
- What needs somebody nearby
- Going round to check, if they can
The person nearby does not need to give care. Their job is to be reachable and, now and again, to be there.
Most of the work of hiring happens on a screen, so you can do it from wherever you live. The parts that need somebody nearby are few, and they matter most in the first two weeks and on the day something goes wrong.
A person nearby
Find one person nearby before you look for a carer
Before you search, try to arrange a named person who lives close to your parent and has agreed to help in a few specific ways. Ask them for something small and defined, because an open-ended favour is harder to say yes to.
Let the carer in on the first day
Once
Be the person the carer can ring nearby
Now and again
Go round when you cannot get an answer
Only when needed
Tell you what they notice
If they see your parent anyway
The person can be a relative, a friend of your parent's, a neighbour, or somebody from their church or club. If there is nobody who can do this, ring your parent's council and ask about local voluntary visiting services, and make the first visit one you travel to yourself. In England and Wales, the council's adult social care team can also carry out a needs assessment, which is free, and anyone can ask for one. It is the way into any help the council may fund.
Finding carers near them
Search with your parent's postcode and compare carers who already cover the area
Carers travel to each visit, so the carer has to live within reach of your parent rather than you. A search with your parent's postcode shows who covers their area, and the profiles give you most of what you need to make a shortlist without leaving home.
- 1
Search with your parent's postcode
Not your ownOn PrimeCarers, entering a postcode shows the self-employed carers who cover that area, with their rates, their reviews from other families and the help they offer. Hourly, overnight and live-in carers all appear, and you can narrow the list on the results page. - 2
Read the profiles for the things that matter to your parent
Before you message anyoneLook for experience with your parent's condition, the languages they speak, whether they drive, and whether the days they offer match what you need. What a carer says about their skills and experience is their own statement, so note anything you will want to ask about. - 3
Message two or three
Messaging is freeSay where your parent lives, which days and times you need, and what help is involved. Ask whether they can manage the travel to that address and how long it takes them. - 4
Post a job if you would rather carers came to you
OptionalPosting a job describes what you need, and the platform suggests carers who offer that type of care, can reach your parent, and fit what you asked for. You can also invite carers yourself. You still choose.
Before a carer can appear on PrimeCarers we check their identity, their right to work in the UK and an enhanced DBS (adult workforce, kept on the Update Service), and they record an online interview. We do not check qualifications, training certificates or references: what a carer says about their skills and experience is their own statement. Ask them about it, ask for evidence if it matters to you, and decide for yourself. What each of those checks covers explains what they do and do not reach.
If your parent needs help for more than a few hours a day, look at live-in care alongside hourly visits. A live-in carer lives in your parent's home, so somebody is in the house through the day and overnight, with breaks agreed between you, and how live-in care works explains what a live-in arrangement involves.
Meeting from a distance
Meet carers by video, with your parent there if they can be
You can meet carers by video or at home before you agree anything, and nothing is booked until you and the carer agree the visits. When you live far away, a video call is the practical first meeting. It works best when your parent can be part of it.
Before, during and after a video meeting
0 of 10 ticked
Before the call
During the call
After the call
How to interview a private carer has the full set of questions, including how to adapt the conversation if your parent has dementia or finds speaking difficult.
The first two weeks
Plan the first two weeks in more detail than you would if you lived nearby
The first fortnight is when you find out what needs adjusting, and when you are least able to see it for yourself. Put more in writing at the start, and plan when you will next be there.
- Before the first visit
Agree the visits in writing
The days, the times, the tasks, the rate and what happens if the carer cannot come. On PrimeCarers the visits are agreed under our standard contract between you and the carer, and both of you can see them on the platform.
- Before the first visit
Leave a written note of the routine at the house
Your parent's day, their medicines as written on the pharmacy label, their GP surgery, and the phone numbers of you and the person nearby. Leave it where your parent and the carer can both find it.
- Day one
Somebody is there, in person or on a call
The person nearby lets the carer in and introduces them. If nobody can be there, join by video for the first part of the visit.
- The first few days
A short call with your parent and with the carer
Ask your parent how it is going, and ask the carer what they have noticed. Small changes to timing or tasks are easiest to make now.
- By the end of the second week
A visit from you, if you can manage one
Seeing the arrangement for yourself, even once, tells you things a phone call cannot. If you cannot travel, a longer video call with your parent and the carer together is the next best thing.
The first week with a new carer goes through those early days in more detail, and preparing for your private carer covers what to have ready at the house.
Knowing how it is going
Know how each week has gone without being there
When you live far away, you depend on what you are told. Agree with the carer how they will keep you informed, and set up the account so the people who need updates receive them directly.
Visit reports and reminders by email
On PrimeCarers
Brothers and sisters on the same account
Each with their own login
One conversation with the carer
The family together
Invoices you can check online
After the care has happened
Sharing a parent's care with your family on PrimeCarers explains the four access levels and who receives which updates.
If your parent's money pays for the care and you are helping to manage it, think about legal access early. In England and Wales, a lasting power of attorney lets your parent choose people to help them make decisions, or to make decisions for them if they can no longer make them. Your parent must have the mental capacity to make their own decisions when they make it. A property and financial affairs LPA can be used as soon as it is registered, with your parent's permission. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own versions. Paying for care as an attorney covers how that works once care has started.
If you would like more help with the searching and the arranging, the Managed service (+5%) means our team spends more time finding and proposing carers for you, chases replies, and places bookings when you ask us to. You still choose the carers and decide what care is given, when and by whom. The Managed service explains how it works.
Questions
Questions families ask about hiring a carer from a distance
Yes. You can search for carers near your mum's postcode, message them, meet them by video, agree the visits in writing and pay online without being there. It helps a great deal to have one person nearby who can be at the first visit and go round if something seems wrong.
Your parent's. Carers travel to each visit, so you need carers who cover the area where your parent lives. Searching by postcode shows the carers who cover that area, with their rates and reviews.
A video call can tell you a lot, especially if your parent joins it. If you cannot travel, ask a relative, friend or neighbour who lives nearby to meet your first choice at the house as well, and follow up one of the carer's references yourself by phone. Nothing is booked until you and the carer agree the visits.
Their identity, their right to work in the UK and an enhanced DBS (adult workforce, kept on the Update Service), and they record an online interview. We do not check qualifications, training certificates or references, so ask the carer about those and ask for evidence if it matters to you. Background checks for private carers explains each check.
Whoever you agree at the start. Write down who the carer rings first, usually you or the person nearby, and when they should ring the GP surgery or 111 instead. For a medical emergency, the carer should call 999 straight away rather than wait to reach a family member.
Visits booked through PrimeCarers are paid online through PrimeCarers after the care has happened, so you can pay from wherever you live. You never hand cash to a carer. The invoice is compiled from the visits you and the carer recorded on the platform. How you pay a self-employed carer explains the invoice.
Under the standard contract the carer may arrange a suitable substitute, and you can raise a reasonable objection. PrimeCarers can help you look for another carer, but cover cannot be guaranteed, so agree a back-up plan with your carer at the start. When your carer is ill or on holiday sets out the options.
Yes. The person who sets up the PrimeCarers account can invite relatives, each with their own login, and choose what each one can do. Visit reminders, cancellations and the carer's visit reports go by email to the relatives who follow the care.