How to Manage Private Carers

You’ve found a fantastic private carer to work with, who you get on well with, and your loved ones really like. To get the most out of your relationship with them, you need to manage your private carers effectively. It’s a good idea to put the right steps in place to make sure you can get the most out of one another so they can provide the best quality care.

It can be a challenge to do this, particularly if you have never managed private carers before. The expectations of another person and aren’t sure where to start. Our tips below will help make working with your private carer easier than expected.

6 tips to help you manage your Private Carer

1. Have a clear line of communication

Having consistent, open lines of communication with your carer is integral to successfully work together. This not only means that you can update your carer if something new happens, or there are changes but also allows them to easily contact you if needed. 

This might seem like common sense. But there’s nothing more valuable to your working relationship than being able to properly relay messages and discuss certain circumstances or details of your carer’s duties. 

2. Set where they need to be and by when in advance

Carers may have many clients that require them several times in a week. This could mean they have very busy, complex schedules and have to spin a lot of plates. Let them know when you’ll need them as far in advance as you can, not only to make their lives easier but so you’re both certain that they’ll show up where and when they’re expected. 

If anything changes, they should be able to let you know as soon as possible, which is why it’s crucial to have good communication. You may have multiple carers, in which case you may want to keep a diary of who is scheduled in and when. 

You can also use the PrimeCarers website to do this, where you and your carer will have their own schedule. This gives you a clear view of who’s coming in and when, no matter how complex the schedule is or where you’re accessing it from.

3. Be clear on what needs to be done on each visit

Make sure your carer has a clear understanding of what they need to do on each visit. By having a list of expectations, you can easily assess if they’re doing their job correctly and delivering the care that you want them to.

You can do this using either a written note or scheduling it in their calendar. You can always add additional notes on each job as time goes on, in case there are any last-minute or additional requirements.

PrimeCarers makes this easy. Each scheduled visit has an associated notes section, allowing you to book specific tasks to be completed each day. You can add and remove tasks if anything changes from wherever you are, and whenever you need to. Everything is in one place, so it’s clear what is expected on each visit from a carer.

4. Get a short report for each visit

Ask you carer to report back after each visit and save these in a file. You’ll not only know what happens in each visit but be able to track trends across time to spot issues before they happen. This is particularly useful if you have several carers, who may not be able to collaborate to spot these trends.

At PrimeCarers, we require all our carers to report on every visit. The results are made immediately visible to you, saving you the hassle of having to ask and making sure you always have the information you need.

5. Check-in with your loved one to find out how it is going

Most importantly, check in with the person who’s actually receiving care. You should understand how it’s going for them, and make sure they’re happy with what they’re receiving. This isn’t just on a technical level, but on a personal one too. 

You can use these conversations with your loved ones to validate if the reports you’re getting from your carer are accurate – there are always two sides to every story, and your carer may have reported something that has a completely different meaning in context. 

You will want to understand what is happening on each visit from the perspective of the person receiving care, as well as how well your loved one is getting on with their carer. It may be that the carer is carrying out the expected tasks properly, but your loved one isn’t getting the companionship they need – or vice versa.

6. Review and feedback on the carer’s performance

Using the information you collected in the previous steps of this guide, you can begin to give your carer feedback. They’ll want to do a great job, and make sure you’re satisfied as a customer.

Feeding back on their performance will not only help them understand what’s going well and where they need to improve, but it’ll also enable them to recognise why these things are happening. As professionals, they both want and will use this feedback to improve how they deliver care to your loved ones.

It can also give you an opportunity to continually refine the care your loved one receives so that you never stop improving the happiness and quality of care they have. You might also want to use this time to see what you should be doing better, too.

If you ever get stuck, feel like something is missing, or need guidance on how to manage your private carers, then it’s never a bad idea to consult the carer themselves to see how they’d like to improve your ways of working together.

Many issues can be ironed out by just talking to the people you employ.

Working better together requires putting in what you take out and carers often have good ideas on how to do this.