The short answer
- It is a working document, not a legal oneNobody has to approve it and no inspector checks it. It exists so that what you and the carer have agreed does not depend on either of you remembering it correctly.
- Start from tasks and routine, not a formWhat time your relative gets up, how they like their tea, and what makes an afternoon difficult tell a carer more than a list of diagnoses.
- Agree how you will tell each other thingsA daily log for the ordinary, a phone call for anything that cannot wait until tomorrow. Agreeing this before the first visit avoids most later arguments.
- Put a review date in the plan itselfNeeds drift rather than jump, and a date already in the diary catches that. A new arrangement is worth a first look after about 6 to 8 weeks.
PrimeCarers is an introductory service, not a care agency, and does not write or manage a care plan for you. This page sets out what families and the private carers they have found typically put in one.
What a care plan is
What a care plan is, and why it is worth writing down
A care plan for a privately arranged carer is nothing more than an agreement between your family and the carer, written down so it does not rely on memory. It has no legal force and there is no set format, which is exactly why it is easy to skip and easy to get wrong.
If your council has carried out a care needs assessment, it will have written its own care and support plan under the Care Act 2014, which decides what the council will fund and sits on the council's own review schedule. The plan on this page is a different, simpler thing: a working document between your family and the carer you have found, useful whether or not the council is paying towards any of the hours, and there is no rule about what has to be in it. Most families end up covering the same six things, whatever they call the document.
The daily routine
What a morning, afternoon and evening look like
What time they like to get up, how they take their tea, which programme they watch, and what order the morning wash and dress usually happens in.
On the page
“Up around 8. Tea before anything else. Left hand first when dressing, the shoulder is stiff.”
Needs and what to watch for
Physical, emotional and social, named plainly
The mobility, memory or health needs a carer should know about, and the signs that something is wrong: a raised temperature, a change in mood, a fall risk on the stairs.
On the page
“Uses a frame indoors. Gets anxious in the afternoon; a walk or the radio usually helps.”
Roles and who decides what
What the carer does, and what stays with the family
Which tasks are the carer’s to get on with, which need checking with the family first, and anything the carer is not trained or agreed to do.
On the page
“Carer handles meals and the morning routine. Any hospital letter goes to the daughter, not answered on the day.”
How updates travel
The tools everyone has agreed to use
A daily log for what happened at each visit, and a rule for what is worth a phone call versus what can wait for the log.
On the page
“Log filled in every visit. A fall, a refused meal or a new symptom gets a call the same day, not a note.”
Money and boundaries
Settled once, in writing, before it becomes awkward
A float for shopping with receipts, no bank card, and what happens with gifts. What are carers not allowed to do sets these out fully.
On the page
“£50 float in the kitchen tin, topped up weekly. Every receipt goes in the log.”
The next review date
Written down, not left to memory
A date already in the diary for looking at the whole plan again, plus what would trigger an earlier look: a hospital stay, a fall, or a change the family has noticed.
On the page
“Full review in 6 weeks. Earlier if there is another fall or a hospital admission.”
None of these six sit in a strict order, and a first version does not need to be complete. A page of notes covering the morning routine and how to reach the family is enough to start with; the rest fills in over the first few visits, as the carer notices what the notes missed. If you have not yet had a council assessment and think your relative might be eligible for funding towards the hours, local authority funding for care explains how to ask for one; it runs alongside a private plan rather than replacing it.
Needs and goals
Working out what your relative needs, not just what worries you
Families often start a care plan with a list of worries. A carer works better from a list of needs and a couple of goals, because it tells them what to do rather than what to feel anxious about.
What to cover before the first visit
0 of 7 ticked
Physical
Emotional and social
A goal or two, written plainly
If dementia is part of the picture, working out what helps day to day matters more than a list of symptoms; how do you make someone with dementia happy? has practical starting points that translate well into a plan. Where your relative cannot easily say what they want for themselves, involve them as far as they are able and ask what they would have wanted before, rather than deciding for them; mental capacity and best-interests decisions explains how that judgement should be made and by whom.
Roles and communication
Agreeing roles, hours and how you'll tell each other what happened
A plan that only covers your relative is half a plan. The other half is the working arrangement between your family and the carer, and it is worth as much of the conversation as the care itself.
A daily log
Filled in at every visit
A rule for what deserves a call
Agreed once, used every time
Who decides what
So nobody is guessing
Working hours and house rules
Settled before day one
Agreeing all of this on a good day, before anyone is tired or worried, is what makes it hold up on a bad one. Building a positive relationship with your private carer and working with private carers both go further into the everyday side of this, once the plan itself is written.
Keeping it current
Reviewing the plan on a schedule, not only when something goes wrong
Needs rarely change overnight. They drift, and a family who sees their relative every day is often the last to notice, because each small change looks normal next to the day before. A plan with a review date built in catches that drift before it becomes a crisis.
- Written
The first version goes down on paper
Covers the morning routine, the main needs, and how to reach the family. It does not need to be complete to be useful.
- 6 to 8 weeks
A first proper look
Long enough for the carer to have seen a real week, short enough to catch anything the first version missed. Councils reviewing their own care and support plans under the Care Act 2014 use roughly this timeframe for a new package, and it works just as well for a private one.
- Every 12 months
A routine review once things have settled
A short conversation: what is working, what has slowly become harder without anyone remarking on it, and whether the goals in the plan still make sense.
- Any time
An earlier look after a hospital stay, a fall or a clear change
A recovery from a chest infection, a new diagnosis or a fall changes what a carer should be doing straight away. Do not wait for the scheduled date if something has clearly moved.
If the reviews keep turning up more than the current hours can cover, that is usually a sign to look at the visits themselves rather than push the same hours further; the hourly care guide sets out how families typically work out the hours a week their relative needs.
Where it stops
What the plan settles, and what still needs a professional
A care plan is a good place to write down almost everything about daily life. It is the wrong place to settle a handful of questions that the law, rather than agreement, already answers.
Settle these in the plan
- The daily routine and what a good day looks like
- Which tasks the carer does without being asked
- How updates travel, and what deserves a same-day call
- A float for shopping, with receipts, and no bank card
- Working hours, house rules and what happens on a day off
These need a professional, not an agreement
- Measuring or changing a medication dose: a GP or pharmacist decision
- Anything through a needle, a tube or a wound: nursing care
- Giving medicine against your relative's wishes: a Mental Capacity Act decision, not a carer's call
- Restraining or locking a door to stop wandering: strictly limited by law
- Acting as an attorney, a witness to a will, or a named beneficiary
The right-hand list is not a comment on any particular carer. It is where a family's agreement runs out and a different kind of authority, a nurse, a GP or the Mental Capacity Act, takes over instead. What are carers not allowed to do? sets out where that line sits for medication, lifting, money and everyday conduct, task by task, and is worth reading alongside this page rather than instead of it. If medication is a big part of the daily routine, medication administration covers what a carer can do at each level and what needs a nurse's sign-off first.
Getting started
From this page to a plan you can hand to a carer
Four steps, and the first one takes an evening at most.
- 1
Write the first version yourself
This eveningUse the six parts above as headings. It does not need to be neat, and it will change within the first fortnight. - 2
Find a carer to write it with
Free to searchSearch carers near you by postcode and read their experience and reviews. Every carer has had their identity, right to work and enhanced DBS checked, and an online interview, before their profile appears. - 3
Go through it together before the first visit
Half an hourA carer who helped write the plan is more likely to follow it, and often spots a gap a family has not thought of. This is also the point to agree the daily log and the call-or-log rule. - 4
Book the first review date there and then
6 to 8 weeks outPut it in the diary before the first visit happens, so it is not something either of you has to remember to arrange later.
Preparing for your private carer's first day walks through the days before a carer starts, and if you are earlier than that, still deciding whether a private carer is the right route at all, how to care for elderly parents is a good place to start.
Questions
Questions families ask about care plans
The daily routine, the needs a carer should watch for, who decides what, how updates travel between you and the carer, money arrangements, and a date to review the whole thing again. A short version covering the routine and how to reach the family is enough to start with; the rest can be added over the first few visits.
Both, ideally. A family usually starts it, because they know their relative's routine and history, and the carer adds to it once they have seen a real week: what takes longer than expected, and what they have noticed that was not written down. A plan written by only one side tends to miss something the other would have caught.
A first look after about 6 to 8 weeks catches anything the opening version missed, once the carer has seen a proper week. After that, a routine review every 12 months keeps it current if things are stable, and an earlier one straight after a hospital stay, a fall, or any clear change, rather than waiting for the scheduled date.
No. A council care and support plan under the Care Act 2014 only exists where the council has carried out a needs assessment and is funding or arranging some of the care, and it follows the council's own format and review schedule. A plan for a privately arranged carer is an informal agreement between your family and the carer, with no set format and no legal requirement to have one at all, though most families find it worth writing.
Involve them as far as they are able, on each specific decision rather than assuming they cannot contribute to any of it. Where they cannot make a particular decision at all, it should be made in their best interests by the people who know them, weighing what they would have wanted, not simply what is easiest to arrange. Mental capacity, MCA and DoLS explains how that decision should be reached and by whom.
You can change your own notes at any time, but a change that affects what the carer is expected to do, extra tasks, different hours or a new routine, works better as a conversation than an update handed to them. A self-employed carer can also say no to a task they are not trained or comfortable with, so a plan is an agreement between you, not an instruction from one side.
A written plan is exactly what lets a second carer, or a family member covering the gap, pick up the routine without starting from nothing. Keep it somewhere a cover carer can find it on day one, and make sure the daily log is up to date before any planned time off.