The short answer
- A self-employed carer can work for both of youThe standard contract says the carer may provide care to other people and arrange their work around other clients. Sharing is two families each booking the same carer.
- Two agreements, not oneEach family agrees its own visits, rate and tasks with the carer, and receives its own invoice. Neither family pays for the other's care.
- Plan the order of visits and the overrunsBack-to-back visits only work if both families know what happens when the first one runs late.
- Each household's information stays privateThe carer agrees to keep each client's affairs confidential, including from the family next door.
PrimeCarers is an introductory platform, not a care agency, and holds no CQC registration. Carers on PrimeCarers are self-employed: each family agrees its arrangement with the carer directly.
This page is about two separate households sharing a carer's time. If two people in the same home need care, that is a different arrangement: live-in care for couples covers one carer looking after two people under one roof, and how many carers you need for a rota covers the opposite problem, where one household needs several carers.
Can you share a carer?
A self-employed carer can work for more than one family
You may wonder whether a carer you book works only for you. A self-employed carer runs their own work, and the standard contract on PrimeCarers says so plainly.
Other clients are allowed
The standard contract
Nearby families fit together
Visits close together
It starts with a conversation
Ask the carer
Each family decides its own care
Separately
Two families might arrive at this in different ways. Neighbours who both need help may decide to look for one carer together. Or a family already happy with a carer may mention them to a friend nearby, who then contacts the carer to ask whether they have time. Either way, the carer decides whether to take the work on.
How it works
How two families share a carer on PrimeCarers
Sharing a carer is not a special type of booking. Each family has its own account, its own conversation with the carer, its own agreed visits and its own invoices. The only thing the two arrangements share is the carer's diary.
- 1
Each family has its own PrimeCarers account
Separate loginsEach household searches, messages and books through its own account, and adds its own relatives to it if it wants to. - 2
Each family talks to the carer about its own visits
Before agreeing anythingSay that you live near another family the carer may work for, and ask how they would fit both into their day. You can meet the carer by video or at home before you agree anything. - 3
Each family agrees its visits, tasks and rate
In writingThe days, times and tasks for your home are agreed between you and the carer and recorded on the platform, under the standard contract between you. - 4
Each family receives its own invoice
For its own visitsThe invoice is compiled from the visits you and the carer recorded. You pay online through PrimeCarers after the care has happened, and only for your own visits.
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.
Timings and overruns
Agree the order of visits, and what happens when one runs over
Back-to-back visits are where sharing works best and where it most needs planning. A morning that takes longer in one house reaches the next house as a late start. Talk about it before it happens, so that neither family feels the other is being put first.
What helps
- Agree with the carer which home comes first on each day, and why
- Leave a short gap between the two visits for the walk or the drive, and for a visit that runs a few minutes long
- Ask the carer to message the second family if they are going to be late
- Book the visit that cannot move, such as medicines at a set time, at the time it needs
What causes friction
- Booking the second visit to start the minute the first is due to end
- Asking the carer to cut a visit short because the other family is waiting
- Expecting the carer to stay on past the agreed time without agreeing it
- Changing your times without checking how it affects the carer's other visits
Under the standard contract, the carer should make reasonable efforts to tell a client about material delays, and a client may end the contract because of continual lateness. Neither of those is a good place for two neighbours to end up, so the gap between visits and the order of the day are worth settling at the start. Late-running visits and cancellations covers the rules in more detail.
Rates and travel
Each family pays the carer's rate for its own visits
Sharing a carer does not change how the money works. The carer sets their rate and shows it on their profile, and each family pays for its own visits at the rate it agreed.
| What it covers | How it works when you share a carer | |
|---|---|---|
| The hourly rate | What each visit costs | Set by the carer and shown on their profile. On PrimeCarers, hourly visits cost £18 to £25 an hour with our fee included |
| Travel between homes | The carer getting from one house to the next | Not charged unless a family agrees it in advance, in writing, naming the rate and the circumstances |
| Bank holidays | Visits on a bank holiday or Christmas Day | One and a half times the carer's normal rate on bank holidays, and twice on Christmas Day, for each family's own visits |
| Cancelling a visit | A visit you cancel | Payable in full under the standard contract, except unplanned hospitalisation, illness or a reason the carer agrees. PrimeCarers charges nothing of its own to cancel |
| Notice | Ending your arrangement | 48 hours for hourly care, either side, for your own agreement only |
The hourly rate
- What it covers
- What each visit costs
- How it works when you share a carer
- Set by the carer and shown on their profile. On PrimeCarers, hourly visits cost £18 to £25 an hour with our fee included
Travel between homes
- What it covers
- The carer getting from one house to the next
- How it works when you share a carer
- Not charged unless a family agrees it in advance, in writing, naming the rate and the circumstances
Bank holidays
- What it covers
- Visits on a bank holiday or Christmas Day
- How it works when you share a carer
- One and a half times the carer's normal rate on bank holidays, and twice on Christmas Day, for each family's own visits
Cancelling a visit
- What it covers
- A visit you cancel
- How it works when you share a carer
- Payable in full under the standard contract, except unplanned hospitalisation, illness or a reason the carer agrees. PrimeCarers charges nothing of its own to cancel
Notice
- What it covers
- Ending your arrangement
- How it works when you share a carer
- 48 hours for hourly care, either side, for your own agreement only
The other family's visits, rate and invoice are theirs. You do not pay for each other's care, and you do not need to know what the other family pays.
You may hope that sharing will bring a lower rate. Any change to a carer's rate is for the carer to decide and for you both to agree in writing; do not assume it. What sharing can do is make visits near each other practical for the carer, which may make it easier to find somebody for short or early visits. What a private carer costs per hour breaks down what carers charge, and do I pay a carer's travel time and mileage covers travel.
Privacy between homes
Keep each family's information private, including from the neighbours
Neighbours who share a carer may know each other well. That can make it easy for news to pass from one house to the other through the carer, even with good intentions. The carer's duty of confidentiality applies to each client separately.
Privacy when two homes share a carer
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What the contract says
What to agree between the families
If you have a concern about how the carer is behaving in your home, raise it with the carer or with PrimeCarers, not through the other family. Handling problems with a carer sets out the steps.
When things change
What happens when one family's needs change, or one family stops
Two arrangements that sit side by side will not always change at the same time. One parent may need more help after a fall, or one family may move or stop care. Because each family has its own agreement, a change on one side does not end the other.
One family needs more hours
Talk to the carer first
One family ends its arrangement
Its own notice
The carer is ill or on holiday
Both families are affected
The carer sends a substitute
Each family can object
When your carer is ill or on holiday sets out the ways to cover a gap, and notice periods covers ending an arrangement. For a medical emergency in either home, call 999. PrimeCarers is an introductory platform: we cannot send help or respond to an emergency.
Questions
Questions families ask about sharing a carer
Yes. A self-employed carer can work for more than one client, and the standard contract on PrimeCarers says the carer may arrange their work around other clients. Each family keeps its own agreement, its own visit times and its own invoice.
Not automatically. Each family pays the carer's rate for its own visits, and on PrimeCarers hourly visits cost £18 to £25 an hour with our fee included. Any change to the rate is for the carer to decide and for you both to agree in writing.
It is better not to. Separate agreements and separate invoices keep each family's care, notice and payments independent, so a change in one home does not disturb the other.
Nobody, unless it is agreed in advance in writing. Under the standard contract, travel is not charged unless the client and the carer agree it beforehand, naming the rate and the circumstances. Travel time and mileage covers it in detail.
Talk to the carer about the order of visits and the gap between them. The standard contract asks the carer to make reasonable efforts to tell you about material delays. A short gap between back-to-back visits helps both families.
They should not. The standard contract asks the carer to keep the client's and the person cared for's affairs confidential. It helps if both families agree not to ask the carer about each other.
No. A live-in carer lives in one home. Where two people in the same home need care, live-in care for couples explains when one carer can support both.