The short answer
- Ring the council today, and use the word urgentA council in England can meet care needs that appear urgent before it has carried out any assessment. If the office is shut, ask for the emergency duty team.
- You are not waiting for an assessment firstThe Care Act 2014 lets a council act while the paperwork catches up, and a carer's assessment is a right whatever anyone earns or has saved.
- Cover at home can usually start within daysHourly visits, overnight cover or a live-in carer can be arranged directly. A short-stay bed in a care home is the hardest thing to find at short notice.
- Know the terms before you book a fortnightVisits on PrimeCarers run from £18 an hour with our fee included, and either side can end an hourly arrangement on 48 hours' notice.
This page is about cover arranged in a hurry in England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own social care systems, and the phone numbers and duties differ.
The first calls
Who to ring first, and what to ask them for
Which call comes first depends on what has happened. The aim of all of them is the same: to get somebody official to record that the care has stopped, and to get something in place for tonight.
Situation 1
The family carer has been admitted to hospital
Ring first
The council adult social care team where your relative lives. Out of office hours, ask for the emergency duty team.
Ask for
Urgent needs met now, before any assessment, and tell them your relative is on their own from tonight.
Covers the gap
Family or a neighbour for the first night, then booked visits or a live-in carer for the rest of the week.
Situation 2
The family carer is ill at home and cannot manage this week
Ring first
The GP surgery about the illness itself, and the council adult social care team about the care that has stopped.
Ask for
A carer's assessment for whoever has been doing the caring, and short-term replacement care while they recover.
Covers the gap
Hourly visits booked at the times the family carer normally does the work, usually mornings and evenings.
Situation 3
The family carer has stopped and is not going back
Ring first
The council adult social care team, and say plainly that the care has stopped and nobody is covering it.
Ask for
A review of your relative's needs, and a carer's assessment for the person who has been doing the caring.
Covers the gap
Overnight cover or a live-in carer if your relative cannot be left alone, rather than visits with long gaps.
If anyone is at immediate risk of harm, call 999. If you need medical advice and the surgery is closed, call 111. Adult social care teams in England run an out-of-hours emergency duty team, and the number is on the council website.
Every one of those calls is free, and none of them commits you to anything. Adult social care in England does not close at five, and councils run an out-of-hours emergency duty team; if you are not sure which council covers your relative's address, find your local council on GOV.UK. Where the problem is medical and the surgery is shut, NHS 111 will direct you, and 999 is the right call if anyone is at immediate risk of harm. Carers UK, the charity for unpaid carers, gathers the out-of-hours routes on its page about getting help in an emergency.
You can make all of those calls and still book a carer yourself the same afternoon. A council will not refuse to help because you put private cover in place while you waited. Once the immediate week is settled, respite care covers the planned version of the same thing, and what is respite care? sets out every route to a break and who can help pay for one.
What the council must do
What your council has to do when needs are urgent
Two parts of the Care Act 2014 matter in a week like this. One lets a council act before the paperwork, and the other gives the person who has been doing the caring a right of their own.
Urgent needs can be met before any assessment
Care Act 2014, section 19(3)
A carer's assessment does not depend on money
Care Act 2014, section 10
Out of hours, ask for the emergency duty team
Evenings, weekends and bank holidays
Say so if your relative is left at risk
Care Act 2014, section 42
What happens after those calls varies by area, so ask when you will hear back rather than waiting to find out. What is a carer's assessment? explains what the assessment looks at, and local authority funding explains the means test behind any money that follows it. If your relative is in hospital now and the discharge is the pressure point, funding care after a hospital stay covers the money, and leaving hospital: what to arrange covers the practical side.
The cover you can get
What can be in place within a few days, and what takes longer
Cover comes in five kinds, and they differ in how quickly they can start as much as in what they cost. The NHS guidance on breaks from caring makes the same point about short stays: a care home place can be difficult to find at short notice.
| What it covers | How quickly it can start | What it costs | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly visits at home | The parts of the day the family carer was doing: getting up and dressed, meals, medication, bedtime | Often within a few days, once you have messaged carers and agreed the times | £18 to £25 an hour on PrimeCarers with our fee included. Agencies charge £28 to £35 |
| Overnight cover | A carer in the house through the night, sleeping or awake, where the nights are the worry | A few days, and it sits on top of any daytime visits rather than replacing them | From £130 a night for a sleeping night, and from £150 where the carer is up and working |
| A live-in carer | Somebody in the house day and night, which suits a gap of unknown length such as a hospital stay | Usually a few days. It needs a spare room and a bed for the carer | From £1,050 a week on PrimeCarers. Agencies typically charge from £1,400 |
| A short stay in a care home | A room and full care away from home, if the house cannot be made safe for somebody on their own | The hardest to arrange quickly. Ring homes directly and ask whether they take short-term bookings | Roughly £1,100 to £1,600 a week, and each home sets its own terms |
| Family, friends and neighbours | The first night or two while something longer is being arranged | Immediately, if somebody is free | Nothing, though it is worth writing down who is doing which day so it does not all land on one person |
Hourly visits at home
- What it covers
- The parts of the day the family carer was doing: getting up and dressed, meals, medication, bedtime
- How quickly it can start
- Often within a few days, once you have messaged carers and agreed the times
- What it costs
- £18 to £25 an hour on PrimeCarers with our fee included. Agencies charge £28 to £35
Overnight cover
- What it covers
- A carer in the house through the night, sleeping or awake, where the nights are the worry
- How quickly it can start
- A few days, and it sits on top of any daytime visits rather than replacing them
- What it costs
- From £130 a night for a sleeping night, and from £150 where the carer is up and working
A live-in carer
- What it covers
- Somebody in the house day and night, which suits a gap of unknown length such as a hospital stay
- How quickly it can start
- Usually a few days. It needs a spare room and a bed for the carer
- What it costs
- From £1,050 a week on PrimeCarers. Agencies typically charge from £1,400
A short stay in a care home
- What it covers
- A room and full care away from home, if the house cannot be made safe for somebody on their own
- How quickly it can start
- The hardest to arrange quickly. Ring homes directly and ask whether they take short-term bookings
- What it costs
- Roughly £1,100 to £1,600 a week, and each home sets its own terms
Family, friends and neighbours
- What it covers
- The first night or two while something longer is being arranged
- How quickly it can start
- Immediately, if somebody is free
- What it costs
- Nothing, though it is worth writing down who is doing which day so it does not all land on one person
PrimeCarers figures are what families pay carers, with our fee included. Care home and agency figures are typical charges for comparison, not prices we set.
Which one fits depends on the gaps rather than the total hours. If your relative can manage stretches of the day alone and the worry is meals and medication, hourly care is enough on its own, and what a carer can do in an hour is a check on how much to book. If the nights are the problem, overnight care covers a carer sleeping in the house. If nobody can be there and you do not yet know how long the gap will run, hiring a live-in carer temporarily explains how a short live-in booking works. The NHS guide to carers' breaks and respite care lists the same options with the council-funded route to each.
What it costs
What cover costs, and what you agree to when you book it
These are the figures for booking a carer directly, with our fee included. The terms underneath them matter more than usual in a week like this, because you are booking without knowing how long the cover will be needed.
£18-£25
An hour for visits, on PrimeCarers
Agencies charge £28 to £35 an hour for the same visit.
£130+
A night for a sleeping night
A waking night, where the carer is up and working, starts at about £150.
£1,050+
A week for a live-in carer
Agencies typically charge from £1,400 for the same week.
48 hours
Notice on an hourly booking
Live-in is also 48 hours until the carer has worked 168 hours, and seven days after that point.
PrimeCarers rates and the client and carer contract, September 2026.
Booking a shorter block and extending it is easier than booking a long one and unwinding it. Cancellations and late-running visits covers what happens when a visit has to be called off at short notice, and hourly care costs sets these figures against agency prices. Current rates shows what carers are charging now.
The first week
What to sort out once the cover is booked
None of this is urgent in the way the first phone call was, and all of it is easier at the start of a week than at the end of one.
The first week, once somebody is covering
0 of 8 ticked
If Carer's Allowance is being paid
Getting a stand-in into the house
People who need telling
The two reporting rules above come from the GOV.UK guidance on changes you have to report for Carer's Allowance, and Carer's Allowance explained covers the benefit itself. It is easy to forget in a fortnight like this one, and awkward to unpick later.
A plan for next time
Writing down what a stand-in would need to know
A week like this is far easier for families who had something written down before it started. It takes an evening, and it is the same sheet of paper whoever ends up using it.
- 1
Write the day down as it happens
One eveningWhat time your relative gets up, what they eat, when the tablets are due, what a bad day looks like and what settles it. A stand-in can follow a written day, but they cannot guess one. - 2
Name two people who could cover the first night
Ask them nowNot a rota, just two names and numbers, agreed in advance. Asking somebody in the middle of the worst week is much harder than asking them today. - 3
Ask your council about a carers emergency card
Free where it runsSome councils and local carer organisations run a card scheme for unpaid carers, with a plan held on file and a number that can be rung on your behalf. What is available varies by area, so ask. Carers Trust, a charity for unpaid carers, can point you to the carer service covering your area. - 4
Meet a carer before you need one
Free to doSearching, messaging and interviewing carers on PrimeCarers costs nothing. Every carer has had an identity check, a right to work check and an enhanced DBS check on the Update Service, and has interviewed with us online; carers are self-employed and insured while they work. Search carers near you and speak to one or two, so there is a name to ring later.
Carers UK has guidance on writing a contingency plan, and our own care plan guide covers the longer document a paid carer would work from. If the caring stopped because of exhaustion rather than illness, the signs of caregiver burnout and when to consider respite care are worth reading next.
Questions
Questions families ask about emergency respite
Yes. A council in England can meet care needs that appear to it to be urgent before it has carried out a needs assessment or a financial assessment, under section 19(3) of the Care Act 2014. Alongside that, you can book a carer privately without waiting for anyone, which is often the quicker of the two. A short stay in a care home is the hardest kind of cover to find at short notice.
Ring the adult social care team at the council where your mother lives, and if the office is closed ask for the emergency duty team. Tell them the care has stopped and that she is on her own from tonight. Call 999 if she is at immediate risk of harm, and 111 if you need medical advice out of hours. Find your local council on GOV.UK if you are not sure which covers her address.
It may. Urgent needs can be met before any financial assessment, but a financial assessment usually follows, and in England the council can ask your relative to contribute if they have savings above £23,250; below £14,250 savings are disregarded, though income is still counted. Local authority funding explains how the means test works, and what is a carer's assessment? covers the separate assessment for the person doing the caring.
A carer booked directly is often available within a few days rather than weeks. You search by postcode, message the carers whose profiles and rates suit, interview them by phone or video, and agree the dates with the carer yourself. Visits run from £18 to £25 an hour with our fee included, and a live-in carer covering a week starts from about £1,050. How fast it happens depends on who is free near you, so start the search on the same day you make the phone calls.
Not straight away, but there are two points at which you have to tell the Department for Work and Pensions. GOV.UK says you must report it if you or the person you care for will be in hospital, a nursing home or respite care for more than 12 weeks, and if you stop caring for more than 28 days for any other reason. The GOV.UK guidance on changes to report has the detail, and Carer's Allowance explained covers the benefit itself.
Yes. There is no minimum period on PrimeCarers and no extra charge for a one-off booking rather than an ongoing one. The agreement is between you and the carer: either side can end an hourly arrangement on 48 hours' notice, and a visit cancelled by the client is payable in full, with the exception of unplanned hospitalisation, illness, or another reason the carer agrees to. See current rates.