Respite care in Kent

For a live-in carer who stays in the house, a week is typically £1,117 in Kent, so a fortnight is about £2,234. For daily visits instead, carers here advertise around £20 an hour, so two hours a day comes to roughly £280 a week. A local agency charges about £24 an hour for the same visits, because you are paying the agency as well as the carer. Nothing is charged until you book, and there is no ongoing contract.

Not on the fee alone, here. A care home bed in Kent is around £1,525 a week, the median of 8 homes nearby that publish a fee. A live-in carer at home is typically £1,117. Two things usually decide it rather than the headline figure. A care home charges per person, so a couple pays twice while one live-in carer covers both. And a respite stay means packing, moving and settling somebody into an unfamiliar building for a fortnight, then moving them home again, which is the part families tell us they regret.

Less than most people expect. You are talking to self-employed carers directly, so it depends on who happens to be free rather than on an agency's rota. Some carers can start within a few days. That said, school holidays and Christmas go first, so if your break is already in the diary it is worth lining someone up now. You can message carers and agree dates before committing to anything.

Possibly. If you look after someone regularly you are entitled to a carer's assessment from your council, which is separate from any assessment of the person you care for, and it can lead to funding for a break. It is worth asking even if the person you look after pays for their own care, because the assessment is about your needs, not theirs. Kent council sets out how it charges for care and support. How to fund respite care goes through the options.

Whatever you normally do, agreed in advance and written down before you go. That usually covers personal care, medication prompts, meals, keeping the house going and company, plus anything specific like a hoist or a night routine. A live-in carer sleeps in the house and is there overnight. If the person you look after is up several times a night, say so early, because that needs a waking night rather than a live-in arrangement and is priced differently.

Tell us and we will help you find someone else, without another introduction fee. Be aware that we are an introductory service rather than an agency: we do not employ the carers and we do not run a rota, so there is no bank of staff to send. In practice most families arranging a longer break line up a second carer they have spoken to, so there is somebody who already knows the situation.