Respite at home or in a care home?

If you are still working out what respite covers, what is respite care? sets out every route to a break, including day centres, hospice sitting services and family rotas, and when to consider respite care looks at the timing. The NHS guide to carers' breaks and respite care explains what the council will and will not pay for.

The GP surgery, the district nursing team and anyone else already visiting carry on as before, because the address has not changed. If your relative would enjoy company and a change of scene while you are away, a day centre a couple of days a week can sit alongside a carer at home; a day centre or a day carer at home compares the two. If you need cover for a fortnight or more, temporary live-in care explains how a short live-in booking works, and overnight care so the family carer can sleep covers nights on their own.

During the stay the room, the meals, help with washing, dressing and the toilet, medication and the nights are all part of one arrangement. You hand over the whole week rather than parts of it, and your relative fits into the home's routine for that time. A residential home gives personal care; if your relative needs a nurse during the day or night, you are looking for a nursing home that takes short stays instead.

Some families use a short stay as a trial: a week or two in a home they are considering for later, so their relative and the staff can get to know each other with a fixed date to come home. The Alzheimer's Society describes respite in this way for somebody with dementia. If that is part of your thinking, trial stays and coming home again explains how a temporary stay is recorded and why that matters for the means test. Be clear with your relative that the dates are fixed and they are coming home.

Before you agree dates, ring the home with these questions.

Care homes in England are registered with and inspected by the Care Quality Commission, and every home has a published report and rating you can read before you ring. Look yours up on the CQC's find a care home search. If you are not sure whether your relative needs a nursing home, how care homes work is the wider guide and the difference between a nursing home and a care home sets the two apart.

At home you pay for the cover you book: carers on PrimeCarers charge £18 to £25 an hour for visits and a live-in week starts at £1,050, with our fee included. A care home quotes its own weekly rate for a short stay. How much respite care costs puts every option on the same per-day and per-week scale, including what care homes publish for respite, and is live-in care cheaper than a care home? works through a longer stay. Prices vary by area, so respite care in your county compares the same week where you live.

Where the council is paying, three rules are worth knowing. A carer's assessment is your right: under section 10 of the Care Act 2014 a council must assess a carer who appears to have needs for support, whatever it thinks of the level of those needs and whatever your finances look like. If the council then funds a care home stay of up to eight weeks, the statutory guidance treats it as a short-term placement, and the council may choose to charge for it under the rules for care arranged outside a care home. Where the stay is recorded as temporary, meaning your relative intends to return home and the property is still there for them, their main home must be left out of the means test. Local authority funding explains how the money works, and what is a carer's assessment? covers what to expect.

If dementia is part of the picture, the Alzheimer's Society has advice on the types of respite care and on helping somebody settle into an unfamiliar place, and at what point should someone with dementia go into care? covers the larger decision that sometimes sits behind a first short stay. If your relative is coming out of hospital, what to arrange when the person you care for is leaving hospital covers that fortnight. Age UK runs an advice line and local services for carers looking at a break.

1. 1

   Ask the council for a carer's assessment

   Free, any time

   Contact the adult social care team and ask for one under the Care Act 2014. You are entitled to it whether or not your relative wants the council involved, and it can lead to money towards a break of either kind. What is a carer’s assessment? explains what happens next.
2. 2

   Write down the week you need covered

   Half an hour

   The exact dates, which parts of the day need somebody there, whether the nights need covering, and what a bad day looks like. This one page is what you read down the phone to a care home or send to a carer.
3. 3

   If you want a stay away, ring three homes with your dates

   This week

   Use the questions above, read each home’s latest inspection report first, and ask to look round with your relative if there is time. Ask the council too, because it may have block-booked short-stay beds locally.
4. 4

   If you want cover at home, look at carers near you

   From £18 an hour

   Search by postcode and read the profiles, rates, reviews and availability. Every carer on PrimeCarers has had an ID check, a right to work check and an enhanced DBS check (or PVG in Scotland, Access NI in Northern Ireland) issued within the last 2 years, and has interviewed with us online. We do not check qualifications, training or references, so ask the carer about their experience yourself. References from past employers and families can appear on a carer's profile alongside reviews from PrimeCarers bookings; we do not verify them, so follow up the ones that matter to you. Separately from the checks, for visits booked through PrimeCarers we arrange insurance cover while the carer works where they do not hold their own, subject to the policy terms. Search carers near you, and see current rates before you start.
5. 5

   Agree the dates in writing, then hand over

   Before you go

   Put the dates, hours and rate in writing with the carer or the home. On PrimeCarers the terms sit between you and the carer: a visit you cancel is payable in full apart from unplanned hospitalisation, illness, or another reason you and the carer agree; either side can end an hourly arrangement on 48 hours’ notice, and a live-in arrangement on seven days once 168 hours have been worked; bank holidays are charged at one and a half times the rate and Christmas Day at twice; travel costs apply only where you have agreed them in advance in writing. PrimeCarers charges you nothing to cancel. Leave medication times, the surgery and district nurse numbers, and who to ring if you cannot be reached.