The short answer
- The choice is about the bed, the routine and the nightsA break at home keeps all three as they are. A short stay in a care home moves your relative for the week and covers every hour of it.
- At home you buy cover for particular hoursA few hours, the mornings and evenings, the nights, or a live-in carer for the whole week. Visits start at £18 an hour and a live-in week starts at £1,050.
- A council-funded stay is charged under its own rulesStatutory guidance lets a council charge a stay of up to eight weeks as though the care were being given at home, and a temporary resident keeps their own home out of the means test.
- A short-stay bed depends on what is free that weekCare homes take advance bookings, so asking early gives you a choice of dates. A carer booked directly can often start within a few days.
Figures for carers are what families pay on PrimeCarers, £18 to £25 an hour with our fee included. Agencies charge £28 to £35 for the same visit.
The short answer
What is different for your relative, one part of the day at a time
Both of these are respite care: a planned break for whoever is doing the caring. The NHS lists a paid carer at home and a short stay in a care home alongside each other as two ways to get one. What changes is where your relative wakes up, who is around them, and how much of the day and night you book separately.
A break at home
A short stay in a care home
Where they sleep
A break at home
Their own bed, in the house they know, with the bathroom and the stairs they already manage.
A short stay in a care home
A room in the home for the dates you book. Ask whether they can bring photographs and a few of their own things.
Who is with them
A break at home
A carer you have read about, spoken to and chosen, or two carers covering different parts of the week.
A short stay in a care home
The staff on duty, which changes through the day and across the week.
The shape of the day
A break at home
The routine you already run: the same waking time, the same meals, the same afternoon television.
A short stay in a care home
The home's routine, with set mealtimes and set activity times that your relative fits into.
The nights
A break at home
Covered only if you book them. An overnight carer sleeps in the house, and a live-in carer is there for the whole week.
A short stay in a care home
Part of the stay. Ask the home how many staff are awake overnight and how they are called.
The GP and district nurses
A break at home
Carry on as before, at the same address and from the same surgery.
A short stay in a care home
The home takes over the day-to-day medication. Tell the surgery and the district nursing team the dates.
Company
A break at home
Whoever calls in, plus the carer. The house stays as quiet or as busy as it usually is.
A short stay in a care home
Other residents, staff, and whatever the home has running that week.
What it costs
A break at home
From £18 an hour for visits, from £130 a night for overnight cover, and from £1,050 a week for a live-in carer, with our fee included.
A short stay in a care home
Roughly £1,100 to £1,600 a week, and more where nursing is needed. Ask whether the rate for a short stay is the same as the home's usual weekly rate.
Coming back
A break at home
Nothing to settle back into. The last booked visit ends and your relative is already at home.
A short stay in a care home
Allow a day or two for settling back in, and for the usual carers or family to pick the routine up again.
PrimeCarers figures are what carers charge with our fee included, September 2026. The care home range is the weekly figure used across this site for a residential place in England; a home will quote you its own rate for your relative's dates.
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.
A break at home
At home you are booking hours, so decide which parts of the day you need covered
A break at home is not a package. You choose the days, the hours and whether the nights are included, and you pay for what you book. That makes it flexible, and it means you have to think the week through rather than hand it over.
A few hours at a time
From £15 an hour
Visits across the day
£18 to £25 an hour
The nights
From £130 a night
A live-in carer for the whole week
From £1,050 a week
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, hiring a live-in carer temporarily explains how a short live-in booking works, and overnight care so the family carer can sleep covers nights on their own.
A short stay away
What a short stay in a care home involves, and what to ask before you book
A short stay, which homes often call residential respite, is a booked period with a date to come home. The room, the meals, the personal care and the nights are one arrangement, and you hand over the whole week rather than parts of it. Ask these before you agree dates.
Questions worth asking the home on the phone
0 of 9 ticked
The booking
The day itself
Health and medication
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.
What each costs
The figures, and the ways the council and the benefits system treat the two differently
If you are paying yourself, the comparison is between hours at home and a weekly rate away from home. If the council is involved, the rules for a stay in a care home are written down separately from the rules for care at home, and the difference can matter.
£18-£25
An hour for visits at home
Agencies charge £28 to £35 for the same visit.
£130+
A night for a carer who sleeps in
Added to daytime visits where you need both.
£1,050+
A week for a live-in carer
Agencies typically charge from £1,400 for the same week.
£1,100-£1,600
A week for a care home place
A nursing place sits nearer £1,410. The home will quote its own rate.
PrimeCarers rates with our fee included, September 2026, alongside the care home range used across this site.
A week of live-in care and a week in a residential home land close enough together that money rarely decides this on its own, though live-in care starts below the bottom of the care home range and the gap widens once nursing is involved. Is live-in care cheaper than a care home? works the comparison through, and the cost of care has current rates for every kind of visit.
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 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.
Which one fits
What points towards each one, situation by situation
Most families are not choosing in the abstract. There is a particular reason you need the week off and a particular thing you are worried about. Find the row that sounds like yours.
| A break at home | A short stay in a care home | |
|---|---|---|
| Your relative has dementia | Keeping the bed, the bathroom and the routine means they are not learning a new building in the week you are away | Can suit where the home is one they already know. Take familiar photographs and objects with them |
| They have just come home from hospital | Extra visits or a live-in carer covers the heaviest fortnight in the place the discharge plan was written for | Worth asking about where the discharge team has raised it, or the house is not yet safe to return to |
| The nights are what is wearing you out | Overnight cover on its own, a few nights a week, is often enough and costs less than covering the whole day | Covers every night of the stay without you arranging anything further |
| You need cover in the next few days | A carer booked directly can often start within days, with no bed to find and no assessment to wait for | Depends on what the home has free. Ring several and say it is urgent |
| Your relative is isolated and low at home | A companion carer brings company to the house, though the surroundings do not change | Other residents, staff and organised activities are a change of scene for a week |
Your relative has dementia
- A break at home
- Keeping the bed, the bathroom and the routine means they are not learning a new building in the week you are away
- A short stay in a care home
- Can suit where the home is one they already know. Take familiar photographs and objects with them
They have just come home from hospital
- A break at home
- Extra visits or a live-in carer covers the heaviest fortnight in the place the discharge plan was written for
- A short stay in a care home
- Worth asking about where the discharge team has raised it, or the house is not yet safe to return to
The nights are what is wearing you out
- A break at home
- Overnight cover on its own, a few nights a week, is often enough and costs less than covering the whole day
- A short stay in a care home
- Covers every night of the stay without you arranging anything further
You need cover in the next few days
- A break at home
- A carer booked directly can often start within days, with no bed to find and no assessment to wait for
- A short stay in a care home
- Depends on what the home has free. Ring several and say it is urgent
Your relative is isolated and low at home
- A break at home
- A companion carer brings company to the house, though the surroundings do not change
- A short stay in a care home
- Other residents, staff and organised activities are a change of scene for a week
Nothing here is a rule. If two rows point in different directions, the one that matters most is usually whichever worry keeps you awake.
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.
How to arrange it
Five steps, whichever one you choose
You do not need to have decided between the two before you start. The first two steps are the same either way, and they are free.
- 1
Ask the council for a carer's assessment
Free, any timeContact 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
Write down the week you need covered
Half an hourThe 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
If you want a stay away, ring three homes with your dates
This weekUse 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
If you want cover at home, look at carers near you
From £18 an hourSearch by postcode and read the profiles, rates, reviews and availability. Every carer on PrimeCarers 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. We do not check qualifications, training or references, so ask the carer about their experience yourself and read the references on their profile. Carers hold insurance that covers them while they work. Search carers near you, and see current rates before you start. - 5
Agree the dates in writing, then hand over
Before you goPut 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 a reason the carer agrees; 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.
Questions
Questions families ask when choosing between the two
It depends on how many hours you need. A few hours a week or a handful of nights at home costs far less than a week away, because you only pay for the cover you book. Once you need the whole week covered the two come close: a live-in carer on PrimeCarers starts at £1,050 a week with our fee included, and a residential care home place is roughly £1,100 to £1,600 a week, with nursing homes higher. Is live-in care cheaper than a care home? works it through.
There is no single limit. The Care Act statutory guidance describes somebody in a care home for up to eight weeks as a short-term resident, and somebody whose stay is unlikely to exceed 52 weeks as a temporary resident, and each is charged under different rules. A council will also have its own policy on how much respite it funds, so ask what it is. If you are paying the home directly, the length is whatever you and the home agree.
GOV.UK states that you can still claim Attendance Allowance if you pay for all your care home costs yourself, and that payment usually stops where the local authority is funding the place. Paying for a carer at home does not affect it either way, because Attendance Allowance is not means-tested. Attendance Allowance covers who can claim and how to apply.
Yes. An overnight carer sleeps in the house and gets up when needed, from about £130 a night, and a live-in carer covers the days and the nights across the whole booking from £1,050 a week. If the nights are the part of caring that is wearing you down, overnight care so the family carer can sleep explains how families use it.
No. You can book a carer or a care home stay yourself without any assessment and without your relative being assessed. An assessment matters if you want the council to pay towards it, and it is worth asking for anyway, since under section 10 of the Care Act 2014 the council must assess a carer who appears to have needs for support, regardless of your finances. What is a carer’s assessment? explains what it involves.
A care home sets its own terms for a deposit and for cancelling, so get them in writing before you pay. With a carer booked on PrimeCarers, the contract is between you and the carer: a visit you cancel is payable in full apart from unplanned hospitalisation, illness, or another reason the carer agrees, and an hourly arrangement can be ended on 48 hours’ notice, or a live-in arrangement on seven days once 168 hours have been worked. PrimeCarers charges you nothing to cancel and does not decide those terms.
It is one of the reasons families use them, and the Alzheimer’s Society describes a short break as a way for somebody with dementia and the staff to get to know each other before any permanent decision. Be clear with everyone, including your relative, that the dates are fixed and they are coming home. How care homes work covers the wider decision.