Suppose you needed to find a carer to help your parents to continue to live independently in their own home. How would you find the right carer?
This blog post will cover three potential ways you could find the right carer for your family. The main options we will look at are 1) through a care agency 2) by hiring a self-employed carer directly 3) by finding a self-employed carer through an introductory agency. This article will walk you through how each of them works and as the pros and cons to help you decide which might work for you.
Care agencies
Most people are familiar with how care agencies work. It usually goes something like this. 👇
You contact a care agency. They send a manager (usually with a glossy brochure) to discuss your care needs.
The agency employs carers to provide the care, while the care agency is responsible for staff selection, training, and planning and supervising the care.
Advantages and disadvantages of agency care
Agency care might be a good fit for for you if you need care quickly, if you need lots of care (perhaps several visits every day of the week) or if you need specialist care. There are typically lots of local agencies, so this is usually the easiest way to find care too, although more recently many agencies have been struggling to find enough carers.
On the downside, you won’t always get the same carer for each visit and your carer probably won’t receive a great wage. Care agencies typically take more than 50% of the fee, leaving your on around the minimum wage or sometimes even less when travel is accounted for. (Hmmm… maybe that could be related to the shortage of carers. 🤔) Care agencies are often the most expensive way to source care at home too, starting at around £28 per hour.
Self-employed carers
A common alternative to agency care is to find a trusted local person (let’s call her Mrs Cannybody ) to care directly for your parents. Self-employed carers are sometimes called independent carers, private carers or personal assistants (PAs) but it’s all the same thing. Here’s how it typically works:
You hear on the grapevine that Mrs Cannybody is a carer who might be available, so you approach her and ask her to care for your family.
Mrs Cannybody comes for a visit, and as long as she can provide the care you need, when you need it, Mrs Cannybody will take on responsibility for every aspect of the care she provides. Simple.
Advantages and disadvantages of self-employed carers
Working with a self-employed carer can be great. We have been self-employed carers ourselves and we know it can lead to high levels of care and great value too. Self-employed carers typically charge from around £20 per hour, although this can very widely depending on the area, the skills and experience of the carer and the requirements of the care. Since all of the money you pay goes to the carer, they receive a fair wage for their efforts too. 🎉
There are some potential downsides to working with a self-employed carer though - both for the carer and the person receiving care. For the carer it can be hard to get started and to know about the regulations and responsibilities they have. There are DBS checks, insurance, training and more to look into. It can also be hard for new carers to find clients and they can feel isolated with no colleagues to turn to for advice or support.
For people looking for care, it can be difficult to know whether Mrs Cannybody is well suited to the job, whether she has a clear DBS check, any relevant experience, references, training or insurance. Checking this all typically falls onto the person looking for care. Perhaps most importantly, it can simply be very hard to find a good self-employed carer with availability right when you need them. Finally, if Mrs Cannybody is sick or if your care needs increase then it might be tricky to find additional care. It would be nice to have some backup when needed.
Introductory agencies
Introductory agencies are less well known than care agencies. They are basically match-makers that help people in need of care to find suitable self-employed carers. Unlike care agencies, introductory agencies don't directly employ carers, or manage the care itself. Instead they make introductions to vetted self-employed carers who are responsible for the care. This model is becoming increasingly popular in the UK because it leads to a personalised approach to caregiving, better pay and conditions for carers and can save people in need of care money too. 🥂
Here’s how it works with an introductory agency.
You call the agency or fill in a form to let them know what care you are looking for. The introductory agency will then review potential carers and put you in touch with any that are suitable.
You meet the carer(s) to decide whether they are right for you. If you go ahead they work directly for you and are fully responsible for the care they provide. The introductory agency have no ongoing role in the care. Instead, they are there to help support you and your carer and to help you find more care when needed.
Advantages and disadvantages of introductory agencies
Essentially, introductory agencies make it easier to work with self-employed carers. They typically vet the self-employed carers they work with to make sure they have everything in place from DBS documents to training and insurance, so it can give you confidence that the carer has met certain standards. Since introductory agencies usually have lots of carers on their books it can make it easier to find the right person. Finally, some introductory agencies are a port of call for advice and when your circumstances change or you need to find additional care they are there to help you find the care you need.
The main potential downside of working with an introductory agency is the additional cost compared to working directly with a self employed carer. Introductory agencies charge a fee to introduce clients so it will likely cost more than employing Mrs Cannybody directly. It’s worth noting that even with this fee introductory agencies usually lead to care that is significantly cheaper than using a care agency.
Who are Sparrow Self-employed Carers?
Sparrow Self-Employed carers is an introductory agency based in Hexham, Northumberland. Sparrow was set up by Anna Davis, a former nurse and self-employed carer and her brother Tom, a former operations manager and a carer too. As self-employed carers ourselves, we set up Sparrow to make it easy for other carers to become self-employed and to earn a fair wage. We think improving the pay and working conditions of carers is the best way to encourage more people to become carers and to provide more high quality care which we so desperately need.
Sparrow help potential self-employed carers to get started working for themselves. We simplify everything for new carers through our introductory course, we arrange DBS certificates, help with insurance, offer access to training and provide ongoing help with invoicing, bookkeeping. We even arrange for carers tax returns to be done for them. All of this support means our carers can focus less on running their business and more on providing you with the care you need.
Our fees are the lowest in the industry too. We don’t charge carers anything at all and people looking for care pay just 10% on top of the care costs of their self-employed carer. So if your carer charges £20 per hour your total cost of care will be £22 per hour. This represents a significant saving when compared to agency care costs. 💰
For many people, having an organisation they can turn to find them a vetted, self-employed carer when they need one as well as any ongoing support, advice and help to find additional care when needed makes this well worth the extra cost.
So which model is right for you?
There is no single right way to find the care you are looking for, care agencies, self-employed carers and introductory agencies can all be great options depending on your circumstances. We hope this article has helped you to clarify the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and clarified the options to give you a head start should you ever need to find care so you know where to start when the time comes.
Do you know someone who looking for info about finding care for their loved ones?
You can find out more about us on our website and submit a form to enquire about care at https://www.sparrowcarers.co.uk/find-a-sparrow-carer
Or call us on 07855010853 to discuss what you are looking for. We will be happy to try and point you in the right direction whatever your circumstances.
Do you know someone who would make a great carer (and earn £18 -£25 an hour instead of the minimum wage)?
Ask them to visit https://www.sparrowcarers.co.uk/become-a-sparrow-carer or ask them to give us a call on 07855 010 853 to discuss how we can help them get started.
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