Should I Employ a Private Carer or Use A Care Agency?

Introduction

Arranging the right care for a loved one is not easy, and when looking for a private carer, the process can feel very overwhelming. Not only are you juggling the emotional fallout of accepting your loved one needs more support than you can provide, but you're faced with a growing to-do list, at the top of which is likely to be choosing a suitable carer. This decision is one of the most important ones you will make on behalf of your loved one.

Here in the UK, there are two main options. You can either find and employ a private carer required for the role yourself, or you can use professional homecare agencies. There are pros and cons to both, and the best path will often vary depending on your loved one's personal circumstances, health, and individual needs. This blog will explore the pros and cons of employing one of the many private care workers available and highlight the benefits of using a care agency.

What is a private carer?

A private carer, sometimes referred to as a personal assistant or private care worker, is a person hired directly by a family to provide private care for someone, usually in their own home. When you are looking for a private carer, you are planning to become an employer.

If the carer only works for you and your relative is their only client, you will need to employ them directly. This involves taking on a whole host of legal, financial, and practical responsibilities. While many excellent individuals offer private carer services in the UK, the employment aspect is a significant undertaking for any family member.

What is a care agency?

A care agency employs its own care team of carers who, after being matched with clients, provide a range of care services and support. This can include help with everyday tasks, domestic chores, companionship, and medication management. All our carers are employed by us, meaning all the legal, financial, and practical responsibilities are handled by the agency itself.

These organisations are a key part of the care sector and provide regulated domiciliary care, which simply means care delivered in a person's own home. This can range from short visits (hourly care) to more intensive live-in care.

The pros of hiring a private carer

There are some benefits to hiring a private carer directly.

You're able to speak to all the candidates and potentially select someone you know. You know your loved one best. By hiring directly, you can personally interview all the carers that apply. This gives you direct control over who helps your loved one with their daily activities.

You may exercise more influence over the care received. When you hire your own carer, you will likely speak to them more regularly. You can establish the tasks they need to undertake and iron out any issues directly. This visibility may offer you a greater sense of reassurance about how they manage their work.

You may save money on agency fees. Care agencies charge fees to cover homecare costs like vetting, training, insurance, and ongoing supervision. By hiring privately, you'll avoid these specific costs.

However, before you decide to employ a good carer yourself, there are several critical factors you need to consider.

The pitfalls of hiring a private carer

1. You'll face new legal, financial and practical obligations

Sourcing and hiring a private carer turns you into an employer. This brings many new responsibilities, including:

• Registering as an employer with HMRC.
• Writing a job description and advertising the position.
• Interviewing and vetting candidates (including references, right to work, and checking their criminal record through the barring service).
• Operating PAYE, deducting income tax and national insurance.
• Paying the care worker's wages on time, every week or month.
• Organising rest breaks and managing working hours.
• Completing workplace risk assessments.
• Arranging holiday pay, sick pay, and maternity pay.
• Drawing up a contract of employment.
• Arranging employer's public liability insurance.
• Establishing a pension scheme for your carer.
• Ensuring you are compliant with all UK employment laws.
• Dealing with any disciplinary issues or complaints.

Becoming an employer is complex. Without prior experience, you may find you're out of your depth. You might fund this care through a direct payment from your council, but the responsibility to manage it correctly remains yours. Staying on top of these tasks is time-consuming and could impact your own job and family life.

When you use a care agency, all these responsibilities are covered. The agency handles everything from recruitment and vetting to payroll and contracts for its care professionals.

2. Your carer will have less time to complete care plans and risk assessments

Care plans are vital documents that detail a person's needs and how the care and support should be delivered. This is the foundation of personalised care. When going through an agency, the care team will produce this plan and review it regularly to ensure it continues to serve the client's needs.

When hiring privately, this responsibility lies with the self-employed carer. Most private carers are so busy providing hands-on support for their clients' daily routines that they have little time to complete, review, and revise the care plan. This can compromise the quality of care. You may find that while basic needs are met, your loved one's specific individual needs are not, because they haven’t been formally documented.

3. There will be fewer quality control checks

Staff training

Currently, in the UK, there is no one accredited training course that a carer needs to complete in order to be fully qualified. As such, even if the carer you employ states they have received some training, you can never really be sure whether this training is of an adequate standard and therefore whether your carer is really fully equipped to care for your loved one. 

Most care agencies on the other hand will provide their staff with a variety of training. This may include courses such as moving and handling training, food hygiene, first aid, infection control and medication awareness.

Tiggo Care provides its carers with an extensive and bespoke training programme, regardless of how long they have worked in the care industry. This ensures all our staff are equipped to deliver care to our high standards. 

Not only is regular staff training provided by care agencies, but because agencies are regulated and inspected by the Care Quality Commission, their training content and delivery is scrutinised, ensuring that any lapses in training or any queries around the quality of training are picked up and addressed.

Performance evaluation

If you choose to employ a private carer, unless you have the time to regularly monitor and evaluate their work, you never really know whether they are providing your loved one with high-quality care. You are simply relying on your relative’s feedback as well as assurances from your carer.

Care agencies often have a team of field care professionals whose job it is to conduct onsite visits and spot checks. They will observe and monitor the performance of a carer, note down areas of improvement and flag up any training needs. 

At Tiggo Care, following an onsite visit, our field care supervisors will discuss their observations with the carer and map out any upcoming training requirements, ensuring that their professional development is personalised, useful and relevant to their needs. 

We will also collate all the observations from our field care supervisor team in order to create a wider staff training programme, covering areas that all carers need support with. These may include nutrition, incontinence or mental capacity training, which we will then roll out to staff either in groups or 1 to 1.

Having strong and effective quality control measures is so important when delivering high-quality care. It’s something that care agencies prioritise and have the capacity to ensure. That the CQC will regularly inspect and report on the effectiveness of these quality control measures means that agencies must also constantly review and update the measures they have in place to ensure they remain robust.

4. You'll be responsible for funding any training and PPE equipment

As an employer, you are responsible for ensuring the carer receives all the training they need and for purchasing personal protective equipment (PPE). Funding regular training and replacing equipment is not cheap and is a cost you must budget for.

If you choose a care agency, all staff training and equipment are covered. You can relax, safe in the knowledge that your loved one is being cared for by fully trained and properly equipped care professionals.

5. You risk poorer continuity of care

One of the biggest drawbacks of managing your own homecare with a private carer is the dilemma you'll face if they fall ill or are absent. Put simply, because you won’t have a pool of well-trained staff to draw on, you’ll have no relief or emergency back up cover to put in place. You’ll either have to step in and care for your relative yourself or leave your loved one to fend for themselves, until you can employ someone new.

And starting this recruitment and onboarding process all over again is no mean feat. It will consume yet more of your time and energy and could also leave you out of pocket, as background checks on carers cost around £50.00 per candidate. 

When you go through a care agency, a suitable relief carer is dispatched immediately if the assigned care worker is unwell. While we aim to provide the same carer for consistency, you have peace of mind knowing a vetted and trained carer is always available. This is crucial for services like overnight care, where a gap in support is not an option.

6. The care won't be regulated by the Care Quality Commission

All companies that provide personal care, like homecare agencies, must register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The CQC regularly inspects providers to ensure they are safe and effective. Individuals you hire privately are not required to register, so there is no independent body holding them accountable.

This regulation is a critical safety net, especially when arranging specialist care such as for a person living with dementia, and sets professional services apart from an introductory service which just connects families with carers.

Conclusion

Whilst saving money may hold appeal, before hiring a private carer, it's important to know what's involved. The responsibilities can be stressful, time-consuming, and costly. With no easy way to find cover, your loved one's care could be compromised, which is a significant risk compared to residential care or a regulated care home.

Care agencies like Tiggo Care are there to make your life easier. Our purpose is to provide exceptional and person-centred home care services, helping your loved one to live independently and happily at home. They'll work with you to ensure your loved one feels safe and cared for, providing peace of mind for the whole family.

Want to know more about Tiggo Care?

If you're interested in finding out how Tiggo Care can support you and your loved one as you embark on your care journey, please get in touch. We'd love to hear from you.