Best live-in care companies in the UK
Living independently at home is the goal for the majority of older people. Live-in care offers a way to continue to remain at home with 24-hour care which can include help taking medication, preparing meals, personal care and companionship. You can also find live-in carers with specialist training for conditions such as Dementia, Parkinson’s, a stroke or cancer.
The Best Live-In Care Companies have been reviewed and rated by Age Space experts to help you make an informed choice about live-in care. You can read more about our review and rating here.
If it is all a little too much, maybe you don’t know how to find a live-in care company that’s right for you, or you’re not even sure it’s live-in care that’s right for you, you can get in touch with Annabel for free for some further, personalised, expert, guidance and support.
How we scored the providers:
- Care Quality Commission (CQC) rating
- Third party reviews (Trustpilot)
- Prices quoted June 24 for standard live-in care
- Customer service and website experience
Featured Options
The benefits of both agency and managed care in one with great carer matching.
Find experienced Care Professionals, suited to your exact care need 24/7.
A compassionate Trinity carer moves into the home to provide full-time assistance and care
Helping Hands
Helping Hands is a nationwide provider of care with over 140 branches across England and Wales. They have an industry-leading training process ensuring all of their live-in carers are equipped with the best set of skills to support you and your family with 24 hour care at home. They have an exceptional third-party review score of 4.8 from over 3,000 reviews and are able to understand your needs before providing the care package that best suits them, be in visiting/domiciliary care or round-the-clock live-in care. Each branch has their own individual CQC rating, which you can find on their website.
Right at Home
Right at Home are the most highly rated national homecare agency on homecare.co.uk. They have over 90 local offices that can provide a personalised care plan. All their carers go through a thorough recruitment process with interviews, competency testing, psychometric analysis, reference and background checks. Following this they go through onboarding training and an orientation process, above the national legal requirement.
Hometouch
Hometouch are one of the few providers able to offer both Introductory (Agency) and Regulated/Fully managed live-in care. This means that if your care needs increase from Introductory care, you can seamlessly switch to their regulated and fully managed care, retaining your original carer and account manager without having to move to a different provider and start over. When picking a carer you can even meet them over video call before making a final decision.
Country Cousins
As an agency, Country Cousins will first work closely with you and your relative to determine their care needs and interests before introducing you to a perfect live-in with the right care experience, training and personality for your loved one. Country Cousin’s carers set their own rates, which you will be responsible for paying, but they recommend a rate of £113 / day. There is a one-off lifetime registration fee of £280 to help match you to your perfect carer and then a £31/day agency fee. The price we were quoted price includes the day charge. They are within the same group as Trinity so your enquiry will be answered by the same team.
Save £280 and get the Lifetime Membership for free when you mention “Age Space” to a member of their Client Services team
Curam
Curam gives you the choice and control over who cares for you or your loved ones. Curam connects you to 10,000 experienced Care Professionals, with a sector leading average of 10 years’ experience. You can filter and refine your search to fit your loved one’s exact care needs and Curam will match you with experienced Care Professionals near you. Curam is available 24/7, meaning no matter the time you can find the perfect Care Professional for yourself or a loved one. We found the website simple and searching for a carer was easy.
Trinity
Trinity Homecare are a live-in provider that are able to arrange outstanding care within 48hours if needed. Their personalised approach enables their qualified staff to carry out a detailed assessment of your relative’s care needs to create a bespoke care plan. Their Outstanding rating by the CQC recognises them as being in the top 4% of home care providers in the UK. We found them helpful and friendly on the phone.
Quote “Age Space” in any of your conversations with Trinity and you can get 10% off the first 4 weeks of care
The Good Care Group
The Good Care Group is an award-winning 24 hour live-in care provider. Their CQC report is exceptional rated Outstanding across all 5 key measures – safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. They have a multidisciplinary team enabling them to provide expert and personalised care in dementia, Parkinson’s, stroke, MS, and palliative care as well as with personal care, companionship and respite services. We also found them very kind, understanding and refreshingly human on the phone.
Elder Live-in Care
Elder, is an award-winning carer marketplace that allows you to select from a shortlist of self employed carers provided by Elder after answering a few questions to match a carer your needs. Elder then acts as an intermediary between your carer and you to ensure consistency and level of service. They have thousands of vetted carers with full, detailed profiles to choose from, many with additional skills and experience with complex conditions and circumstances. They can also provide long-term or short term (< 3 days) care.
Choosing the Best Live-in Care Option for You
Read on for a comprehensive guide to finding exceptional live-in care for your relative.
1. Types of Companies Listed
Live-in care is provided by two types of organisations – companies acting as recruitment agencies for self-employed carers, and companies which employ their own carers. There is also a hybrid model where self-employed carers are managed by the company that provides them. We explain all 3 options below, including considerations for each option.
a. Introduction Agencies
Live-in care agencies act as introductory/recruitment companies – providing access to you to choose self-employed carers vetted and checked by them. Often you pay a recruitment/finders fee for this service and become the employer. This allows you to agree the rate of pay and organise hours with the carer(s). It also makes you responsible for payroll, holiday and sick cover and any rotas. You pay the carer directly. Agencies do not provide care so are not rated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) unless they also have a managed care element or service applicable for CQC ratings.
Not all Introductory Agencies operate this way. For example, with Curam, there is no finders fee and they will deal with payments through their own website – so you don’t become responsible for the statutory add-ons.
On our list:
b. Management Agencies (or Hybrids)
These companies manage self-employed carers – who you select from their platform – on your behalf, taking the responsibility for payroll and often a second carer for when the primary carer takes a break. You pay the agency who then pays the carer(s). They are also not rated by the CQC as they don’t provide the care themselves.
On our list:
c. Live-in care providers
Providers recruit, train and employ carers. You enter into a contract with the provider who is responsible for payroll, rotas, sick and holiday pay. You pay the provider. As providers of care, these companies are registered and rated by the Care Quality Commission.
On our list:
There are benefits and drawbacks to each option.
Introductory Agency – as the customer you pay a recruitment fee (often) and then all employer responsibilities – salary, NI, pension, holidays etc plus sick pay and additional carers required for cover.
Introductory Agencies offer a wide choice of carers and allow you to agree your own price, often making it cheaper, but you will be responsible as an employer for all the admin associated.
Provider – as the customer you pay one charge (monthly) for all services: providers are responsible for carer salary, NI, pension, Holidays, plus sick pay and additional rota/holiday carers.
Your choice of carers will be from the pool of employees they have recruited and trained.
Hybrid– as the customer you pay a recruitment fee for finding a self-employed carer, and then an ongoing monthly management fee to the company which is responsible for carer salary, NI, pension, holidays, plus sick pay and additional carers required for cover.
You will be able to select from a pool of self employed carers.
2. Selecting the best live-in care companies in the UK – how we rated them
When considering which live-in care organisations for our list of the best in the UK, everyone selected was tested against 4 criteria to provide an aggregated rating (Our Rating) to help you make the best choice. The criteria we set were:
Price – we requested a quote for the same requirements by email and phone – live-in care for Iris, a woman living in the south east of England: she is recovering from a fall and needing help with mobility around the home, personal care, cooking and shopping, plus help to the loo twice in the night. All the prices quoted are provisional – before an assessment of Iris’ care needs was carried out – and were provided in June 24.
User reviews – an average review score from a third party (Trustpilot) adjusted for the number of individual reviews for each organisation. i.e. an average score of 4.5 from 5,000 reviews would have a better aggregated score in our rating system than a company with an average score of 4.8 from 40 reviews.
Customer service and touchpoints – how easy is the website to navigate; phone call service and follow up – was it friendly/efficient/informative.
CQC rating – applicable for those with a CQC rating
3. Considerations for Live-in Care
A spare room – You will need to provide a spare room for the live-in carer to sleep in. It is not obligatory for them to have their own bathroom. They will need access to the kitchen, and Wi-Fi.
Service/self-employed – you need to decide whether or not you want to employ the carers yourself, or to pay a provider. A particular consideration for self-employed carers is managing the rota between carers.
Funding live-in care – the cost of live-in care is expensive but can be more cost effective than a care home. You are paying for one-to-one care.
The benefits of live-in care – the key benefit is that the person being cared for is able to stay in their own home, surrounded by their belongings and in a familiar place, with access to their regular GP and other services, benefiting from one-to-one care. The companionship provided by a live-in carer is another huge benefit, particularly for someone who has been bereaved.
Another benefit to live-in care over moving to a care home is that the value of the home will not be included in a Local Authority financial assessment when a council determines whether or not your parent may be eligible for care funding from them
If you choose a care home, the value of the house – if it only has one occupant – will be included in the calculations to assess eligibility for funding support. (the value of the home is not included if one parent/person remains living in the home).
Looking for Carer Job Opportunities?
Find flexible, well-paid care opportunities with Curam, where carers earn on average £15+ per hour. It is free to sign up and can be done quickly by following the link below. Curam will take care of your insurance and training.
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