What is a live in carer?
A live-in carer provides round-the-clock support for someone who chooses to live in their own home.
As a live-in carer, you’ll move into your customer’s home and live with them, providing support whenever they require. We’ll make sure you’re trained to help your customer in a wide range of ways – from personal care and bathing, to accompanying them to appointments and carrying out household duties. You’ll get to spend quality time with them and provide vital companionship, but you’ll also get time and space to yourself.
What does a live in carer do?
Meal preparation
Providing a diverse range of healthy meals can be a huge part of effective live-in care. Our live-in carers offer meal preparation for breakfast, lunch and dinner, although some customers choose to do their own cooking.
Medication
One of the things you’ll learn on your assessment day is how to help a customer administer their medication in a safe and appropriate manner.
Pet care
One of the benefits of receiving care at home is that customers are not parted from their furry friends. Some of our live-in carers help out by taking pets for walks and ensuring they’re properly fed.
Running errands
It’s likely that your customer will be living with limited mobility, so they may ask you to do their weekly shopping for them or pick up a prescription on their behalf.
Household chores
Taking care of the time-consuming tasks around the home gives your customer the opportunity to devote their energy to the things they enjoy.
Personal care
A big reason why many people opt for live-in care is so they have round-the-clock assistance with routines such as toileting, bathing and dressing.
Companionship
One of your main responsibilities will be to ensure your customer isn’t left feeling isolated or unsupported. Companionship might mean sitting down with them for a cup of tea while you watch a quiz show together.
Mobility assistance
You may need to help your customer access certain parts of their home and support with strenuous activities like getting into bed. We’ll make sure you’re fully trained to provide safe mobility assistance.
Nurse-supported care
If your customer is living with a complex or advanced medical condition, it’s likely they’ll require more sophisticated care. In this instance, you may work alongside a fully-qualified nurse to provide clinical care.
Live in carer pay and benefits
As the nation’s leading home care specialist, all of our carers are employed directly by us. No franchises. No agencies. No tax returns for you to complete. And no feelings of you being left alone without support.
First-rate support
Your local care manager and care coordinator will provide dedicated, ongoing support
Employee benefits
You’ll get access to our employee benefits portal, with thousands of fantastic offers and deals
Direct employment
You’ll get 23 days’ annual leave, plus access to our company pension scheme
Refer-a-friend scheme
We offer £100 to anyone who refers a friend to us (subject to T&Cs)
High pay rate
We pay a higher wage than other home care companies across the UK*
Career growth
We’ll support your personal development through training and qualifications
Flexible working
Tell us when you’re available so that work fits around your lifestyle
Not a care agency
We employ you directly, so you are covered in absence and receive full training from us
Your application process
Once you’ve applied for your ideal position, there are four simple stages remaining in the process:
Invitation to interview
A member of our recruitment team will contact you for an interview
Pre-employment checks
You’ll need to undergo an enhanced DBS check and provide at least two references
Assessment days
After your interview, we’ll invite you to an assessment program at one of our regional centres
Begin your new role
You’ll be ready to start your carer journey with us!
Employed vs. self-employed
There’s so much more value when you’re part of our team!
We understand that being your own boss is a desirable way to work, with flexibility and independence. However, when you work with Helping Hands, you can still enjoy the benefits that come with self-employment as well as plenty of extras!
Weekly salary
Earn up to £720 per week vs. up to £800 per week self-employed, but without benefit contributions (based on the average UK salary of a self-employed live-in carer).
Employer pension
Earn up to £2.53 per week vs. none as a self-employed live-in carer
Paid holidays
We give you 28 days paid holiday pro-rata.
Tax & NI Payments managed for you
Don’t forget! Hiring an accountant is expensive.
Up to double pay on Bank Holidays
Travel costs paid between packages
Equipment and uniform provided
Regular and consistent pay
24/7 support
Support when you need it from our team of experts
A whole host of benefits
Get the whole package with Helping Hands
Holiday Pay and 3% Employer Pension
Self-employment means you’ll miss out on the paid benefits of annual leave and an employer pension. At Helping Hands, we provide these to make your life easier.
Free Blue Light Card
Every carer with Helping Hands will receive a free Blue Light Card! With hundreds of retailers offering generous discounts, you can save money every day.
Training and Development
We’re passionate about growing our people and retaining the amazing talent at Helping Hands. During 2021, we promoted 321 employees – it could be you next!
Early Pay
With our new Early Pay App, you can take up to 50% of what you have earned at any time during the month, with no fees and no interest. Ideal for those pesky surprise bills.
Free Uniform and Equipment
Being self-employed means you also incur the costs of buying your own supplies. At Helping Hands, we take care of that for you, so you never have to worry about it.
Employee Assistance Programme
You’re able to access professional counselling, in strict confidence, to help with major life issues including stress, debt and bereavement as well as lots of other advice.
What do you need to be a carer?
Being a carer is one of the most rewarding jobs there is. Believe us, we know.
We only employ those who have certain characteristics that we would want if our own loved ones were being cared for by someone else. After all, customers are welcoming someone new into their home, so they have to trust that we are selecting only the best carers to join our team. When recruiting live-in carers, we choose those that are empathetic, patient, kind and who are willing to go the extra mile for the person entrusted into their care. You don’t need any specific qualifications to be a live-in carer, and although previous care experience is a plus, it isn’t a necessity. Just the will to care for others with compassion and dignity.
Assessment and selection
Our carer assessment process is designed to give you the skills to be the best live-in carer you can be.
Your assessment day will cover a number of modules via classroom sessions and practical activities, ensuring you’re fully prepared to offer bespoke, holistic live-in care.
What our live in carer assessment and selection process covers
Our live-in carer assessment and selection process is flexible and designed to give you the skills to be the best live-in carer you can be. We’ll cover a mixture of classroom sessions and practical activities, meaning you’ll develop the skills and knowledge to be happy and confident in your new role.
First aid
From injuries to CPR, learn how to tend to a customer in an emergency
Our values
Family-led and exceptional standards of care with kindness at the core
Dementia awareness
Support your customer to live well with dementia in the home they love
Safeguarding
Keeping your customer safe and knowing the warning signs to look out for
Administering medication
Safe handling of medication, recording, management and reporting errors
Manual handling
Hoisting, using mobility aids and assisting your customer to move around their home safely
Continuous development
Learning new skills, developing your knowledge and progressing your career in care
Health and safety
Awareness of accident prevention and protecting yourself and your customer
Live in carer FAQs
Yes, a live-in carer lives in the customer’s home and is on-hand for the majority of each day. Most of our carers work for blocks of five to eight weeks at a time between breaks.
Yes, we ensure that all live-in customers are able to provide a separate room for you before confirming their care. In fact, before you are assigned to a placement, an assessor will go to the customer’s home to check that it is suitable for you
During your placement Each live-in carer gets 14 hours of breaks from their customer each week, so you can take some time to yourself to unwind or take part in one of your hobbies. Each of our live-in care customers have individual care needs, so we review each care package on an individual basis to ensure that you can take the downtime you need, with suitable cover in place so the customer is not without care. Breaks between placementsLive-in care placements are flexible and built around the needs of the customer. Most of them last for a period of weeks, and then you may take a long period of leave. As a live-in carer, we do ask that you commit to a minimum of three weeks to enable us to cover our shorter-term placements, not only to provide continuity to the customer, but to enable you to build a relationship with every customer you care for.
No, as we are a private home care company and not an agency, you will be employed directly by Helping Hands. This means we recruit, assess and manage all of our carers, enabling us to keep your training up to date and have more control over your care arrangement to ensure your satisfaction.
Yes. Our carers are never left unsupported, no matter the time of day or night. If you need assistance in office hours, you can call your dedicated live-in care coordinator or field-based care manager. If you urgently need to speak to somebody outside of office hours, we have a dedicated 24-hour carer support helpline, which we’ll provide you with once you are on board.
Whilst the ability to drive might prove beneficial to your customer as you have more flexibility to take them out and about, a driving licence is not a requirement for live-in carers. If the customer still has a car, we often suggest that you are added to the family’s insurance policy, providing you have a full clean UK driving licence, or a driving licence from overseas if you are confident to drive in the UK.
All live-in carers are paid on a monthly basis, and as you are directly employed by us, we also take care of your tax and national insurance paperwork. As an employee of Helping Hands, you are also entitled to statutory sick pay, paid annual leave and a pension scheme.
A care plan is written by your manager during the assessment of each customer, detailing the medication, medical conditions and care requirements of the customer, so you have full instruction on the care you need to provide to your customer.
Yes. When a customer confirms that they would like to go ahead with live-in care, a member of our assessment team visits the customer to perform a risk assessment. The information from that assessment will then be detailed in the care plan.