Guide
Agreeing Terms With a Family: A Carer's Guide
Working directly for a family means there's no agency setting the ground rules on your behalf — agreeing a few practical things upfront, in writing, protects the relationship as much as it protects your income.
Showing you're vetted and insured
Don't wait to be asked — offering your enhanced DBS certificate, proof of insurance, and references from families you've worked with before, right at the start, builds trust quickly and saves an awkward conversation later. It's the same due diligence an agency would already have done before ever introducing you to a client.
Confirming the days you're agreeing to
Get the specific days and hours you're taking on written down before your first visit, not left as a loose understanding. It protects you as much as the family — it's your evidence of what was actually agreed if either of you remembers it differently later, and it lets you plan confidently around your other clients.
Setting your rates — including weekends and bank holidays
It's standard, not an imposition, to charge more for weekend visits and more again for bank holidays — the same way most jobs pay extra for unsociable hours. Agree all three rates with a new family from the outset, not just your weekday figure, so there's never an awkward conversation the first time a Saturday or bank holiday visit lands on an invoice.
If you can't make a visit
Illness, family emergencies, and holidays happen to you too. Agree with each family, before you start, what happens if you can't attend a confirmed visit — will you arrange your own cover, are they willing to help you find someone you both trust, or does the visit simply get rearranged? Deciding this together in advance means neither of you is caught off guard when it actually happens.
Getting paid for a visit the family cancels
This is worth raising early, confidently, and without apology: your income depends on the hours a family has confirmed with you, in the same way anyone depends on their income to cover their own bills and commitments. A cancelled visit is lost earnings for you, not just a change of plan for them. If a family had booked the same hours through a care agency, the agency's contract would typically bind them to pay for a cancelled visit regardless, usually unless they gave a set amount of notice — often 24–48 hours. Agreeing your own version of this with each family, in writing, from the first booking, means you're simply asking for the same certainty an agency contract would already have given you.
When a client goes into hospital or has respite care
A client's hospital stay or a period of respite care doesn't automatically mean your income from that family stops. Many local authorities will continue a council-funded Direct Payment for a limited period — commonly up to four weeks — specifically to protect continuity of care, meaning the family may still be able to pay you to hold those visits open until care resumes. It's worth asking the family (or encouraging them to check with their local authority's adult social care team) rather than assuming the arrangement has simply ended.
Care Companion's Rates page lets you agree your standard, weekend, and bank holiday rates with each client and keeps a written record of what's been agreed — free to get started.
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