Private carers - where would you look?

[carerlookingtochangejob]

If you were looking for someone to help provide care for your elderly or disabled family member or friend where would you go to look.

I'm a self employed personal assistant/ carer and have been since before the pandemic. Always been busy and always quickly filled my books.
Until now.
Up until now the blast majority of my clients have found me through a service and website provided by social services and the local council. Funding for this has now been cut so our usual link between carers and those needing care has gone.
Lots of local carers are finding the same thing.

So I'm wondering where best to advertise my services going forward. Facebook has had a limited success. Not currently on any other social media - but not sure that's the right place anyway.

Parish magazines etc all charge to advertise and long periods between publications.
Will be putting ads up on local notice boards.

Anywhere else anyone would go to look?

I've not come across any that really are free ☹️ think free webpages may be a thing if the past.

Thanks - I'm looking to remain independent as I like to be able to set my own pricing and be flexible. So not really wanting to join an agency right now

@carerlookingtochangejob Curam is not an agency. It's an app for self employed carers. You can set your own rates and working hours on there, and respond directly to adverts from clients.

Just south west of Exeter area

Shame - too far. You just need to get the word out @carerlookingtochangejob because people who are looking are really desperate. Just as it seems to be hard for you to find where to sell yourself, it's hard for those looking to know where to look.

@carerlookingtochangejob Curam is not an agency. It's an app for self employed carers. You can set your own rates and working hours on there, and respond directly to adverts from clients.

@RMNofTikTok - although this what they say, it isn't quite right in practice. With Curam you have to contract through them, use their standard form contract and you pay Curam who then pay the carer. Although the carers are self employed, they are still contracting through Curam so it is a weird set up and not the same at all as being direct person to person. It maybe you could be lucky but I found the standard of carer on Curam to be low and like I said above, it's like a terrible dating agency - lots and lots of people on there who say they are available and never reply to messages. Waste of time IME. @carerlookingtochangejob is right - although its not a full blown agency, it is closer to contracting via an agency than a true self-employed direct carer -to -patient set up.

@21607100a

I found my carer on Curam. I contracted her outside of Curam as she had her own insurance. We both agreed to that as it meant I could pay slightly less, and she would get slightly more. It did mean more effort on my end checking dbs references etc though.

It's actually pushing thru boundaries of what is legal too.
By law any agency has to be CQC registered. Self employed carers do not. But as soon as you start working together with another carer the lines become very blurred and in theory you should be CQC registered.

I also want full control of how much I charge, what insurance I use, my contract terms etc. so I wouldn't use them myself sadly.

I've have printed loads of adverts out today and am going to drive round and do the notice boards

I have no personal experience, but I got chatting to a lady last year who is a self employed carer. She gets most of her clients via the GP practice and word of mouth. She told me that initially she contacted a local OAP group and dementia group to advertise her service.

We used Caring Pulse (www.caringpulse.co.uk) they provided 3 of their best providers to work with. Hope this helps

If you can get one job inside sheltered accommodation where there is a manager, you can impress client and Manager for word of mouth referrals . Could you contact a manager direct? Some have a small notice board for local businesses.

There are also a couple of websites such as Community Catalysts and SmallGoodStuff that list private carers on Local Authority websites that have been vetted, DBS checked, training up to date and Public Liability Insurance.

Avoid Facebook. You'll get lots of potential carers but they won't be vetted.

Edited to say apologies I didn't read your post properly I thought you were looking for care not providing care. I still recommend the above though. I wouldn't spend much time looking on Facebook - the elderly aren't on it!

I'm sure you already know but if you are providing regulated care activities then you need to register with CQC regardless of whether you are self employed or if you are working with others.

There is an exemption if you become an employee of the person you care for (e.g. they set your working hours, determine your pay, pay annual leave etc) but that doesn't sound like it's how you intend to operate?

https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-regulation/providers/scope-registration-general-exceptions-and-exemptions-registration#ibsfncpciut

In our area a group of private carers have set up a WhatsApp group that local authority social workers access on behalf of families wanting to use private carers - they send a request and any carers who reply saying they are able to offer a service have their details passed on to the families by the social worker. It's very effective.

@Iudncuewbccgrcb no you don't have to be registered with CQC!!! Read your own link before trying to criticise someone please!!!

I politely ignored that post 😀