Care Agencies

Receiving support from a Care Agency can often be the most straightforward way of meeting your care needs.

As the Budget Holder or Authorised Representative, you are able to choose from any registered Care Agency in your area that can help to meet your identified health needs, within the budget allocated to you.

If you choose to receive support from a Care Agency, it is the Care Agencies responsibility to find a suitably qualified individual to provide support to you.


The Care Agency will be the Employer and they will:

·       Produce an invoice each period for the support that has been provided
·       Obtain insurance for their workers and complete all appropriate safeguarding checks
·       Be registered with an appropriate supervisory organisation, e.g. CQC 
·       Manage salary and payroll
·       Be responsible for employment rights like holiday and sick pay
·       Sort out any issues, i.e. misconduct or performance issues
·       Send a replacement if the allocated individual is ill
·       Have a pool of individuals to provide 24-hour care 


Other considerations when receiving support from a Care Agency
 
Whilst receiving support from an Agency can often be a simpler way to meet your care needs, there are some other considerations to take into account.

These include:

·       Whilst the Carer that the Agency sends should always be suitably qualified, the Agency may not always be able to send the same individual each day. If consistency and familiarity with the carer is important to you, it is vital that you discuss this with the Agency and make them aware.

·       As the Agency may not be able to send the same Carer each day, there could be some variation in how the individual completes tasks and supports you. Whilst the support they deliver will be in line with your support plan, if you have particular concerns around how tasks are completed, it is important that you discuss this with the Agency and make them aware.

·       Whilst the Agency will agree to deliver a set number of hours of support, they may not always be able to guarantee to come at a set time. If you have specific or set requirements, it is important you discuss this with the Agency and make them aware.