The questions to ask a live-in care provider

You are choosing someone to live in your parent's house. It is entirely reasonable to ask difficult questions, and any provider worth using will be glad you did.

Take this list to every provider you speak to, including us.

About the company

1. Are you a managed service or an introductory agency? A managed service employs or engages carers and takes responsibility for supervision, cover and quality. An introductory agency introduces a self-employed carer and steps back, which makes the family the employer. Both are legal and both have their place — but the difference is fundamental, and the price gap usually reflects it.

2. Are you registered with the Care Quality Commission, and what is your rating? Managed live-in care providers in England should be CQC registered. Ask for the provider ID and look them up yourself. If a provider is newly established and registration is in progress, they should say so plainly — that is a reasonable position, and being vague about it is not.

3. How long have you been providing live-in care, and how many placements do you currently run? A new provider is not automatically a worse one, but you deserve a straight answer rather than a vague impression of scale.

About the carers

4. What checks do you carry out? Enhanced DBS, references taken up directly, right to work, and full employment history. Ask when the DBS was issued.

5. What training do carers receive before placement, and what refreshers follow? Expect safeguarding, moving and handling, medication, infection control, first aid and dementia awareness as a minimum.

6. Are carers employed by you or self-employed? This affects insurance, tax, and who is responsible if something goes wrong.

7. How do you match a carer to a person? Listen for whether the answer is about personality, interests and daily routine — or only about availability and task lists.

8. Can we meet the carer before care starts, and what happens if it is not the right fit? You should be able to. And changing carer should be a normal request, not a complaint.

About the practicalities

9. What are the carer's working hours and breaks? A live-in carer is entitled to around two hours off each day and time off each week. If a provider is unclear about this, they are either exploiting the carer or misleading you, and neither is a good sign.

10. Who covers the breaks and the annual leave? The answer should never be "the family".

11. What happens if the carer is ill, or has an emergency at home? Ask specifically how quickly cover would arrive and whether that person would be briefed beforehand.

12. Who supervises the carer, and how often will someone visit? Ask for the frequency of supervisory visits and who you contact between them.

13. What happens at night? Establish clearly what is included and at what point a waking night carer becomes necessary.

About money

14. What exactly is included in the weekly fee? Breaks, cover, travel, management, reviews. Ask for it in writing, itemised.

15. What is the notice period, on both sides, and what are the terms for ending the arrangement?

About when things go wrong

16. What is your complaints procedure, and what happens if we raise a safeguarding concern? A good provider will have a written procedure, will hand it to you without hesitation, and will be able to tell you how a concern gets escalated and to whom.

Answers that should give you pause

• Reluctance to put the fee in writing, itemised
• Pressure to decide quickly, or a discount that expires
• Vagueness about CQC registration status
• "Our carers don't really need breaks"
• No named person to contact out of hours
• Any suggestion that you will not be able to meet the carer first
• Testimonials with no names, no dates and no detail

And one more

Would you be happy for your own mother to be supported by the carer you are proposing?

It is not a fair question, strictly speaking. But how someone answers it tells you a great deal.