Live-in care that keeps your Mum or Dad in the home they know

• Compared with a care home: close in price for one person, usually cheaper for a couple.
• Coverage: the whole of Nottinghamshire and into South Lincolnshire.

Day to day, a live-in carer can help with:

• Washing, dressing, bathing and continence support, with privacy and dignity.
• Getting up in the morning and settling at night.
• Planning and cooking meals, and encouraging someone to eat and drink well.
• Medication prompting or administration, in line with the care plan.
• Moving safely around the home.
• Company, hobbies, routines and keeping in touch with family.
• Housekeeping, laundry, and trips to appointments, the shops or a favourite place.

Live-in care with Helping at Home starts at £1,800 a week for one person and £2,250 a week for a couple. Care is exempt from VAT under the welfare services rules, so there is nothing to add to those figures.

The household provides the carer’s food and the room they sleep in. Some providers charge those separately at £50 to £100 a week, so check what any quote includes.

One thing to know about breaks. Every live-in carer has a protected break each day, because carers need proper rest to work safely. Many clients are fine on their own for that period and nothing further is needed. Where someone cannot safely be left alone, a second carer comes in to cover the break. That is an additional charge on top of the weekly fee, confirmed at assessment. We tell you which applies to your situation before you agree to anything.

Care can be paid for privately, funded by the local authority after a needs and financial assessment, or covered in full by NHS Continuing Healthcare for people who qualify on health grounds. Attendance Allowance is not means-tested and can contribute regardless of savings. Our costs and funding hub explains each route. Where health needs come first, start with NHS Continuing Healthcare.

Care home averages are UK-wide figures published by carehome.co.uk for 2026. They vary by area and by home, and specialist dementia care usually costs more.

For one person the decision is rarely about money alone. A care home offers staff around the clock and company on site, which suits some people better. We will tell you which we think fits.

One carer can support both people in the same household for a single weekly fee, while a care home charges per person. The difference is roughly £150 to £1,150 a week, depending on the homes being compared.

Live-in care for a couple starts at £2,250 a week. Both people keep their home, their bed and each other. Where the two have different needs, the care plan sets out how the carer’s time is divided. At assessment we tell you whether one carer can meet both sets of needs safely, or whether more support is required.

Some of the biggest names in live-in care are introductory agencies. They connect families with self-employed carers and take a fee for the introduction. Elder’s own website states that “introductory agencies, like Elder, connect families with self-employed professional carers”. Its legal notice goes further, stating that “the Care Quality Commission (CQC) defines companies like Elder as an introductory agency pursuant to the Health and Social Care Act 2008”. Elder is not registered with the CQC as a provider of personal care. Other platforms run a similar model. With an introductory model, the agency’s role largely ends once the introduction is made.

Helping at Home works the other way round. Every carer is directly employed by us, recruited by us, DBS-checked by us, trained by us and supervised by us. If something goes wrong, it is our responsibility and there is a Registered Manager’s name against it. We are also independent rather than a franchise, which several of the familiar local names are not.

Three questions to ask any live-in provider before comparing prices:

1. Is the carer employed by you, or self-employed?
2. Are you registered with the CQC to provide personal care, and what is your current rating?
3. Who is accountable if the arrangement stops working?

Every carer completes training before working unsupervised, covering manual handling, safeguarding, medication, infection control, first aid, food hygiene and fire safety. Records are auditable and the CQC inspects them. We fund NVQ Level 3 and Level 5 for carers who want to progress, and any certificate earned with us belongs to the carer.

Pay sits above both the National Living Wage and the Real Living Wage, with travel time and training paid. Our carers have been with us an average of more than two years, in a sector where turnover is high. That is why we can put a small, settled team around each live-in arrangement. Our familiar carers page explains how.

Live-in care suits someone whose needs have grown beyond a few visits a day. It works when one carer can meet the person’s needs and nights are mostly settled. It isn’t suitable on its own when someone needs two carers to move safely or frequent help at night. Our overnight care page covers waking and sleeping nights.

Some health needs sit outside the scope of live-in care, including tasks requiring clinical training such as catheter, stoma, PEG feeding or ventilation support. Our complex care page sets out exactly what our trained team can and cannot do, and where a district nurse or other clinician stays involved.

Live-in care often suits someone living with dementia, because the surroundings stay familiar. See our dementia care page.

Live-in care reaches further than our visiting service. It is available across the whole of Nottinghamshire and into South Lincolnshire:

• Nottingham city, including Clifton, Wollaton, Sherwood, Basford, Bulwell and Bilborough
• Gedling and Broxtowe, including Arnold, Carlton, Beeston, Chilwell, Stapleford and Eastwood
• Rushcliffe, including West Bridgford, Bingham, Radcliffe on Trent, Keyworth and Ruddington
• Mansfield and Ashfield, including Mansfield Woodhouse, Sutton-in-Ashfield, Kirkby-in-Ashfield and Hucknall
• Bassetlaw, including Worksop, Retford, Harworth and Tuxford
• Newark and Sherwood, including Newark, Southwell, Ollerton, Balderton, Fernwood and Collingham
• South Lincolnshire, including Grantham, Long Bennington and the surrounding villages

Nottingham City Council is a separate unitary authority from Nottinghamshire County Council. If you are applying for council help, which one you deal with depends on your postcode, not your postal address. The Nottingham page sets out which areas fall where.

Where a second carer is needed to cover the daily break, that carer has to be local, so we confirm at assessment whether we can staff it in your area.

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• Live-in care costs in 2026, and why published prices range from £1,000 to £1,900
• Live-in care vs a care home
• Live-in care for couples
• Live-in dementia care
• Employed or self-employed?
• How to fund live-in care
• Care at Center Parcs Sherwood Forest