A good live-in carer job should offer five things: proper employed status with the legal rights that come with it, pay that covers your travel as well as your time, real training with real supervision, honest answers about breaks and cover, and an office that actually picks up the phone. Anything less, keep scrolling.
We should declare an interest straight away: we are Aims Homecare, a care company in Leatherhead, Surrey, and we recruit carers year round, so of course we would say all this. But fifteen plus years of watching good care workers arrive from employers who let them down has taught us the same problems come up every time. So here is the honest checklist, with our sales pitch kept firmly in its own clearly labelled section near the end.
Should you be employed or self-employed as a carer?
Employed, in our honest opinion, unless you have very good reasons and a very good accountant.
Plenty of live-in carer jobs advertised online are actually self-employed or “introduction agency” arrangements. The advert looks the same, the work looks the same, but the small print is doing something entirely different. As a general rule of UK employment law, employees get rights that self-employed workers do not, including things like paid holiday and statutory sick pay, and an employer who handles your tax rather than leaving you a cheerful envelope from HMRC in January. The differences are set out plainly in the government’s employment status guidance, and it is worth ten minutes of your life before you sign anything.
Self-employment suits some experienced carers who want to run their own show, and that is a legitimate choice, made with eyes open. The problem is adverts that dress it up as a job. Ask directly: am I your employee, or a contractor you introduce to clients? A good employer answers in one sentence. A vague one answers in a paragraph containing the word “flexible” several times.
Does the job pay for the gaps, or just the glamorous bits?
Hourly care work has a dirty secret, and it is the driving. A rota can look like a full day of paid work and quietly contain ninety minutes of unpaid pottering between postcodes, in your own car, on your own petrol, with your own suspension absorbing Surrey’s finest potholes.
So when you compare care jobs, do not just compare the headline rate. Ask what happens between visits:
- Is mileage paid? Every visit, not just some ceremonial subset of them.
- Whose car is it? If it is yours, who insures it for business use, and who pays when the clutch objects to its two hundredth hill start of the week?
- How tight is the rota? A schedule that only works if every traffic light in Leatherhead is feeling generous is a schedule that fails every day, and the person absorbing the failure is you.
Live-in work largely escapes the travel problem (your commute is a staircase), but the same principle applies. Anything that costs you money or unpaid time should be named, in writing, before you accept.
What training and supervision should you actually expect?
There are two kinds of care employer. One gives you proper induction training, funds recognised qualifications, refreshes your training regularly, and has a supervisor who visits, observes, and asks how you are getting on. The other gives you a lanyard, a postcode and their very best wishes.
The difference matters more in care than in almost any other job, because the consequences of being underprepared land on a person who trusted you. When you interview (and remember, you are interviewing them too), ask:
- What training do I get before my first shift, and is it paid?
- Will you support me through recognised qualifications such as NVQs, or do I fund my own development?
- How often is training refreshed, and how often does a supervisor actually see me work?
- Who do I call at 7pm on a Sunday when something is not right, and will a human answer?
That last one is the tell. Every agency claims 24-hour support. Ask how it works in practice, and watch whether the answer contains a name and a phone, or just the word “escalation”.
What is working as a live-in carer really like?
Honestly? It is a proper job and a strange one, often in the same hour.
You live in your client’s home, usually with your own room, and you become the steady presence in their day: meals, medication prompts, personal care, appointments, the crossword dispute, the ongoing negotiations with a cat who believes the armchair is legally theirs. You are not a visitor rushing to the next postcode; you are the reason someone gets to stay in the home they love. To see the work from the family’s side, our live-in care page describes the service you would be delivering.
But be clear-eyed about the shape of it. You are living in someone else’s house, away from your own life, for stretches at a time. Two things make the difference between a sustainable career and burnout with a suitcase:
- Breaks. A live-in carer needs genuine daily breaks and proper time off between placements. Ask any employer, precisely, how breaks work and who provides the cover while you take them. “The family sorts something out” is not an answer. It is a shrug in a lanyard.
- Cover and backup. Ask what happens when you are ill, when you have a family emergency, or when a placement is simply not a good match. A good employer has an office team and other carers to call on. A bad one has your mobile number and a hopeful tone.
Live-in work suits some lives beautifully: people between homes, people whose own children have flown, people who prefer one deep relationship over a whirlwind of twenty-minute visits. It suits other lives not at all, and there is no shame in preferring hourly work with your own front door at the end of it. The only mistake is not asking enough questions to know which you are.
What are the red flags in a care job advert?
After fifteen plus years in this sector we can spot them from across the room:
- Vagueness about employment status. If the advert will not say whether you are employed, assume you are not.
- “Earn up to” arithmetic. An “up to” figure is a ceiling wearing a party hat. Ask what a normal week actually pays, travel and gaps included.
- No mention of training or supervision. Employers proud of their training say so loudly. Silence is information.
- Breaks that are nobody’s job to cover. In live-in roles especially, if cover is not organised, breaks are theoretical.
- An office you can never reach. If they are hard to get hold of while they are trying to recruit you, imagine the service once they have you.
- Pressure to start immediately, skipping proper checks. Reputable employers DBS-check everyone, no exceptions, no shortcuts. An employer who cuts that corner for you is cutting corners everywhere else too.
What questions should you ask any care employer?
Take this list to any interview, ours included. We mean that: we would rather be asked hard questions by good carers than easy questions by anyone.
| The question to ask | What a good answer sounds like |
|---|---|
| Am I employed by you, or self-employed? | “You are our employee.” One sentence, no fog, and it matches the contract. |
| Is travel between visits paid? | “Yes, mileage is paid on every visit,” with the arrangement in writing, not folklore. |
| What training will I get, and who pays for it? | A named induction, funded qualifications, regular refreshers, all paid for by the employer. |
| How does supervision work? | A named supervisor, regular observed practice, and an office number a human answers. |
| How do breaks and cover work on live-in placements? | A specific system with actual people in it, described without hesitation. |
| What happens if a placement is not a good match? | “Tell us and we will sort it.” No guilt, no penalty, a plan. |
| Are all your carers DBS-checked? | “Every single one, before they work.” Anything hedged, walk away. |
None of these questions is rude. Any employer who bristles at them has told you everything you needed to know, free of charge.
What do we offer at Aims? (The clearly labelled sales pitch.)
As promised, here is our own answer sheet, so you can mark our homework against the table above.
- We recruit care assistants, senior carers and live-in carers across Surrey, year round, in full-time, part-time and flexible hours. Life does not run on one shift pattern and neither do we.
- You are employed by Aims. Not a gig platform, not an introduction arrangement: an employee of a regulated Surrey care company that has been at this for more than fifteen years.
- Every carer gets a company car, with the insurance provided. Yes, really. Your own clutch may live a long and peaceful retirement.
- Mileage is paid on every visit. Every one. Not a rota-dependent lottery.
- Full NVQ training, regular refreshers and proper supervision. We train you before we need you, and we keep training you afterwards.
- Everyone is DBS-checked, and behind every carer sits an experienced office team in Leatherhead who answer the phone like it is their job, because it is.
We will also say the honest thing recruiters rarely say: live-in work suits some lives and not others, and we would rather help you work out which, over a cup of tea, than talk you into a role you will leave in three months. Who you would be working for is on our about page.
What should you do next?
- Decide what shape of work fits your life. Hourly visits with your own front door each evening, or live-in placements with a different rhythm. Neither is superior; they are different jobs wearing the same uniform.
- Take the questions table to every interview. Including ours. Especially ours.
- Get the answers in writing. Employment status, mileage, training, breaks, cover. If it is real, it survives being written down.
- Send us your CV. Applications come by CV to our Leatherhead office, and we recruit all year, so there is no window to miss.
Frequently asked questions.
Do I need experience to apply for a carer job with Aims?
Experience helps but is not the whole story. We provide full NVQ training, refreshers and supervision, so what matters most is kindness, reliability and the right values. For roles that involve driving between visits you will need a driving licence; we provide the car and the insurance.
Is a company car really provided?
Yes, genuinely, and we get asked this with the suspicion normally reserved for emails about lottery wins. Every Aims carer gets a company car with insurance provided, and mileage is paid on every visit, so your work driving does not come out of your own pocket.
What is the difference between hourly and live-in carer roles?
Hourly carers visit several clients a day and go home each evening; live-in carers stay in one client’s home for a placement, providing support through the day with proper breaks. Hourly suits people who want their own routine; live-in suits people who want depth over mileage.
How do I apply for a care job at Aims?
Send your CV to our Leatherhead office through the careers page, or call 01372 386222 and talk to a human first if you prefer. We recruit care assistants, senior carers and live-in carers across Surrey all year round, so whenever you are reading this, we are hiring.
If the checklist above sounds like the job you have been looking for, we would love to hear from you. Send your CV via our careers page or call the Leatherhead team on 01372 386222. Bring your questions; the kettle will be on.
Sources and references.
- Aims Homecare, careers page (roles, company car, mileage, training and application details), checked 26 August 2026
- GOV.UK, Employment status guidance (employee, worker and self-employed rights)
- Care Quality Commission, check a care provider’s registration
Where to go next.
- Current carer vacancies at Aims
- What our live-in care service involves
- How live-in care is priced for families
Or talk it through with a person: call 01372 386222 or book a free assessment.