subject: Using A Staffing Agency Is The Best Way To Find A Live In Carer [print this page] Finding a live-in caregiver to provide care for someone who is elderly, ill, or has special needs, can be an enormous challenge for most ordinary people. Live in carers can play a significant role in the lives of those whom they are entrusted to care for. Often they are required to spend large periods of time, alone and unsupervised, with the ones in their care. This requires them to be implicitly trustworthy and capable of understanding the special needs of those they are caring for.
Finding a live in carer that possesses such qualities can be a time-consuming task and one that involves considerable screening and background work. Potential employers need to know what sort of questions to ask, what kind of experience to look for and what kind of references to seek. Importantly, they need to know if the live in carer they plan on hiring has a clean legal record and is legally allowed to work in the country.
One way of eliminating the complexity associated with finding a live in carer is to hire one through a local domestic staffing agency. Domestic placement services specialize in pre-screening individuals for placement as caregivers. Most have handy lists of qualified caregivers who are ready and able to accommodate the specific needs of people in need of special care. Domestic staffing agencies typically ensure that a potential live in carer has all the required credentials attesting to their qualifications, their previous employment history and their eligibility to work in the U.K. Staffing agencies are also far better equipped to handle credit and background checks and to verify references, than an individual can. These checks are especially important, because references and previous employment history are relatively easy to forge.
Using a domestic staffing agency helps ensure that the initial contact and subsequent interviews with a prospective live in carer is conducted in an impersonal and professional manner. Typically, a staffing agency has experience in drawing up work agreements and all legal documentation associated with hiring a live in carer. They negotiate the salary, and explain the terms and conditions associated with the job.
Staffing agencies also handle issues such as outlining living arrangements, explaining house rules and spelling out exactly what items are covered and what are not. This sort of detail is vital to ensuring that issues such as phone calls, Internet usage and food do not become matters of dispute. Lastly, staffing agencies can help set up job and performance expectations and help ensure that the employer and the live in carer are comfortable with the proposed arrangement before moving ahead.
