Freelance Support Worker?

passatrider

Iam looking at utilising my experience as a Home Support Worker by setting up as freelance/self-employed.
I have experience of Self-Employment already so know the pros/cons about the business side of things.
What I want to know is has anyone else set up as freelance in this field and was it profitable?

I worked for 12 months as a home support worker for a local charity who dealt with Alzheimers clients, so I have good knowledge in this field.
I want to offer a service where I support the client/carer and help also with things such as driving/shopping/cutting lawns/social outings etc. I'm not keen on personal care though so I would not be offering this service; is this possible?
I know I have to get an updated CRB check, public liability insurance etc.

Have I missed anything?

SarEl

I don't know a lot about this field, but I did pick up a thing from some work I did recently. Since you can't get a CRB "on yourself", and many "vulnerable adults" and their families also cannot get them for people they employ personally, a number of local authorities have moved to stop the gap, by setting up registers of people providing services of this kind. They aren't local authority employees - it's people like you - but they offer a sort of "job agency/register" to put individuals and families in touch with appropriate support workers. By doing this they vet the people on the register / CRB check them etc., and it gives a greater degree of security to those hiring their services. You might want to check this out in your area to see if they do this. Obviously, if families or individuals want support workers, and have a better way of securing them than the risk of an ad in the local shop or paper, they are more likely to use this as a trusted source. Equally, if they are running one of these schemes in your area, you may find it harder to compete against them, as there are big advantages to them.

My understanding is that they do not act as an "employment agency" - so there are no fees (on either side) and charges are between the individuals and the support worker, but they also may pick up the "employers admin" for families etc, processing invoices and payments for them, and tax and NI if applicable.