self employed carer advice please

F_Bear

my mother works for a care agency providing house calls to the eldery and infirm. these are genurally 30min/60min slots for which she gets minium wage.

she genuinly enjoys her job and the people she meets. what she doesnt like, and winds me up, is they way the managment treat the staff.

i know no company is perfect but they expect her to drop everything when they ring for a 30min call in the middle of her day off etc. and mum is too nice to say no and thinks its not fair on the eldery.

also any one to one instruction (driving, PT, etc) charges £20+ yet the carers get min wage.

what i want to do is set my mother up as a self employed carer as i know several of her currently clients family appreciate the care my mother puts in, and would be willing to pay her direct instead of the agency. espically with the negative press around at the moment.

is this a feasible option? shes 55 so this wouldnt be a long term thing. i can also sort an accountant etc for her.

any help would be appreciated.

Savvy_Sue

I have to say she might not be any better off, but it might work.

the agency call on her day off because they know she'll drop everything. As long as she does this, they'll keep calling. Her problem to sort.

If she was directly employed, that might not be any better. Client A might call repeatedly even if she's busy at Client B's - at least the agency knows where she should be.

She'd need insurance. And the agency may have a clause in their contracts which would mean it wasn't as simple as just taking clients from them.

And what would she do if she was unwell? ATM, if the agency phone and she's not well enough to work, they presumably have a list of other people they can ring.

McKneff

And more to the point, what does your mother want to do, she may not want the responsibility of being self employed.


Have you asked her.