“I would always give Christies top marks. Other agencies do not provide the same level of training or support.”
“I would always give Christies top marks. Other agencies do not provide the same level of training or support.”
“I would always give Christies top marks. Other agencies do not provide the same level of training or support.”
Frequently asked questions
When we meet new clients for the first time, or if their situation changes (e.g. their care needs increase), we suggest a suitable fee for their carer. This depends on the individual needs of your client. You will always be told the suggested fee before you start work.
The amount you earn will depend on how many weeks you want to work. If you work for 46 weeks out of the 52 in a year, you will earn at least £23,000 (in excess of 115,000 zł), as the weekly fees clients pay you are between £500 and £800. Remember, you get free board and lodging, so you have almost no expenses – you can keep almost all of your earnings. In most cases you will be repaid your UK travel costs.
Clients who want a carer mainly for companionship pay towards the lower end of the scale. Clients who need a large amount of personal care pay towards the higher end of the scale.
You will be paid weekly, by cheque or bank transfer. If you don’t have a UK bank account, we will help you open one.
We know that being a live-in carer can be a stressful job so we give you support and advice wherever possible.
On your first day, when you arrive at our training centre in Saxmundham, you will be introduced to your Carer Support Team. These are the people who will ring you when you are at work to see how you are and to see if you are happy with your client.
Most importantly, the carer support team are there for you to ring them. They are there to give you help and advice, whatever the question, no matter how trivial.
The carer support team is also there when things go seriously wrong. For example, if you have a family emergency, they’ll do as much as possible to help you get back to your family as fast as possible.
You’ll also meet our Booking Co-ordinators who match carers to their clients and are always on hand to give advice when needed to ensure that everything is going smoothly.
Most of the bookings and carer support team work Mon – Fri, 9am to 5pm, but if you have an emergency, we always have someone on call. Our on-call telephone is manned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Also, if you want to talk to someone face to face, we have a team of Local Area Advisors, who can come and visit, offering help and advice.
Most of Christies Care’s clients pay their carers on a self-employed basis. We will help you register as self-employed with the authorities. This means that you are responsible for paying your own income tax and national insurance. Paying and working out tax and NI is not difficult, and the online self-assessment forms are straightforward.
With some of our clients, we employ the carers. In this case, we pay you by bank transfer, and remove the income tax and NI at source. This doesn’t make any difference to the total amount of tax you will pay in a year. So whether you are employed or self-employed, you should be earning a similar amount of money for similar levels of work.
It is up to you. In your first few weeks, you are likely to work for a number of clients. This will give you an idea of the range of clients and personalities available for you to work for. Then you and your clients can decide if you want to be a regular carer with them or not.
Most carers like to settle down with a few favourite clients. But some like to travel and meet new people, in new areas. We support good carers in doing whatever they want to do.
Occasionally, something happens which means that you suddenly don’t have work, through no fault of your own. Your client might pass away, or go to hospital.
In that case we’ll make sure you have free accommodation until we can introduce you to another client (which we’ll do as soon as possible).
When you are working, you will be staying in your client’s house. You will have your own bedroom, with a TV and in most cases, an internet connection. You will be eating with your client. You will not be paying for your lodging or food.
When you are not working, we have a subsidised guest-house at our head office in Saxmundham. It is cheaper than any surrounding B&B or hotel. Many carers stay there when they want a few days or a week off.
You will stay in the guesthouse during your induction training, along with other carers being trained at the same time – so you will have plenty of people to meet and get to know. Many carers stay in touch with people they did their training with, and meet year after year at their update training.
We offer an accident insurance policy, which will cover you, if you suffer an accident while you are at work.
You need to bring enough money to support yourself for a couple of weeks, and to pay for your DBS check.
We hope that you will be working within a few days of induction training, but in some rare cases, you might have to wait a couple of weeks until a suitable client is available. We recommend that you bring about £600 with you.
After your essential induction training, we will find you work as soon as possible. In many cases, new carers are at work the next week.
So that you don’t lose out if we can’t offer you a client the day after your induction ends, we offer new (and returning) carers a guarantee scheme. This means that, whatever happens, as long as you hold yourself available for work and are prepared to work hard, you will not lose out financially.
All of our carers undertake a 2 week training course covering topics which include medication, continence, safe people moving and other caring tasks. Our training has won awards and is one of the key reasons carers choose Christies Care.
The training team is always on call for advice. If you have any questions while you are with a client, please ring them on 01728 605126, they will do their best to help. We also have Local Area Advisors who can come to see you and offer advice and insight.
Our recruitment team will be able to tell you more about the training, the courses available and answer any questions about this.
We also have advanced courses, which will help you in your caring career, including Alzheimer’s and Dementia training, caring for people with physical disabilities and learning disabilities.
"The Blue Team have always been good. They always manage to resolve my problems and give good advice when it is needed.”
"Thanks to the Yellow Team for the birthday wishes and the amazing support you always provide. Bless you all."
“The Green Team are perfect! I always get really good support!”
"Originally, I heard about Christies from someone else. They gave me a bit of info which made me curious. I have since heard about other care companies, but they do not appear to give the support I get from Christies.Blue team, my team, are great! I can talk to them on my bad days and they are so supportive. There I go, praising one part of Christies but I have to say, everyone is great!"
"Just wanted to say thank you for your support and constant checking up on me when I was ill. You made me feel like a valued member of the team and for that I will forever be grateful.Keep up the good work and God Bless you all. Go Green Team!"
"Green Team are perfect! I always get really good support!"
"The Yellow Support team are always on the other side of the phone when I call. You're doing a great job!"
"I love the team. They are really fantastic and I know I can them all for anything."
"I'm Extremely happy. I can’t say enough about how supportive they are.My team give me all the support, guidance and advice I need."
"Thanks to the Yellow team for the birthday wishes and the amazing support you always provide. Bless you all."
"The Blue Team have always been good. This year they have been really good! They always manage to resolve problems and give good advice when it is needed."
"I would like to thank my Blue Support Team as well as all the Trainers at Christies, for always being very helpful and supportive to me."
"I want to emphasize how moved I was by the fantastic support I have received from the Blue support team.I honestly cannot thank Christies enough for the kindness shown to me through phone calls and one-to-one meetings."
"I would just like to say THANKS to my Yellow team for supporting me through a hard booking and afterwards.My client, who I knew well, died and and it was much easier to cope with the situation knowing the team are with me and are so caring."
"A HUGE thank you for the beautiful box of chocolates that arrived today ... a lovely early birthday present.It's my pleasure to work for such a professional, dependable, welcoming company. It's one of the only times in my life I've truly been able to say: "I love my job"!
A massive thanks for all the support you provide and hard work you put in."
"I enjoyed my time with Christies, and am convinced it’s the best care company in the UK!Many thanks to the training team, booking team, and much praise to Kathryn for quietly doing a most excellent job with patience and kindness.”
"Christies Care is one of the best agencies out there. They provide training and many opportunities to complete courses and expand one’s knowledge. There is good support, the office staff seems to be better at listening and respecting carers.They are interested in what is going on and always call back with advice should there be a problem. There is always enough work for good carers."
"I’ve always had work when I've wanted it, my team is fine, the booking coordinators are really nice and the clients have all been fine too.I only have positive things to say about Christies Care."
"A HUGE thank you to everyone at Christies. Being an Australian backpacker, I knew it would be difficult for me to set up a bank account and NI number and all of that other stuff but thanks to you guys (basically doing it all for me) it was so easy.Also, travelling around Europe, I'm never stressed because I know when I go back to England your team always do their best to find me work. So my life-changing backpacking experience has been made 100 times more enjoyable and less stressful, thanks to Christies Care!”
"Very happy with everything to do with bookings. I love the support, absolutely love it!I'm very happy that I have joined Christies Care. I've spoken with carers who work for other agencies and know that they don’t receive the same support.
The training is so fantastic. I found it difficult the first time as I'd only worked in an office, but I re-did the second week and passed. I wouldn’t think about changing agencies, and I always recommend Christies Care."
"Happy with Christies Care, it's all great. It’s the most efficient company I have worked for. Good training provided and good support to carers. There is always someone available on the other end of the phone. The admin and back up is superb.In my opinion Christies Care is the nicest company I have ever worked for!"
"Christies Care works well for me and I know the carers and the staff do a great job for their clients.I have seen first hand how bad things can be with pop in agencies where the staff aren’t trained or supported properly. I’m so proud to be a part of Christies."
"Someone always answers the phone or email. Very good level of training & support.I get enough work and I've already recommended Christies Care to my friend!"
"I would always give Christies top marks. Other agencies do not provide the same level of training or support"
"Christies Care are the most organised company I have ever worked with. Honestly, I feel you are the best!"
"Sophie conducted a brilliant interview. She listened well and provided all the information I needed. I was instantly convinced Christies Care was the best agency for me. The Recruitment Department as a whole are very impressive and really know their stuff.The Training is the best I have ever seen. I have never seen such professionalism, hard work and compassion shown by a company before. I can't wait to start my training!"
"Couldn't have done it without you! Thanks for always being there at the end of the phone when I need you.No other agency that I have worked for has ever been as good at support as Christies."
"Staff received appropriate professional development. We spoke with 8 care workers who told us that they felt they were provided with the training that they needed to meet people's needs. One care worker said: 'Good training. Absolutely prepared me. I enjoyed it'."
"I feel well supported by the staff at Christies Care and have noticed over the last 5 years that the company and the support I've received are getting even better."
"The commitment shown by the team at Christies Care to their staff training is second to none. The investment they have put into their training facilities is amazing.I was delighted to be invited to help focus the training as it shows how they put the needs of the clients first.
I've been a client of Christies Care for more than a dozen years now and I couldn't praise them enough for the work that they do."
"I really enjoy working for Christies Care. I've been kept in work, which I appreciate, and it’s good being part of a professional, well-presented organisation which in turn makes me feel very confident about what I do."