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What is overnight care?

Overnight care can help you remain independent and secure while receiving the care you need in your own home. If you wake up often during the night, need regular assistance with medication and personal care or simply value the presence of a trusted carer in your home, overnight care may be right for you.

This kind of care is divided into sleeping night care and waking night care, depending on your needs. Curam’s experienced overnight carers provide specialist support throughout the UK.

With an overnight carer, you can live life in your own home and receive care as you need it throughout the night. They can support you in numerous ways:

Help with medication and medical equipment
Assist with bathroom and personal care needs
Aid with mobility through your home
Provide security and peace of mind during the night

How does overnight care work?

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What does a night care assistant do?

Night care assistants can provide a variety of services to suit your needs. Their regular duties, tasks and responsibilities will depend on whether they’re hired to provide sleeping night or waking night care.

Share your care needs

Why choose overnight care?

Why choose overnight care?

Overnight care is a popular choice for those who have specific needs during the night, but are otherwise supported during the day by loved ones or other carers. This may include both elderly clients and children with disabilities, as well those with long-term or short-term care needs such as the following:

Cancer
Dementia
Mobility issues
Recent operations
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Cancer
Dementia
Mobility issues
Recent operations

Overnight care services

Sleeping night care

Sleeping night carers sleep while you sleep. Their presence is mostly to reassure you that someone is there if you need them. If you only need assistance once or twice per night, sleeping night carers will be available to help you as required.

If you anticipate only occasional support in the night but value the presence of a trusted carer in your home until morning, sleeping night care may be right for you. If you need more regular assistance, a waking night carer may be better suited to your schedule. 

Waking night care

Waking night carers work throughout the night. In addition to helping you with any needs you may have during the night including bathroom assistance, reassurance and pain management, these carers can help with everyday tasks such as cleaning in the home while you sleep.

If you wake often, or need regular assistance with medication and personal care, waking night care can provide consistency in your care throughout the night.

How it works?

Hiring a carer through Curam is a 4 step easy process with you having all the control.

1

Search

Filter and search for verified carers near you

2

Message

Message suitable carers - we suggest a minimum of three to give you the best choice

3

Hire

Hire your insured and vetted carer via Curam - you only pay for the care delivered

Or

Share your care needs

Alternatively, in an emergency or if you need care for a specific period of time Share your care needs' with our carers

Take the first step, start your search for carers

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Costs of overnight care

Our self-employed carers set their own rates on the Curam platform. The cost of overnight care is often determined by the level of care required, and there are different rates for sleeping and waking shifts. These rates can vary according to the carer’s experience and qualifications.

General costs

The average hourly overnight care rate charged on Curam is £16.30 per hour, with rates starting at £13 an hour. Rates vary depending on where you live in the UK.

Invoices are also subject to the Curam client fee of 10% and VAT. However, this client fee may be lower or waived for our business partners or those receiving local authority or NHS funding for their care. Please email client@curamcare.com to learn more about your costs with Curam. 

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The highest quality care at the best possible rates

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Clients on the Curam platform pay on average 22% less than the current suggested UK Home Care Association hourly rate of £25.95

How to pay for overnight care

You can pay for overnight care privately, with assistance from the NHS or local authority, or from some combination of those sources.

Most people who pursue overnight care will pay for it privately. However, you may be able to get funding to help pay for your care. There are three steps that you can follow to ensure that you receive all the money to which you are entitled:

3 steps to follow

  1. Check your eligibility for benefits with a benefits calculator

    1
  2. Check your eligibility for NHS continuing healthcare funding

    2
  3. Apply for local authority funding

    3

If you still have difficulty funding your own care after checking the above services, you may consider other options such as equity release.

According to the NHS, you might be eligible for local council support towards the cost of your social care if you have less than £23,250 in savings (called the upper capital limit, or UCL). From October 2023 this will rise to £100,000 in savings.

Exactly how much your council will pay depends on what care you need and how much you can afford to pay.

The first step is for your council to do an assessment to check how much help you need. This is called a needs assessment. The needs assessment is free and anyone can ask for one. Find out more about getting a needs assessment.

Some people with long-term complex health needs qualify for free social care arranged and funded solely by the NHS. This is known as NHS continuing healthcare.

To be eligible for NHS continuing healthcare, you must be assessed by a multidisciplinary team of healthcare professionals. The team will look at all your care needs and relate them to:

  • What help you need
  • How complex your needs are
  • How intense your needs can be
  • How unpredictable they are, including any risks to your health if the right care is not provided at the right time

Your eligibility for NHS continuing healthcare depends on your assessed needs, and not on any particular diagnosis or condition. If your needs change then your eligibility for NHS continuing healthcare may change.

With Curam, you pay for overnight care though a secure payment system on our app or website. Your carer of choice will create a service agreement and shift invoice, which will automatically be sent to your Curam account for your approval. 

Once you have approved these, you will be taken to the payment portal. Your payment is held securely until the shift is completed and is then released to the carer two working days after the end of the shift, minus the Curam fee. Shift invoices typically cover one to two weeks of care at a time, but specific payment frequency can be agreed with your carer.

Off-platform and cash payments are not accepted. These are liable to a fee of £2,000. Please see our terms and conditions for more information, specifically point 9.3.

Why choose Curam for overnight care

We know that hiring a carer is an emotionally charged decision, so we’ve done everything we can to make it as safe, seamless and stress-free as possible.

Choice is at the heart of Curam. By connecting carers and those who need care, we enable people to take control of their lives.

We’ve made it possible to hire a carer within a matter of hours. With Curam you can search, interview, message, hire and pay approved and vetted carers throughout the UK.

We are building a care community that allows each of us to live an independent life.

Experts and experience

Curam is a community of experts. Every carer on Curam’s platform has been interviewed and fully vetted by our recruitment team. They have had a DBS check, are legally entitled to work in the UK and any qualifications mentioned on their profile are backed up with certificates.

Self-managed

Curam does things differently. Unlike care agencies, we make sure the choice of care is in your hands. You can interview carers personally before hiring them and have a final say on what their responsibilities will be in your home

Our carers are self-employed. Their Curam fee covers the cost of their insurance, easy-to-use service agreements and a hassle-free payment system. This means that the client pays less than they would with an agency, and the carer in turn receives a higher wage.

Individual support

Overnight care with Curam respects independence. It is tailored to each individual while allowing them to sleep in the comfort of their own home. Receiving care at home can be a safer and more cost-effective alternative to a care home.

How to find and hire an overnight carer with Curam

To arrange overnight care on the Curam platform, create an account . If you provide us with your postcode, your care requirements, your gender preference for carers and more detail as needed, carers that fit your demonstrated needs will then apply to your Curam account.

We recommend that you call or meet your carer of choice before contracting with them. Read our advice on interviewing a potential carer.

Alternatively, you can use our search tool to find a carer that suits your needs. You can filter by care type, condition, experience, languages spoken and more in your search. If you see a particular carer that fits your criteria, send them a message outlining your care needs and checking their availability. 

All carers can be tried on a trial basis and any specific arrangement can be changed or cancelled with a minimum notice of 48 hours.

Please note that Curam does not provide managed care. It’s critical to our mission that both the client and the carer have choice and control over their care relationship.

Frequently asked questions

A night care assistant can offer a variety of services, including the following: 

  • Assistance with trips to the bathroom or continence care
  • Preventing falls and accidents at home
  • Help with dressings and pain relief
  • Prompting to take prescribed medicines
  • Any specialist care, according to your needs

Waking night carers can also complete household tasks while you sleep, like light cleaning and meal preparation. 

If you hire a sleeping night carer, they will expect to sleep in your home during the night for a minimum of eight hours. This can be helpful when you prefer the presence of a trusted carer in your home while you sleep and only anticipate occasional support.

Waking night carers do not sleep in your home. They provide regular assistance with medication and personal care alongside other duties, like basic housework. They can provide consistency in your care throughout the night.

Choosing an overnight care assistant is simple and straightforward with Curam. Use our search tool to filter by care type, condition, experience, languages spoken and more. You can contact our experienced carers directly to find a match that suits your needs.

Thousands of happy clients have used Curam,
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2.75 million+

Hours of high quality
care delivered

7750+

Experienced &
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4500+

people hired
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10 years

Average experience
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Average number
of applications

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Average response
time from carers

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