Why we take no commission from any care provider
A great deal of care advice in this country is paid for by the people being recommended. It is legal, it is common, and it is almost always disclosed somewhere. It also quietly changes the advice. We are paid by families, we publish every fee, and we take nothing from any provider.
What commission does to advice
Imagine two services. Both employ decent people. Both want the best for the family in front of them.
The first is paid a percentage of the first few months’ fees by whichever home takes the placement. It earns nothing if the family stays put, nothing if the answer is home care, and more if the home is expensive. Nobody at that service has to behave badly for those incentives to shape what gets recommended — they simply shape which homes get suggested first, and how firmly.
The second is paid a fixed fee by the family, agreed in advance, whatever the outcome. It earns exactly the same for saying “stay where you are and challenge the fee increase” as for arranging a move.
We are the second one. Not because we think the people at the first are dishonest, but because we did not want to spend our working lives arguing that our incentives do not affect us.
- Which homes appear on a shortlist, and in what order
- Whether “do nothing yet” is ever seriously offered
- Whether home care is presented as a real alternative
- How hard a fee increase gets challenged
- Whether anyone questions a top-up request
- How long a relationship lasts after the placement is made
What independence means in practice
No provider payments, ever
We take no fee, referral payment, commission, rebate or hospitality from any care home, agency or provider. There is no threshold and no exception.
Published fixed fees
Every service we offer has a published price. It is agreed in writing before work begins, and it does not move depending on what we conclude.
No shortlist we are paid to produce
When we produce a shortlist, the only thing determining what is on it is the assessed need and what the homes can evidence.
We say when you do not need us
It is the clearest test of the model, and it happens often. If a twenty-minute call is enough, that is where it ends.
We stay after the decision
Commission is paid at the point of placement, which is why so much support evaporates immediately afterwards. Ours does not depend on a move happening at all.
We will tell you who else is paid what
If you are working with another service and are not sure how it is funded, ask us. We will help you ask the right question of them.
Four questions to ask any care adviser, including us
Who pays you?
The single most useful question in this sector. “It is free to you” is not an answer to it — it is an answer to a different question.
Does what you earn change with what you recommend?
By home, by weekly fee, by whether a move happens at all. If the answer is yes to any of those, you now know how to read the advice.
What do you earn if I do nothing?
This is the question that separates the models most sharply, and the one people are least ready for.
Will you put your fee in writing before we start?
Anyone charging families should be able to. We publish ours before you even ring.
What our model costs you, and what it does not
There is a real trade-off and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise: a commission-funded service asks you for nothing up front, and we ask you for a fee. For a family with very little money and a straightforward situation, free advice from a service paid by providers may genuinely be the sensible choice, and we would rather say so than pretend it never is.
What we would ask you to weigh against it is what the free advice is attached to. The cost of a placement chosen for the wrong reasons is not a one-off. It is a weekly figure, for years, plus the funding questions nobody asked at the start.
And there are things free advice structurally cannot do. It cannot be paid to tell you to stay put. It cannot be paid to challenge a fee. It cannot be paid to say that the NHS should be funding all of this and that you should not be choosing a home at all yet.
- When funding is unresolved and the NHS question has not been asked
- When a top-up is being requested and no alternative was offered
- When a home has given notice and you need it tested, not accepted
- When needs are contested and the evidence has to be built
- When you want the answer that keeps someone where they are
- When you need a record that will stand up later
Questions about how we are paid
How do care placement services usually get paid?
A large part of the sector is paid by the provider rather than the family. A home or agency pays a fee when a placement is made, often calculated as a share of the first weeks or months of the fee. The service is free to the family, which is exactly why it is popular, and the payment is disclosed somewhere in the small print.
Is taking commission wrong?
It is not illegal and plenty of people who take it are trying to do a decent job. The problem is structural rather than moral: it means the recommender is paid more when someone moves, paid more when the fee is higher, and paid nothing at all when the honest answer is “stay where you are”.
How would I know if a service takes commission?
Ask one question: “Who pays you, and how much?” A service that is paid by families will tell you the fee immediately. A service paid by providers will usually say it is free to you, which is the answer to a different question. Then ask whether the fee varies by home or by weekly cost.
So how do you get paid?
By the people we work for. Our fees are published in full and agreed before any work starts, and they do not change depending on what we recommend or whether anyone moves anywhere. You can see every one of them on our fees page.
Does that make you more expensive?
It makes us visibly expensive rather than invisibly expensive. A commission-funded service is not free — it is paid for out of the fee somebody pays every week for years. What we charge is a known amount, once, and it is frequently less than a single month of a placement chosen badly.
Do you ever recommend that we do nothing?
Regularly. A good proportion of our free calls end with us telling someone they can handle it themselves. That is only possible because nobody pays us to reach a different conclusion.
Take it further
Our fees
Every fixed fee published in full, with what is included in each.
Who you’d be working with
Independent, nurse-led, and paid only by the families we work for.
Care Partner Membership
Ongoing support for families where things keep changing.
Regulatory information
What we are, what we are not, and who regulates what.
You don’t need to know which service you need.
Just tell us what’s happening.
No pressure. No care-provider commissions. Just a conversation about what may help.Independent · no commission from any care provider · fees published
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