What is respite care?
Respite care is a short break from caring. The person you look after is cared for by someone else — for a few hours, a weekend, or a couple of weeks — so that you, the unpaid carer, can rest, work or get away. It can happen in their own home or in a care home, and in England you have a legal right to an assessment of what would help you take that break.
What respite care really is
Most people arrange respite care for the person they look after, but the point of it is you. Caring for someone day in, day out is relentless, and carers who never get a break are the ones who end up exhausted or unwell themselves — which helps nobody. Respite simply means someone competent steps in for a while so you can stop being on duty: sleep, see friends, hold down a job, go to your own hospital appointment, or take a holiday without worrying.
It comes in very different sizes. At the small end, a trained sitter spends a couple of hours with your relative each week while you get out of the house. At the other end, they have a planned stay in a care home for a fortnight so you can go away properly. In between sit day centres, overnight help and a carer who moves in for the length of your break. The right kind depends on how much support the person needs and what sort of break would actually help you.
Respite is usually planned, booked around a holiday or a busy patch at work. It can also be an emergency: if you are suddenly taken ill or have a crisis of your own, the council has a duty to make sure the person you care for is safe, and will arrange cover at short notice. Either way, the care itself is the same kinds of help your relative already gets — washing, dressing, meals, medication, company — just delivered by someone else for a time.
The main forms of respite care
There is no single thing called "respite". It is a purpose — giving the carer a break — met in whichever way fits. These are the forms you are most likely to be offered, and roughly how each is charged.
| Form of respite | What happens | Usually charged as | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sitting service or homecare respite | A paid carer or sitter comes in while you are out | By the hour | In the person's own home |
| Live-in respite | A carer moves in for the length of your break | A weekly fee | In the person's own home |
| Day care | The person spends the day at a centre with activities and company | By the day or session | Out, during the day |
| Short stay in a care home | The person stays in a care home for a few nights up to a few weeks | By the week or night | Away from home |
| Emergency respite | Cover arranged quickly if you fall ill or cannot carry on | Varies | At home or in a care home |
What these cost, roughly, when you pay yourself: a carer coming to the home is around £20 an hour, and live-in respite starts from about £800 a week (NHS, "Paying for your own care (self-funding)", nhs.uk, reviewed 17 April 2026). Those are what households tend to pay; the Homecare Association puts the full cost of running properly-paid, regulated home care at £34.42 an hour for 2026/27, while councils pay an average of £25.05 an hour — which is why self-funded and council rates differ (Homecare Association, Minimum Price for Homecare 2026/27, published December 2025). A short care-home stay is charged more like a weekly care-home fee. The cost of care at home is set out in full in the costs section.
How to arrange respite care
The usual starting point is your local council's adult social care team. Ask for two things: a carer's assessment for you, and a needs assessment for the person you look after. Both are free, and neither depends on income — the means test comes later, and only decides who pays, not whether you can be assessed. The carer's assessment is where you say plainly that you need a break and what kind would help; the council then looks at how to make that happen.
The legal footing for this differs around the UK, though the idea is the same everywhere. In England the right to a carer's assessment comes from the Care Act 2014. In Scotland you can ask for an Adult Carer Support Plan under the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016. In Wales it is a carer's needs assessment under the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014. In Northern Ireland you request a carer's assessment from your local Health and Social Care Trust. Whichever nation you are in, the council or trust has to consider whether a break is something you need.
You do not have to go through the council at all. Plenty of families arrange respite privately, ringing a home care provider directly and booking a sitter, some live-in cover, or a short care-home stay, and paying for it themselves. That is quicker and gives you a free hand over who comes and when, but you meet the full cost. If you think the person's money or health might qualify them for help, it is worth getting the assessments done first, because they can unlock funding you would otherwise miss.
Who pays for respite care
Respite is paid for the same way as any other social care, so who pays turns on the finances of the person being cared for, not yours. After the needs assessment the council runs a financial assessment, or means test. If the person has savings and assets above the threshold they will normally pay for their own respite; below it, the council contributes, sometimes in full. The thresholds and how the means test treats a home are covered in the paying for care section.
There are other routes. Where someone has a serious, ongoing health need, the NHS may fund their care through NHS Continuing Healthcare, which would cover respite too. Carers' charities and local carers' centres sometimes offer small grants aimed specifically at giving carers a break, and the council's carer's assessment can itself come with a modest direct payment you use to arrange your own cover. It is worth asking about all of these rather than assuming you will have to find the money yourself.
One honest point: councils are stretched, and what they will fund does not always match what a family would choose. If the council's budget only stretches to a day centre and you were hoping for a week away, say so — and know that topping up privately, or arranging the whole thing yourself, is always an option.
Respite care and your benefits
A short break will not stop your Carer's Allowance. You can take up to four weeks off caring in any six-month period and keep it, provided you have been caring for the person for at least 22 of the previous 26 weeks. Carer's Allowance is £86.45 a week in 2026/27, for caring at least 35 hours a week, and you must tell the Carer's Allowance Unit if your break is going to run longer than that four-week window (GOV.UK, "Carer's Allowance", gov.uk, 2026/27).
The trap to watch sits with the other person's benefits, not yours. If the person you care for goes into a care home for respite and the council or the NHS is paying their fees, their Attendance Allowance or the daily living part of their PIP can stop after 28 days — and because your Carer's Allowance depends on them getting that benefit, yours can stop too. If they are paying their own care-home fees, the benefit usually carries on. Before any stay longer than a few weeks, ring the office that pays the benefit and check, so a break does not cost you money you were counting on.
Common questions
If you already know some help is needed, tell us what's needed and where, and home care providers covering that postcode will contact you. It's free and there's no obligation. You can also read about live-in care, which is often how longer respite is arranged at home.