Domiciliary care agencies may be engaged to provide care services directly by individual service users, or by their relatives. However, in many cases, they are contracted by local authorities or charitable organisations. The United Kingdom Home Care Association estimates that seven in every ten hours of domiciliary care provided in the UK are paid for by a local authority.

The operator of a domiciliary care agency must be registered as a service provider with the appropriate national regulatory body, depending on whether they are based in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, and must comply with relevant national standards covering staff training and qualifications, safeguarding, complaints procedures and care plans for service users. The manager of the agency, often the business operator, also needs to be registered.

This profile provides information about starting up and running a domiciliary care agency. It describes the skills required, the training available, the current market trends and the key trading issues. It also explains the legislation that must be complied with and provides sources of further information and support.