Starting 1 February 2016, we’re introducing a new charging scheme.
A fee will be charged when Client and Carer commence an actual placement.
The fee is £50, split between Client and Carer at £25 each.
If you aren’t successful there is no charge. No placement – no fee.
Adverts and messaging continue to be free of charge to Private Individuals.
Simply by asking you. As a matter of routine we monitor all message contents, and identify the presence of phone numbers and email addresses, which is where the two parties usually decide to email or phone directly and take the discussion off-line.
From this point we know is that a placement is a possible outcome, and we just ask both parties to confirm the outcome. Its the same approach as a typical employment agency where you only pay a fee upon successful placement.
Since our launch in December 2010, we have mostly run a free service for private individuals. We’re aiming all the time for a system which is low-cost to run, therefore low-cost to you. Along the way, we’ve experimented with a few different ways of charging a fee, mainly focussed on the advert and messaging. But our experience has been that people are reluctant to pay at this speculative stage of the process, By contrast we have received numerous voluntary contributions, very often where outcomes have been successful. So we're making this the basis of our new charges.