Replacement policy and trial period: what to demand

The single worst moment to negotiate a replacement policy is the morning you need one. By then the caretaker has not arrived, your parent is waiting for a bath, you are calling an agency office that opens at ten, and nobody has any leverage at all. Everything in this guide should be settled before the first day, while you still have the option of choosing someone else.

Two documents do the work: a trial with written criteria, and a replacement policy with numbers in it.

The trial period

Run every new arrangement as a trial of one to two weeks. Longer if the person is live-in, because a household settles slowly. In the trial the caretaker is paid normally, the work is real, and both sides know there is a defined decision point.

Write the pass-or-exit criteria before day one. Keep them to things you can actually observe:

• Arrives on time and on the agreed days; absence is communicated before it happens.
• The routine is followed — medicines reminded, not decided; meals and bathing handled as agreed.
• Your parent is comfortable: eating, sleeping, willing to be helped. Ask this without the caretaker in the room.
• Communication works: a two-line daily note about what happened and what needs attention.
• Boundaries hold: no clinical tasks, no money, no personal photography of the household.

Review on day three, day seven and day fourteen. Day three catches basic mismatches; day seven tells you whether the routine is holding; day fourteen is the decision. End it early if something crosses a line — unexplained absence, handing medicines, asking your parent for money privately. Ending a trial is the whole point of having one.

The replacement policy

Ask for specifics, and get them into the written agreement before you pay:

1. How many days until a replacement arrives? Ask for a firm number rather than accepting reassurance, and ask what happens if nobody suitable is available in that window.
2. Is there interim cover? A temporary attendant while the permanent replacement is found is the difference between a bad week and a crisis.
3. How many replacement attempts before a refund? Agree a number, and state that a refund of the agency fee is due if the attempts are exhausted. Ask how the refund is calculated if the arrangement has run for some months.
4. Which reasons count? No-show, illness, resignation, a mismatch of language or temperament, your parent’s refusal of care, and your own request for a change — write down which of these are covered. Fit is the one families forget to ask about.
5. Who do you call? One named person, with a direct number, and an expected response time. Ask whether that person answers outside office hours, and note whether you get a person or a queue.
6. What is not covered? Usually the family’s own changes — moving house, a hospital admission, deciding to manage alone. Knowing the boundary avoids a nasty surprise.

If you hired directly

A direct hire has no agency standing behind the policy, which means you are the replacement plan. Budget for it honestly: keep the details of two or three other shortlisted candidates warm, tell your neighbourhood network that you may need help within a week, and accept that a direct arrangement usually costs you days of searching each time it breaks. Direct hiring can cost less per month; it is rarely free.

The day a replacement arrives

Treat the arrival of a replacement as a fresh onboarding rather than a resumption. Check the ID again, confirm that the police verification and references are on file for this person and not for the previous one, and re-read the scope of work aloud — the new caretaker was not there when it was agreed. Walk them through the routine at the same time of day the last person started. Do not compare the two out loud in front of your parent; older adults often soften towards the person who left once a new face appears, and that is normal rather than a verdict. Give it three days before you judge.

What to do while the trial runs

Keep a short written log — date, what was done, what was missed, how your parent seemed. It takes a minute a day and it turns a vague impression into a decision you can defend to your siblings. Read the questions families forget to ask in questions before hiring, and walk the hiring checklist so the trial is measuring something you defined in advance rather than a feeling.

If the arrangement fails the trial, you are not back at the beginning — you know more about the tasks, the timings and the temperament your household needs. Feed that straight into the matcher and start the shortlist again with better criteria.