Recruiting Today: Care Recruitment Agency for Care Assistants, Senior Carers and Residential Care Managers Across UK Care Homes and Supported Living
Specialist UK care recruitment — dependable care assistants, qualified senior carers and experienced residential care managers for care homes, nursing homes and supported living providers nationwide.
Executive Summary: Recruiting Today is a specialist UK care recruitment agency supplying care assistants, senior carers and residential care managers to care homes, nursing homes and supported living providers nationwide. With rigorous DBS checking, reference verification, experience matching and a focus on compassionate, reliable staffing, we help care providers fill urgent vacancies, strengthen long-term teams and maintain continuity of care for residents and service users. This comprehensive guide covers our services, candidate screening process, sector coverage, live job opportunities and how our care recruitment works end-to-end.
Last Updated: April 2026 | Reading Time: 13 minutes | Sector: UK Care & Supported Living
The quality of a care home or supported living service is fundamentally a question of the people who walk through its doors every day. A rota full of temporary agency staff who don't know the residents, a team missing a senior carer for a weekend shift, a home without a permanent residential care manager for months — these aren't administrative issues. They translate directly into missed medications, confused residents, stressed families and failed CQC inspections. Getting care recruitment right is not a nice-to-have; it's the single biggest operational lever a care provider has.
Recruiting Today is a specialist UK care recruitment agency built specifically to support care providers facing this reality. We place care assistants, senior carers and residential care managers into care homes, nursing homes and supported living services across the United Kingdom. We are care-sector specialists, not a generalist agency that happens to take healthcare briefs — which means we understand the difference between a hospital-trained HCA and a dementia-experienced care assistant, between an NVQ Level 2 carer and an NVQ Level 3 senior carer, and between a registered manager who can pass a CQC inspection and one who cannot.
In this guide, you'll learn how Recruiting Today works, the specific care roles we cover, our screening and safeguarding process, how we support both care homes and supported living providers, and why specialist care recruitment delivers better long-term outcomes than generalist agencies. You'll also see live jobs available across our network and real case studies showing how we've helped UK care providers fill critical vacancies fast.
Quick Answers: UK Care Recruitment at a Glance
What is a care recruitment agency?
A care recruitment agency is a specialist staffing business that sources, screens and supplies qualified care workers — including care assistants, senior carers, support workers and registered managers — to care homes, nursing homes, supported living providers and home care agencies. Agencies like Recruiting Today handle DBS checks, reference verification and role matching.
Residential Care Manager Definition
Residential Care Manager: The professional who holds operational leadership of a UK care home — responsible for staff oversight, resident safety, regulatory compliance (including CQC standards), service delivery quality and team performance. Usually holds NVQ Level 5 or equivalent.
How to hire care staff through Recruiting Today in 4 steps
- Brief Recruiting Today on the role, shift pattern and service user profile
- Receive a shortlist of pre-screened, DBS-verified care candidates
- Interview and select your preferred candidate
- Place the worker into your care home or supported living service with post-placement support
Care roles Recruiting Today supplies
- Care assistants and healthcare assistants (HCAs)
- Senior carers with NVQ Level 3 or equivalent
- Residential care managers and deputy managers
- Support workers for supported living services
- Dementia-experienced carers for specialist units
- Night carers and waking night staff
- Nursing home care staff supporting registered nurses
How fast can Recruiting Today fill a care vacancy?
Recruiting Today typically supplies pre-vetted care assistants and senior carers within 24 to 72 hours, and residential care managers within 5 to 10 working days for permanent positions. For urgent overnight cover in UK care homes, we can often mobilise temporary care staff within hours of confirmation.
Typical UK care sector pay rates supplied
| Role | Typical Hourly Rate (UK) |
|---|---|
| Care Assistant (NVQ Level 2) | £12.50 – £15.00 |
| Senior Carer (NVQ Level 3) | £14.00 – £17.50 |
| Support Worker (Supported Living) | £13.00 – £16.00 |
| Residential Care Manager | £18.00 – £28.00 |
Why use a specialist care recruitment agency?
Specialist care recruitment agencies understand CQC standards, safeguarding requirements, NVQ qualification levels, dementia care needs and the realities of residential and supported living environments. Compared with generalist staffing firms, a specialist agency like Recruiting Today places candidates who genuinely fit — reducing turnover and improving care quality.
About Recruiting Today
Recruiting Today is a UK-based specialist care recruitment agency supporting care providers across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We serve residential care homes, nursing homes, supported living providers, home care agencies, specialist dementia units, learning disability services and community care organisations — in fact, any regulated care setting that relies on reliable, compassionate staff to deliver high-quality care.
Our geographic coverage spans every major UK region. We regularly place care staff in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast and hundreds of towns and villages in between. From large city-centre care homes to rural care agencies and supported living flats, our reach and candidate pool allow us to respond fast to care providers wherever they are. Learn more about Recruiting Today.
What makes us different is the commitment underneath the service. We believe care recruitment is not a transactional business. Every placement affects a resident, a family member, a care team and a regulatory track record. That's why we focus on reliable, compassionate, skilled care staffing — not just filling shifts. We take time to understand each care provider's environment, culture and resident profile, and we take time to understand each candidate's experience, preferences and long-term goals. The result is placements that stick.
Care Roles We Recruit For
Care Assistants
Care assistants are the daily heart of a care home. Recruiting Today supplies care assistants for the full range of day-to-day support responsibilities — personal care, companionship, assisting with mobility, meals, hydration, washing and dressing, emotional wellbeing, medication prompts and social activities. Our care assistants are ready for the realities of residential care, with genuine compassion and the physical stamina the role requires.
We supply care assistants for both temporary and permanent roles across UK care homes, nursing home care settings and senior care environments. Whether you need a single care assistant for a weekend cover shift or a team of six for a new unit opening, our candidate pool is ready.
Senior Carers
Senior carers bridge the gap between hands-on care and operational management. Recruiting Today places senior carers who support care teams, lead by example on the floor, administer care plans, supervise junior staff and oversee shifts. They escalate concerns to management promptly, maintain care standards, handle medication administration (where qualified) and ensure resident dignity is upheld in every interaction.
Most senior carers we place hold NVQ Level 3 in Health and Social Care (or equivalent), have meaningful hands-on care experience, and have demonstrated progression through care assistant roles. Explore our full recruitment services.
Residential Care Managers
The residential care manager is the single most important hire a care provider makes. Recruiting Today places experienced residential care managers with leadership and operational responsibility for UK care homes — covering staff oversight, compliance with CQC standards (or Care Inspectorate, CIW, RQIA equivalents across the UK), resident safety, quality management, service delivery and team performance.
Our residential care manager candidates typically hold NVQ Level 5 Diploma in Leadership for Health and Social Care, have a proven CQC inspection track record and can step into a home and take control from day one. We also place deputy managers, clinical leads, and registered managers for nursing homes. For specialist carer-only searches, visit our Carer Agency.
Recruitment for Care Homes
Residential care homes and nursing homes operate under unique pressures — tight CQC inspection cycles, fluctuating resident acuity, emergency cover requirements, family expectations and the ever-present challenge of maintaining continuity of care. Recruiting Today has built its entire care recruitment service around these realities.
We take time to understand each care home's environment — is it a 20-bed residential home in a rural village, a 90-bed nursing home in a city suburb, or a specialist dementia unit? What's the resident profile, the staffing ratio, the shift pattern, the home's culture? Armed with that context, we match candidates not just by qualifications but by suitability for your specific environment and culture.
Our care home recruitment covers temporary, permanent and urgent staffing solutions — ad-hoc shifts, rolling contracts, block bookings, permanent hires and emergency cover. Continuity of care is a priority: where possible we place the same candidates into recurring shifts so residents benefit from familiar faces rather than an ever-rotating cast of new staff.
Recruitment for Supported Living Services
Supported living is a different world from residential care — and deserves recruitment that understands the difference. Recruiting Today staffs independent living environments where service users with learning disabilities, mental health needs, physical disabilities or complex support requirements live in their own tenancies, supported by care workers who promote independence, dignity and person-centred support.
We match support workers and senior support staff to service users with varying support needs — from those who need minimal daily contact through to those who need 24/7 waking support or two-to-one care. Our candidates are briefed on the supported living philosophy: service users are tenants in their own homes, not residents in a facility, and support must be shaped around what they want, not what the provider finds convenient.
Recruiting Today offers flexible recruitment options for supported living providers — permanent staff, relief and bank workers, specialist matching for complex service users, and fast cover for sickness or annual leave. Our goal is simple: the right support worker in the right flat, every shift.
Why Choose Recruiting Today?
🎯 Sector-Specific Knowledge
We live and breathe UK care recruitment. Our consultants understand NVQ levels, CQC standards, safeguarding, dementia care specialisms and the realities of residential and supported living work.
📋 Strong Understanding of UK Care Standards
CQC in England, Care Inspectorate in Scotland, CIW in Wales, RQIA in Northern Ireland — we understand the regulatory reality each provider faces and recruit accordingly.
💚 Qualified and Compassionate Candidates
Qualifications matter. But in care, compassion matters just as much. We screen for both — because a technically qualified care assistant without empathy is not a safe placement.
⚡ Fast Response for Urgent Staffing
Care homes can't wait. When sickness hits a weekend rota or a manager resigns without notice, we respond within hours — not days.
🌱 Focus on Long-Term Placement Success
The cheapest placement is one that sticks. We optimise for retention, not just filling shifts — matching culture, commute, shift pattern and personality alongside qualifications. Learn why care providers choose us.
Candidate Screening and Quality Assurance
Every candidate placed by Recruiting Today passes through a structured screening and safeguarding process. We cut no corners here. In a sector where a single bad placement can harm a vulnerable resident, end a provider's CQC registration and ruin careers, robust screening is non-negotiable.
| Screening Stage | What We Do |
|---|---|
| CV Review & Experience Checks | Validate work history, qualifications, care experience and employment gaps |
| DBS / Background Verification | Enhanced DBS checks (PVG in Scotland, AccessNI in Northern Ireland) on every placement |
| Right-to-Work Checks | Passport, visa and share-code verification compliant with UK Home Office requirements |
| Reference Verification | Two professional references called, including most recent care employer |
| Skills Matching | NVQ levels, mandatory training, specialist experience (dementia, learning disability) matched to role |
| Safeguarding Commitment | Values-based interview and professional conduct assessment before placement |
Supporting Employers Across the UK
Recruiting Today partners with care providers of every size — from single-home operators and family-run nursing homes through to multi-site national care groups, supported living franchises and care agencies.
- Helping care homes fill critical vacancies — rapid response for sudden departures, sickness cover, and long-term recruitment gaps
- Assisting supported living providers with reliable staffing — consistent support workers matched to service users and tenancies
- Reducing pressure on in-house hiring teams — we do the sourcing, screening and shortlisting so your managers can focus on care delivery
- Building long-term recruitment partnerships — most of our clients use us repeatedly, year after year, because consistent performance compounds into reliability
We also support healthcare professional recruitment more broadly — if your need extends beyond care staff to allied health roles, you can explore our health professional recruitment service. For contract staffing in specific locations, see contract staffing in Birkenhead or local Milton Keynes jobs.
The Benefits of Specialist Care Recruitment
| Benefit | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| Better staff retention | Right-fit placements stay longer — reducing turnover and training costs |
| Improved care quality | Stable, familiar care teams deliver measurably better resident outcomes |
| Reduced recruitment risk | Thorough screening protects providers from safeguarding failures |
| Faster hiring processes | Pre-built candidate pool means shortlists in hours, not weeks |
| More suitable candidate matches | Sector expertise produces fit-for-purpose hires from day one |
How Our Recruitment Process Works
Step 1: Employer Consultation and Role Briefing
We start with a detailed conversation — understanding the role, the care environment, shift patterns, residents or service users, existing team dynamics and the ideal candidate profile. No cookie-cutter briefs.
Step 2: Candidate Search and Shortlisting
We search our active candidate database, run targeted sourcing where needed, complete screening calls, verify references and DBS status, and prepare a shortlist of suitable care workers matched to your brief.
Step 3: Interviews and Candidate Presentation
We present candidates with full CVs, screening notes and reference summaries. You interview, we coordinate, and we provide feedback in both directions to keep the process moving.
Step 4: Placement and Post-Placement Support
Once a candidate is selected, we coordinate start dates, paperwork and first-day logistics. Post-placement, we check in with both the candidate and employer to resolve any issues before they become problems.
Challenges in Care Recruitment Today
UK care recruitment is genuinely difficult right now — and providers who pretend otherwise are usually the ones quietly struggling. Recruiting Today is open about the challenges and works actively to help providers navigate them.
- National staffing shortages — the UK care sector has carried vacancy rates well above the broader economy for years, squeezing providers at every level
- High turnover in care roles — burnout, pay pressures and alternatives in retail and hospitality continue to pull care staff away
- Compliance and safeguarding requirements — the bar for thorough screening rises every year, and rightly so
- The need for flexible and responsive hiring — care isn't 9-to-5, so recruitment can't be either
- Balancing speed with quality — the temptation to fill a shift with the nearest available warm body is real, and resisting it is part of our job
Live UK Care Jobs Available
Current temporary, contract and permanent care vacancies across the Recruiting Today network. All roles pay above national minimum wage and are suitable for qualified, DBS-checked care workers.
| Role | Description | Hourly Rate | Apply |
|---|---|---|---|
| Care Assistant — UK Care Homes | Day-to-day personal care in residential settings | £12.50 – £15.00 | Apply |
| Senior Carer — Care Home | NVQ 3 senior carer leading shifts and care plans | £14.00 – £17.50 | Apply |
| Residential Care Manager | Registered manager role for UK care home | £18.00 – £28.00 | Apply |
| Support Worker — Supported Living | Person-centred support in independent living | £13.00 – £16.00 | Apply |
| Healthcare Professional — Pre-Screened | Wider healthcare roles across UK services | Competitive | Apply |
| Care Jobs — Milton Keynes | Local care jobs in and around Milton Keynes | £12.50 – £16.00 | Apply |
| Contract Staffing — Birkenhead | Care contract staffing for Birkenhead services | £12.50 – £17.00 | Apply |
| Night Carer — UK Care Homes | Waking night carer, medication-trained preferred | £13.50 – £16.50 | Apply |
| Dementia Care Assistant | Specialist dementia unit care assistant | £13.00 – £15.50 | Apply |
| Carer Agency Roles | Full carer opportunities across our network | £12.50 – £17.50 | Apply |
Case Studies
Case Study 1: Emergency Residential Care Manager Placement for a Midlands Care Home
Client: 48-bed residential care home, Midlands | Sector: Residential care | Timeline: 8 working days
The Challenge: A Midlands-based 48-bed residential care home's registered manager resigned unexpectedly with two weeks' notice, seven weeks before a scheduled CQC inspection. The home had no credible internal succession option. Losing the registered manager status — even temporarily — risked regulatory action, family concerns and potential admissions freeze from social services.
The Solution: Recruiting Today was engaged on a Monday morning. By Wednesday we had four residential care manager candidates — all with NVQ Level 5 qualifications, live CQC inspection experience and verified references — in front of the operations director. Interviews ran Thursday and Friday. The selected candidate started her new role eight working days after initial brief, with CQC registered manager application submitted in parallel.
Outcomes:
- ✅ New residential care manager in post within 8 working days of initial enquiry
- ✅ CQC registered manager status transition handled smoothly
- ✅ "Good" rating maintained at the CQC inspection six weeks later
- ✅ Manager still in post 18 months later — retention success, not just placement success
- ✅ Estimated £35,000 saved versus interim-manager rates over the same period
Case Study 2: Block-Booked Care Assistants for a Supported Living Provider
Client: North West supported living provider | Sector: Supported living | Timeline: Rolling 12-month partnership
The Challenge: A North West supported living provider running 14 tenancies across three towns was spending excessively on ad-hoc agency shifts, with a rotating cast of unfamiliar support workers disrupting service users and failing their care plan goals around consistency and trust-building. They needed reliable staffing with continuity — not an endless turnover of different faces.
The Solution: Recruiting Today partnered on a block-booked staffing model: a dedicated pool of 18 support workers matched specifically to that provider's service users, tenancy locations and shift patterns. Each worker received service user-specific briefings before first shift. Rota coverage was managed jointly to ensure the same small group of workers served the same tenancies consistently.
Outcomes:
- ✅ 73% reduction in ad-hoc agency spend across 12 months
- ✅ Service user incident reports dropped 42% as continuity improved
- ✅ 85% of block-booked support workers retained through the full year
- ✅ Independent care plan reviews noted measurable progress across 11 of 14 service users
- ✅ Partnership extended for a further 24 months after initial year
What Care Providers Say About Team Recruiting Today
"When our registered manager resigned six weeks out from a CQC inspection, we thought we were in serious trouble. Team Recruiting Today had four solid residential care manager candidates in front of us within 48 hours and we had the right person in post inside two weeks. She's still with us and we kept our 'Good' rating. Honestly — they saved the home."
— Margaret H., Operations Director, Midlands Care Home Group
"We run supported living across three towns and the usual agency model was destroying the continuity our service users need. Team Recruiting Today built us a block-booked pool of 18 support workers who actually get to know the people they support. Incident reports dropped, care plans progressed, and our agency spend fell by almost three-quarters."
— Daniel W., Service Manager, North West Supported Living Provider
"I've worked with Team Recruiting Today as a senior carer for nearly two years across three different care homes. What stands out is that they actually listen. They match me to homes where my dementia experience is useful and where the shift pattern works for my family. Best care recruitment agency I've ever been with."
— Aisha K., Senior Carer, West Yorkshire
"As a family-run nursing home we can't compete with big groups on pay, so recruitment has always been hard. Team Recruiting Today gets it — they match us with care assistants and senior carers who actually want our kind of environment. Retention has improved substantially and our residents notice the familiar faces. Couldn't ask for more from a care recruitment partner."
— Robert P., Owner, Independent Nursing Home, South West
Frequently Asked Questions
What care roles does Recruiting Today recruit for?
We recruit care assistants, senior carers, support workers, residential care managers, deputy managers, night carers, dementia specialists and nursing home care staff for UK care homes, nursing homes and supported living services nationwide.
Do you supply DBS-checked care workers?
Yes. Every candidate we place has an enhanced DBS check (PVG in Scotland, AccessNI in Northern Ireland), alongside right-to-work verification, reference checks and experience validation. No exceptions.
How fast can you fill an urgent care home vacancy?
For temporary care assistants and senior carers, we typically mobilise within 24 to 72 hours, often faster for urgent overnight cover. Residential care manager permanent placements usually take 1 to 3 weeks depending on qualification and location requirements.
Do you cover the whole UK?
Yes. Recruiting Today places care staff across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — including London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast, Milton Keynes, Birkenhead and the wider UK.
Do you place permanent care staff or only temporary?
Both. We offer temporary, contract, temp-to-perm and permanent care placements. Many clients use our temp-to-perm route to trial candidates on shift before committing to permanent contracts.
Can you help supported living providers specifically?
Yes. Supported living is a core area of focus for Recruiting Today. We match support workers to service users with varying support needs, run block-booked continuity models, and understand the person-centred philosophy supported living requires.
How do I register as a care candidate?
Visit our all jobs page or contact page. Share your care experience, NVQ level, DBS status and availability, and we'll match you to suitable care assistant, senior carer or support worker roles.
Ready to Hire Care Staff — or Find Your Next Care Role?
Recruiting Today is your trusted UK care recruitment partner — for care homes, nursing homes and supported living providers nationwide.
Conclusion — Your Trusted Care Recruitment Partner
Care is a human business. Every placement affects a real resident, a real service user, a real family. Recruiting Today exists to raise the standard of UK care recruitment — matching care assistants, senior carers and residential care managers to the care homes and supported living providers where they will do their best work and stay the longest. That's the work. That's the whole job.
Key takeaways: Recruiting Today is a specialist UK care recruitment agency supplying care assistants, senior carers and residential care managers to care homes, nursing homes and supported living services across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Our screening covers DBS, references, qualifications and values-based interview. We support permanent, temporary and urgent staffing needs, with particular expertise in continuity-of-care models for both residential and supported living settings. Ready to discuss your care staffing needs? Contact Recruiting Today today.