Sometimes reaching out for support can be hard. We're here to listen and help however we can.

Once we hear from you, we will contact you to find out about your situation and let you know whether or not we'll be able to support you.

We'll then arrange a visit from one of our Team Starters, who will meet with you to chat about the support you would like and learn what's important to you.

Our Teams are at the heart of how we work co-operatively. If you are the one getting support, you have ownership of a Team that you choose the members of.

This means that your Team includes paid workers, family members, friends - anyone you want involved with your support.

This creates resilient, committed, consistent support where everyone can get to know each other and work together, sharing out tasks and responsibilities fairly.

All of our care and support workers go through a full vetting and selection process, which involves checking identity, references and qualifications as well as a Disclosure and Barring Service check and a face-to-face interview.

A Team Starter will help with the introductions and arranging trial support sessions with new members of your team. They will also help with sharing out responsibilities, which is the magic ingredient to enabling our Teams to be ‘self-managing’.

Should any issues come up whilst your team is starting up, your Team Starter is there to find a solution.

As a co-operative, we are different: we are owned by the people who give and receive support, and our focus is on running sustainably, not maximising profit. After two months of receiving support, you can join Equal Care as a Member, making you an owner of your co-op as well as your Team.

We are a Real Living Wage Employer and we don’t mess about with things like travel time and holiday. Our employed workers are paid for being at work, regardless of whether they are giving support or travelling, training, or on holiday.

Many of our workers choose to be independent, meaning they have control over their hours, their fees and who they work with. We never use zero-hour contracts.

Our way of working is designed to funnel as much of the hourly rate direct to our workers as humanly possible, whilst remaining affordable for those we support.