How does edyn recruit its carers?

Of everything that goes into live-in care, one thing matters more than any other: the carer. This is the person who will share your loved one's home, support them through their days, and become a trusted presence in their life. So it's completely natural, and absolutely right, for families to want to know exactly who that person is, and how they came to be caring for someone they love.

At Edyn, recruiting our carers is one of the most important things we do, and we take it enormously seriously. We're careful, thorough and, frankly, selective, because the people we bring into your family's life set the standard for everything that follows. Here's how we find them.

Real, proven experience

We ask every carer to have a minimum of two years' professional care experience before they can join us. This isn't a first job or a stepping stone for the people who care for your loved one: it's a role for those who already have genuine, hands-on experience and know what excellent care looks like in practice.

That grounding matters. It means our carers arrive with the confidence, judgement and practical know-how that only real experience brings.

References that tell the whole story

Before we create a carer's profile, we take up two professional references and one character reference. The distinction is deliberate.

The professional references confirm someone's track record and the quality of their work. The character reference tells us something just as important: who they are as a person: their warmth, their integrity, their reliability. Because great care calls for both a capable professional and a genuinely good human being, and we make sure we're getting both.

Only once someone has met these standards do we create their profile, the same profile your family will later see when we introduce a potential carer to you.

People who share our values

Skills and experience are essential, but on their own, they're not enough. What truly sets a wonderful carer apart is their heart and their outlook, and so we only take on people who genuinely share Edyn's values.

Chief among these is a real commitment to person-centred care: the belief that care should revolve entirely around the individual: their preferences, their routines, their dignity and their wishes, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. We look for people who instinctively see the person first, and we're simply not willing to compromise on it. It's the difference between someone who does a job and someone who genuinely cares.

Clear, confident communication

Good communication is at the very heart of good care. A carer needs to understand what someone is telling them, respond to their needs, share a conversation, offer reassurance, and coordinate with families and healthcare professionals, often in situations where getting it right really matters.

For that reason, we require our carers to speak and understand good English, so they can communicate clearly and confidently with the people they care for. Being truly understood, and being able to understand in return, is fundamental to feeling safe, comfortable and genuinely cared for.

Thorough checks and proper training

Alongside all of the above, every Edyn carer goes through a rigorous set of checks before they ever set foot in a client's home.

A full and verified work history

We ask every carer for their complete work history, not simply a summary of recent roles. We then verify it through their references, and we ask for any gaps to be properly explained.

It sounds like a small administrative detail, but it is one of the most important safeguards in careful recruitment. Building a full, unbroken picture of where someone has worked, and hearing directly from the people they worked for, is how you confirm that a person is exactly who they say they are.

An enhanced DBS check

If you have not come across one before, a DBS check is a criminal record check carried out by the Disclosure and Barring Service, the government body responsible for helping employers make safer recruitment decisions.

Every Edyn carer holds an enhanced DBS check, which is the highest level of check available and the standard required for anyone working closely with vulnerable adults. Unlike a basic check, an enhanced check reveals spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings, along with any additional information a police force considers relevant. It also checks the person against the adults' barred list, which records anyone prohibited from working with vulnerable adults.

In short, it is the most thorough background check there is, and we would not place a carer without one.

Training that meets and exceeds national standards

Every carer is fully trained by us before they begin, to standards that meet and exceed those set nationally by Skills for Care, the workforce development body for adult social care in England, and by the Care Quality Commission.

That covers the essentials you would expect, including safeguarding, safe moving and handling, medication, infection control, first aid and person-centred care, along with training tailored to specific conditions such as dementia. And it does not stop on day one. Our carers complete regular refresher training, and their practice is supported through supervisions, spot checks and competency assessments, so their skills stay current and sharp throughout their time with us.

Properly insured

This one matters more than families often realise, and it is worth checking with any provider you consider.

Care work carries real responsibility, so our carers are covered by appropriate insurance for the work they do, including public liability cover, which protects against any accidental injury or damage to property, and professional indemnity cover, which protects against claims arising from the care provided. It means that if something ever did go wrong, your family is protected, rather than being left to sort it out yourselves.

This is one of the clearest differences between a fully managed care company and an informal arrangement, where insurance often becomes the family's responsibility to arrange and check.

So by the time a carer arrives at your loved one's door, they have been experienced, referenced, background checked, values checked, trained and insured. Nothing is left to chance.

Why we're so careful

We're deliberately rigorous about all of this for one simple reason: the quality of the care your loved one receives depends entirely on the person providing it. Get the recruitment right, and everything else follows.

It's an approach that's been recognised beyond our own walls, too: it's a big part of what saw us named Best Home Care Employer (London) at the Great British Care Awards 2025. Careful recruitment, thorough training and genuinely valuing our carers all feed into the same thing: exceptional care for the families who trust us.

You can read more about how we then match the right carer to your loved one in our guide to deciding on the right carer for you.

Care you can trust, from people you can trust

When you choose Edyn, you can feel confident that the person caring for your loved one is experienced, thoroughly vetted, properly trained, and, just as importantly, genuinely kind. That's the foundation of everything we do.

To find out more, book a free care advice call, or give us a ring on 020 3970 9900. We'd be glad to tell you more about the wonderful people who make Edyn what it is.