The written terms
These are the terms between Pairwell and the two sides an introduction puts in touch: the household that is hiring, and the carer looking for work. They follow the shape the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 give an agency's terms with a work-seeker, and each clause names the paragraph it follows so that it can be checked. Nothing in those Regulations obliges an agency that charges a carer nothing to agree them — we do anyway, with both sides, before anyone is introduced, and here that is not a promise anybody has to remember. No introduction and no conversation can exist until both agreements are on record.
What you agree to is recorded with the version you were shown. The controls to agree are at the end of this page.
1. Who we are, and what we do
Pairwell acts as an employment agency. We introduce a carer — a work-seeker — to a household that wants to employ them, and the household employs them directly.
We are not an employment business. The carer does not work for us, we do not supply them to a household as our own worker, and we never pay their wages.
EAA 1973 s.13(2) and (3)2. What we do for a carer, and what we never do on their behalf
We publish the profile they write in their own words, show them adverts, carry their applications, ask the people they name for a reference, and put them in touch with a household once both sides have agreed these terms.
We do not act as their agent. We do not negotiate with a household on their behalf, we do not enter into any contract on their behalf, and we are not authorised to receive money on their behalf. What they and a household agree between them — hours, pay, holiday, notice — is theirs to agree, and we are not a party to it.
reg 16(1)(b) and (c)3. What a carer pays: nothing
A carer never pays Pairwell a fee for work-finding. Not to be introduced to a household, not to be seen sooner, not to have a reference chased, not for anything that helps them find work. Charging a work-seeker for work-finding is a criminal offence under section 6 of the Employment Agencies Act 1973, and on this platform it is refused by the database rather than by anybody's memory: no paid plan is capable of carrying a work-finding entitlement.
Because no fee is ever payable by a carer, no refund or rebate can arise, and there is no scale of refunds to set out.
reg 16(1)(d)(i)–(iv); EAA 1973 s.6(1)(a)4. What a household pays
A household pays for the plan it holds, and that plan states what it includes — how many introductions, and what else. Nothing is taken out of what a carer earns, and nothing on this platform is charged to them or deducted from their pay.
5. What we check before anyone is introduced
This is work with children, so reg 22 applies to every introduction we make. Before a carer is introduced to a household we confirm their identity by a one-to-one check, and we record the status and the source of that check — never the contents of anybody's document.
Obtaining references is our duty and not the carer's: the regulation says the agency has obtained them. The carer names people who are not their relatives and who have agreed a reference may be shown to a household; we do the asking and the chasing. Where we cannot obtain two references despite every reasonably practicable step, the introduction may still be made and we tell the household plainly that we could not, and what we did try — which is what reg 22(3) requires of us.
We offer a household copies of any reference the referee agreed could be passed on.
reg 22(2) and (3)6. What we tell each side
Before a carer is offered a position we give them what the household told us about it — who they are, what the work is, where it is, the hours, when it starts and what it pays. Before a household is introduced to a carer we give it what we hold about them, including where a check is missing.
Contact details are released only through an introduction, and a journey is described in minutes and never as a doorstep.
reg 21, with regs 18 and 197. What we do not do
We structure evidence; we do not judge people. Nothing on this platform turns a person into a number, no page puts people in an order of merit, and no claim is presented as checked unless something checked it. Every claim says where it came from: verified against a record, confirmed by a previous employer, or stated by the person and nothing more.
The decision about who to employ is the household's, and it stays the household's.
8. Ending this, and notice
A carer may stop using Pairwell whenever they like. They need give us no notice, and stopping costs them nothing and counts against them in no way. A household may stop in the same way.
Neither of us is required to give the other notice to end this agreement. If we close an account, we tell the person and we say why.
reg 16(1)(e) and (f)9. Changing these terms
These terms carry a version, and your agreement is recorded against the version you were shown. We cannot change the terms you agreed to without your agreement, and we will not make anything you already have conditional on your agreeing to a new version. When the terms change we ask again; until you agree the new version, the version you agreed to is the one that applies between us.
reg 16(6)–(8)10. Your information
What a carer tells us is not disclosed except to a household they are being introduced to, and then only what the Regulations require us to pass on. We keep the records the Regulations require us to keep, for at least the year they specify.
regs 28 and 2911. If something goes wrong
Tell us first: whatever it is, we would rather hear it than have it end here. These Regulations are enforced by the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, and nothing on this page takes away a right you have under them.
Agreeing to these terms
You are reading this signed out, which is how it should be — the terms come before the account. Sign in when you are ready to agree to them.