Need a hand
✳︎
Help at home
✳︎
Light housework
✳︎
Companionship
✳︎
Shopping
Need a hand ✳︎ Help at home ✳︎ Light housework ✳︎ Companionship ✳︎ Shopping
Find help at home in Wells and nearby communities
A micro-provider is a small, independent business offering paid help or support. Services vary between providers and may include companionship, shopping, household tasks or personal care.
WCN can provide information about local micro-providers and ways to contact them.
WCN’s role
What WCN does
We provide information and connections to independent micro-providers. With your consent, we may circulate a brief request to a broad local provider group as a neutral information-sharing step. Providers respond directly to you or your lawful representative.
What you arrange directly
You or your lawful representative choose the provider, check their suitability, agree the support and costs, and manage the arrangement.
WCN does not deliver, arrange or manage care. We do not select, match, shortlist, allocate, employ, approve, recommend, vet or guarantee providers, or assess their suitability for your individual needs. We do not organise care rotas, arrange cover or supervise providers. Participation in the network is not an endorsement.
If you need personal care
Personal care includes help with activities such as washing, dressing and using the toilet. Some individual micro-providers work under an exemption from Care Quality Commission registration, where they are contracted directly by the person or their lawful representative and work wholly under that person’s direction and control.
This differs from a CQC-registered care service. You or your lawful representative must be willing and able to direct, manage and review the arrangement. This includes explaining what support is needed, agreeing changes and planning for sickness, absence or gaps.
You should ask questions and check the provider’s references, experience, DBS and insurance documents before deciding whether to proceed.
WCN cannot take on responsibility for managing your care. If you need a managed care service, a regulated care provider or another managed support option may be more appropriate.
How it works
Read the information, including the responsibility and safeguarding notice below, to understand whether this option suits your circumstances.
Request information about local micro-provider options from WCN.
Decide whether to share a request. If you want WCN to circulate a brief request to a broad local provider group, we will explain what would be shared and obtain your consent first.
Contact providers directly. We will share the contact details of all micro-providers who have expressed interest in your request, without filtering or selection. You or your lawful representative decide whom to contact and whether to proceed.
Choose, check and agree the arrangement directly with your chosen provider, including services, availability, prices and written terms.
Manage and review your support, including what happens if the provider is unavailable.
Important responsibility and safeguarding notice
In this notice, “the Network” means Wells Community Network.
The Network provides information only. With your consent, it may circulate a request to a broad local provider group as a neutral information-sharing step. Information about available providers will be presented to you without filtering or selection. Providers respond directly to you or your lawful representative. The Network does not act as a care broker, employment agency, employment business or matching service. It does not select, match, shortlist, allocate, place, recommend, endorse, supervise, inspect, regulate or guarantee any provider, or assess whether a provider is suitable for your individual needs. Any agreement is made directly between you and the provider. You are responsible for deciding whether to proceed, making any checks you consider necessary, and agreeing the terms of support. Serious safeguarding, unsafe practice or suspected illegal care concerns should be reported through Somerset Council routes. A network may separately consider whether a provider remains on its local list, in line with its agreed membership process, but it should not investigate or resolve serious concerns itself.
Sending an enquiry requests information from WCN. It does not book care or create an agreement with a provider.
Prefer to phone? Call our helpline on 01749 467079, between 9am and 2pm. Our coordinator will aim to respond to your enquiry on the next working day.