Working with NRIC
Directories, platforms and self-employed PA communities play an important role in helping people find independent care.
Supporting Platforms and Partners
At the same time, many are carrying increasing pressure around inconsistent evidence from carers, unclear boundaries around employment status and regulation, growing expectations from families about checks and reassurance, and the risk of drifting into introducer or agency territory.
The National Register of Independent Carers (NRIC) is being developed to support platforms and partners. It is intended to provide clearer guidance on the boundary issues that often sit behind independent care arrangements. This may include practical information on employment status, intermediary activity and CQC boundaries, so that platforms and partners can understand more clearly what NRIC registration does and does not represent.
NRIC is intended to support clearer information and more consistent decisions, not to replace your own model or judgement.
It brings together a core set of baseline checks, maintains that status over time, and makes registration status easier to confirm. It is not a directory, matching service, or placement function.
Working with NRIC is intended to be light-touch. This may include allowing carers to display an NRIC registered marker, including an NRIC ID on profiles, signposting carers to register with NRIC, or using NRIC status as one information signal alongside others you already use. There is no expectation of exclusivity, enforcement or gatekeeping.
NRIC is still being developed. Early engagement helps ensure that what emerges works across existing routes to work, reflects how independent care operates in practice, and does not compete with or distort the wider ecosystem. Early engagement is about shaping fit and boundaries, not signing up to a finished product.
Recognise NRIC
If your organisation is content to recognise NRIC on this basis, please complete the short form below. You can also indicate whether you would like occasional updates as NRIC develops.