Winter is known to be a particularly stressful time for care workers. You have the added pressure of Christmas and catering for your family, while it’s also a time of year when your clients can be more vulnerable to illness, which means you can, too. To make things a little easier, we want to take a moment to share some caregiver advice in winter that we hope helps.
Viruses and bugs are far more likely to spread during the colder months, so when you’re providing care to vulnerable people, you’ll want to be sure you’re staying healthy and fit to prevent the spread of bugs – and from being unable to work yourself.
In this guide, we’ve created an eleven-point winter checklist for carers to help you provide better care, as well as stay healthy and look after your own well-being.
Above all, make sure you have the correct carer insurance in place to cover you against the hazards of working within social care.
1. Get Your Flu Vaccination
The flu virus kills 11,000 people (and hospitalises even more) every year. Protect yourself and the person you care for by getting yourself booked in, whether you’re a paid carer, PA, or unpaid carer.
The flu jab is also free on the NHS for anyone receiving Carer’s Allowance, and you can get it at your local GP, pharmacies and some hospitals.
You will also be eligible if you are the primary carer for someone who’s otherwise unable to look after themselves.
All adult social care workers, including PAs, are also eligible for a free flu vaccination from your GP practice. If you are asked to provide proof, you’ll simply need to show a letter from your employer if you’re a self-employed care worker, your ID badge, or perhaps a payslip.
2. Stay Warm
This is a simple point that might sound like common sense, but it’s far too easy to leave yourself exposed to illnesses by simply not wrapping up well enough. If you will be spending time outdoors or going from one house to another, it’s important to keep yourself warm.
This is especially important this year as many people are refraining from turning the heating on as often in order to keep costs down amidst the cost of living crisis.
A few handy tips for staying wrapped up warm include wearing several loose layers of clothing. This is generally more effective than one big chunky layer as the trapped air in between the layers helps keep you warm while wicking away sweat.
Now might be time to dust off the thermal underwear and those woolly socks you bought last year too!
With many households worried about the rising cost of energy bills, find out if there are any energy bill discounts you may be eligible for.
PA & Carers Insurance
Cover available for:
- Self-Employed Carers & PAs
- Individual Employers
- Carer & PA Businesses
- Direct Payments
- Domiciliary Carers
- Home Employment Cover (for those that employ carers in their home)
3. Get Your Boiler Serviced
Boilers need servicing once a year by a Gas Safe registered engineer, so a precautionary check in the run-up to the winter before you switch on your heating is a sensible move.
Visit the Gas Safe website for more details.
4. Make An Emergency Plan
Have you ever considered what would happen to the person you cared for if an accident or emergency happened over the winter period? Now is the time.
Having a contingency plan so the person you care for is supported again as soon as possible will put your (and their) mind at rest. This guide to creating a plan for the person you care for is a good place to start.
This could include what kind of respite care to put in place, things carers should know about your client (our free client booklets are useful for this), and any emergency contacts.
5. Stockpile Supplies
Make sure you have enough food supplies and medication to see you through a few days in case bad weather restricts your mobility and means you have to stay inside.
You can’t go far wrong with having a few frozen meals in the freezer, just in case! This is also true if you or the person you care for (if you live in the same home) falls ill and can’t go out much.
6. Winter Fuel Payment
To qualify for the winter fuel payment, you need to be born on or before September 21st, 1959. You must also have lived in the UK during the qualifying week of September 15-21, 2025.
The vast majority of those eligible will receive an automatic payment accompanied by a letter of confirmation during October or November. The amount will be between £200 and £300, but if you earn over £35,000 per year, the payment will be recovered through your income tax.
To receive the full amount of £300, someone living at the address the fuel payment relates to must be aged 80 or over. All other households will get the £200 winter fuel payment.
These payments are tax-free and do not affect any other benefits you may be receiving. Check our full guide to energy discounts you might be eligible for.
7. Cold Weather Payments
If the temperature in your area is recorded as, or forecast to be, zero degrees Celsius or below over 7 days in a row, you may be entitled to cold weather payments. The award level is currently set at £25 per household, per 7-day period.
8. Apply for the Warm Home Discount
The Warm Home Discount is a government-funded payment that goes towards the extra costs of heating your home through the winter. Its aim is to reduce fuel poverty in lower-income households, and recipients can get up to £150 off their electricity bill between October 2025 and March 2026
For more information, visit the Warm Home Discounts page on the gov.uk website.
9. Focus On Your Five A Day
No matter how busy you may be, there is always merit in taking a couple of minutes to fuel your body the right way. With less sunshine and much less vitamin D at this time of year, it’s easy to forget all of the little natural steps that you can take to feel your best.
Adding a salad to your lunch plate, snacking on nuts for healthy oils, and having a smoothie in the morning could all help you to protect your health this winter. Ideal if you want to take back control of the way you feel, regardless of what the weather is doing out there.
10. Plan Your Time Off
Finding the time and space to take time off for Christmas as a care worker may sound like an impossible task, but it’s certainly a vital one. Being a carer is an emotionally and physically demanding role, and one that deserves to be celebrated.
By planning ahead and working with those closest to you, you should aim to schedule in some time off when practical. Doing so is a chance to recharge your batteries and ensure that you can deliver the same consistently high standard of care that you pride yourself on.
11. Stay Insured
Carers insurance can provide cover if you are injured or ill and unable to work, as well as a number of other key elements of cover.
Our Carers Insurance and Personal Assistant Insurance provide Employers Liability Insurance, Legal Expenses, Public Liability and more, giving you the peace of mind that you’re covered in the event of unexpected incidents.
Winter can be a difficult time for many reasons, but hopefully the checklist above helps you to keep yourself and those around you healthy and secure this winter!
