In short and in plain language
Some care services promise help around the clock on their site. This promise must match the duty roster.
This post shows how to describe night care honestly. The key is the difference between being present and being on call.
Name your service hours and how people reach you at night. Also say in which area this applies.
The post also explains what you can write about costs and legal points on your site.
We check your pages line by line and add the missing details.
Hardly any sentence appears as often on the websites of home care services as the promise to be there around the clock. It answers exactly the question relatives ask at three in the morning, and it is frequently the reason a contact form gets filled in at all. The promise, however, rests on three conditions that are missing from most pages: the working hours of the care staff, the difference between presence and on-call duty, and the question of which of those hours the long-term care insurance fund actually pays for. This article shows how to describe continuous care so that the description holds up against the duty roster and the billing rules without the page losing its effect. The route to that runs through four details missing from almost every existing site: shift times with clock hours, the form of night-time availability, the area in which it applies, and the costs that go beyond the benefit paid by the care insurance fund.
Key takeaways
- Demand is substantial: in December 2023 close to 5.7 million people (Statistisches Bundesamt) were classified as in need of long-term care, and 1.1 million of them lived in private households and were cared for with or by home care services.
- Daily working time is eight hours and may rise to ten hours only with compensation under the German Working Hours Act (Arbeitszeitgesetz). A page suggesting the continuous presence of one fixed carer describes a duty roster that rarely exists in that form.
- After a shift, eleven hours of uninterrupted rest apply (Arbeitszeitgesetz). In care settings, shortening and on-call duty are regulated but tied to conditions, so the difference between presence and availability belongs on the service page.
- Misleading advertising is separately prohibited in the health sector (Heilmittelwerbegesetz), and availability is explicitly one of the essential characteristics that may not be misrepresented (Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb).
- Benefits in kind from the care insurance fund range from 796 euros to 2,299 euros per month (Sozialgesetzbuch XI). Anyone who wants a qualified nurse in the house overnight pays the difference privately, and that belongs visibly on the page.
What around the clock promises on a website
The demand is undisputed. In December 2023, close to 5.7 million people (Statistisches Bundesamt) in Germany were in need of long-term care within the meaning of the care insurance legislation. Around 86 percent of them, that is 4.9 million people (Statistisches Bundesamt), were cared for at home, and 1.1 million people in need of care (Statistisches Bundesamt) lived in private households and were looked after together with or entirely by outpatient care and support services. Relatives who experience these figures as everyday life arrive on the website with one very concrete question: who is there if something happens at night? Which further questions this audience brings along is shown in the article on the content relatives look for on a care website, where the question about the night ranks high.
The sentence "we are there for you around the clock" appears to answer that question. In legal terms it answers it too well. Advertising in the health sector is subject to its own prohibition of misleading statements (Heilmittelwerbegesetz), and independently of that, the availability of a service explicitly counts among the essential characteristics about which a commercial practice may not deceive (Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb). A statement therefore does not have to be false to become actionable: it is enough that it creates an impression in the reader that the business does not deliver in daily practice. How mandatory disclosures and promotional language interact is described in detail in imprint and health advertising rules on a care website.
The figures at a glance
The Working Hours Act draws the first line
Daily working time may not exceed eight hours and can be extended to ten hours if an average of eight hours per working day is maintained within six calendar months or 24 weeks (Arbeitszeitgesetz). After the end of the daily working time, an uninterrupted rest period of at least eleven hours applies (Arbeitszeitgesetz). In facilities for the treatment, care and support of people, this rest period may be shortened by one hour if every reduction within a calendar month is compensated by another rest period of at least twelve hours (Arbeitszeitgesetz). These three figures determine what a duty roster can look like, and therefore what a page may state about presence. What your service actually offers therefore belongs in differentiated form on the services page rather than in a single promotional sentence.
- Eight hours of maximum daily working time, extension to ten hours only with compensation (Arbeitszeitgesetz) - continuous care therefore needs at least three shifts per day.
- Eleven hours of rest between two assignments (Arbeitszeitgesetz); in care settings a reduction by one hour is permitted if compensation to twelve hours follows.
- Night time is the period from 23:00 to 06:00, and night work is any work covering more than two hours of that night period (Arbeitszeitgesetz).
- For night workers the same limit of eight hours applies; the extension to ten hours is tied to a shorter compensation period (Arbeitszeitgesetz).
- Anyone who knows these limits shows the actual shift structure on the website instead of a blanket promise: early shift, late shift, night shift and on-call duty.
On-call duty is not the same as presence
By way of derogation from the standard rest period, facilities for the treatment, care and support of people may compensate at other times for reductions of the rest period caused by call-outs during on-call duty, provided those reductions amount to no more than half of the rest period (Arbeitszeitgesetz). This construction permits a great deal, yet it does not change the fact that on-call duty is a different promise from presence. In 2021 the Federal Labour Court ruled that foreign carers posted to a private household in Germany are entitled to the statutory minimum wage, not only for full work but also for on-call service (Bundesarbeitsgericht). Anyone who creates the impression of continuous presence on the website is therefore describing a model that costs more than the price on the page suggests. This applies with particular force to intensive care; what hospitals and referral partners expect to find there is set out in intensive care websites for referral partners.
Presence
A carer is on site and working. These hours count in full as working time and are subject to the limit of eight hours per working day (Arbeitszeitgesetz).
On-call duty
The carer stays reachable at a location of their own choosing. Call-outs up to half of the rest period can be compensated at other times (Arbeitszeitgesetz).
Emergency line
A staffed phone number takes the call and decides on the assignment. That is availability, and not yet a promise of a qualified nurse within minutes.
What the care insurance fund pays for and what it does not
The second limit is funding. The entitlement to home nursing assistance covers benefits in kind with a total value of 796 euros per calendar month at care level 2 and rises via 1,497 euros and 1,859 euros to 2,299 euros at care level 5 (Sozialgesetzbuch XI). These amounts cover scheduled visits, not continuous presence. Anyone who wants a qualified nurse in the house overnight pays the difference privately. In our experience, relatives only notice this during the consultation and perceive it as a contradiction of what the website led them to expect. How to present the route to a care level in understandable form is shown by the guide page on applying for a care level.
- 796 euros to 2,299 euros in monthly benefits in kind depending on the care level (Sozialgesetzbuch XI) - the frame for scheduled visits, not for permanent presence.
- Respite care for a maximum of eight weeks per calendar year (Sozialgesetzbuch XI) if the private carer is unavailable.
- A joint annual amount of 3,539 euros for respite care and short-term care (Sozialgesetzbuch XI).
- A relief amount of up to 131 euros per month (Sozialgesetzbuch XI) - the details are set out in the 2026 care relief budget on guide pages.
Misleading claims start with the word availability
A commercial practice is misleading if it contains untrue statements or other statements liable to deceive about the essential characteristics of a service; availability is named explicitly as one such characteristic (Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb). In the health sector the prohibition of misleading statements in the German advertising act applies on top of that, which assumes a misleading claim in particular where procedures or treatments are ascribed effects they do not have (Heilmittelwerbegesetz). Administrative offences under that act can be punished with a fine of up to 50,000 euros, and in the remaining cases up to 20,000 euros (Heilmittelwerbegesetz). More relevant in practice than the fine is the formal warning letter from a competitor or an association. Anyone quoting prices is therefore better off tying them to the actual service; how that works through a care cost calculator is described elsewhere.
- Check every time statement: does it say "reachable", "on assignment" or "on site"? The three terms describe three different promises.
- Check every location statement: does night care apply across the entire catchment area or in a narrower core area?
- Check every response time: a figure in minutes is a promise that has to be provable in a dispute.
- Check every statement about people: "your fixed primary carer" does not hold for continuous care, because eight hours is the standard limit (Arbeitszeitgesetz).
- Check every price statement: benefit amounts under the German Social Code XI and privately borne shares belong in separate lines.
Three wordings and what they trigger
The difference between a defensible and an actionable statement rarely lies in the tone, but in the precision. The comparison below takes three sentences that appear across many care service websites and sets out what relatives read into them and what the business actually commits to. The gap between the middle and the right-hand column is precisely the risk at stake. The wider it turns out to be, the more often a first consultation ends in disappointment that a more precise sentence on the website would have prevented. The correction is therefore not a retreat but an investment in the quality of incoming enquiries.
| Wording on the website | How relatives read it | What it actually commits to |
|---|---|---|
| "There for you around the clock" | A carer is in the house at every hour | As a rule a staffed phone number and an on-call rota |
| "Your fixed primary carer looks after you" | The same person comes to every appointment | One primary carer plans and accompanies, several colleagues drive the visits |
| "Night service included" | The night hours are settled with the care insurance fund | Scheduled night visits are billed, permanent presence is privately borne |
The right-hand column is not an admission but the actual selling point: it shows that the business knows its own processes. In our experience, relatives choose the service that describes the night in concrete terms rather than the one with the largest promise. The same pattern applies to other services that need explaining; how it looks for cognitive impairment is set out in explaining dementia care clearly on your website.
How to describe night care cleanly
A robust description needs four details: the shift times, the form of night-time availability, the area and the cost consequences. Night time within the meaning of the act is the period from 23:00 to 06:00, and night work is any work covering more than two hours of that night period (Arbeitszeitgesetz). Picking up this definition on the page turns a promotional claim into a verifiable statement. For intensive and ventilation care, where continuous presence genuinely is the standard case, this applies all the more: there the promise can be delivered and should therefore be separated explicitly from general outpatient care, as on the page for a care website for intensive care.
- State the shift times: early shift, late shift and night shift with clock hours instead of a blanket formula.
- Name the night-time availability: on-call duty with a staffed number, a scheduled night visit or continuous presence - exactly one of these three forms.
- Frame the response window honestly: "as a rule within 60 minutes in the inner city area" is more defensible than a figure in minutes without an area.
- Show the cost consequences: benefits in kind of up to 2,299 euros per month (Sozialgesetzbuch XI), and privately borne shares beyond that.
- Name the limits: which services are not provided at night and from what point the emergency services are responsible.
These sentences belong on the test bench
The page structure that carries the promise
The statement about the night does not belong in the hero area but on a level of its own. A service page that describes early shift, late shift and night shift separately answers more questions than a slogan and at the same time supplies text that search engines can classify thematically. Which pages a home care service needs for this and how they relate to one another is described in the structure of a care website. The order matters: first the shift structure, then availability, then costs. Starting with the costs loses readers who first want to know whether anyone comes at all.
- An overview page titled "care around the clock" with the three shifts and on-call duty as a section of its own.
- A section titled "what happens at night" covering the sequence from the phone number to the visit on site.
- A section on cost consequences with the benefit amounts and the privately borne share.
- A contact route that works at night: a phone number placed prominently, plus a form for everything that can wait, or an online appointment booking for care consultations.
- A note on the responsibility of the emergency services in acute cases - this protects both the business and the relatives.
Anyone reviewing an existing site finds the blanket promise, in our experience, in four to six places: home page, service page, contact page and careers page. The careers page is the underestimated case, because the same wording there holds out a working pattern to applicants that the duty roster does not support; how to separate the two cleanly is set out in staff recruiting through the care website. If you are touching these places anyway, it is worth looking at the care website as a whole, because structure, language and legal texts are connected.
Sources and Studies
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