Purpose: The objective is to explore how the professionalisation of care jobs is constructed in the public and private sectors and to discuss whether the instruments used by public and private care providers contribute to solve the ambiguities linked to this type of work and which are the consequences for caregivers. Design/methodology/approach: This paper compares the way in which the professionalisation of home care services for elderly people is achieved in the public and private sectors in the region of Brussels. The findings are based on the analysis of interviews with professional actors working in the care sector in Brussels. Findings: The analysis shows that there is no agreement over the best way of professionalising home care services for the elderly and that the efforts made by public and private providers are profoundly different. Originality/value: The divergencies are not only the result of the strict institutional framework to which public care providers are bound, in opposition to the relative freedom of the private sector, but they also derive from a different understanding of care work. ; SCOPUS: ar.j ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published