Home Care

For example, you may need help with getting up and getting dressed, help at meal times or other personal care needs that you can no longer manage yourself. This may be as a result of a disability or illness or loss of mobility through advanced age. In most cases, this service is offered to people who would otherwise have to leave their own homes and live in residential care.

Sometimes, help in the home can be arranged for a short period if you’re settling back at home after a stay in hospital, or to give the person caring for you a break from their responsibilities.

You may be required to make a contribution towards the cost of providing Home Care. The amount depends on the outcome of a financial assessment we would ask you to undergo. We won’t begin to provide a home care service until you know about the cost and how to pay. 

Visit our Charging for non-residential Social Services section for further details. 

Assessing your home care needs

Before you can receive help from our home care team, we need to find out more about your circumstances. We call this ‘assessing your needs.’ Finding out more about your situation will help us to make sure that you qualify for the service as well as helping us to provide the most appropriate help for you. If you have someone who helps with your care, their needs can be assessed as well. If you qualify for our help, we will draw up a plan, with you, to meet your care needs.

We know that your circumstances can vary as time goes by. The care plan that has been drawn up to help you can be changed as required to meet your new situation. If you make sure that we know about any changes you are experiencing, we can review the plan as and when necessary to continue to meet your needs.

Information about the Home Care service

Here are a few things you might want to know about the service:

• We aim to deliver services in a flexible and co-ordinated way
• It is planned and delivered to meet individual need
• Home care workers are trained and supervised to make sure they provide a good standard and range of help and support
• You will be informed of the times and days when your home care worker will call on you. If you find that this is not convenient, we may be able to change the arrangements in special cases
• It is not always possible for the same home care worker to call. We will let you know when we have to make changes
• The length of time allocated for the service may vary from time to time. We will try to keep you informed about this
• The service you receive will be reviewed regularly
• Home care workers can give carers a break, safe in the knowledge that capable individuals will take their place

Things that home care cannot do

• Home care workers cannot do jobs that might be dangerous, for instance move heavy furniture, work at height or use electrical equipment that may be faulty
• The service cannot undertake any medical or nursing duties. We can, however, advise you on how you can get this help
• We cannot work in your home in your absence, unless this has been agreed with a supervisor beforehand
• Our home care workers are not allowed to receive gifts or money from you or your family or to buy or borrow anything from you

Your responsibilities

• You can help us to help you. For example, Let us know if your circumstances change. It will help us to make sure that we continue to supply the right service to you
• Please inform us in advance if you are going to be away from home. It will save us a wasted journey and work time
• We advise you to have a home insurance policy that includes cover for minor breakages

Alternative Care Arrangements

There are a number of organisations that provide a similar type of service to our home care provision. Contact our First Response Team who will be able to provide you with a list of independent home care providers.

Contact Home Care Services

If you or someone you care for needs help form Social Services, contact our First Response Team for informal advice or to arrange a care assessment.