Care Homes in Hartlepool

Hartlepool has 17 CQC registered care homes. 16 are rated Good, 1 Requires improvement. 13 of the 17 were last inspected more than three years ago.

Source: Care Quality Commission register, kept up to date as ratings change.

Weighing Up the Residential Care Homes in Hartlepool

Seventeen homes is a manageable number, small enough to look properly at each one and large enough that a family need not settle for the first place with a room free. The work of shortlisting divides neatly into what can be read at a desk and what can only be learned by walking through the door.

What the inspection ratings do and do not tell you

Sixteen of the homes listed here hold a Good rating from the Care Quality Commission, and one is rated Requires Improvement. A rating condenses several days of observation into a single word, so the report beneath it repays reading. Inspectors write about specific things they saw, such as how medicines were handled, whether care plans reflected the person they described, and how staff responded when someone became distressed. A home rated Requires Improvement may have fixed the exact problem identified, and the report will tell you what that problem was.

Judging a home by being in it

Try to visit around lunchtime, when a home is busiest and hardest to stage. The things worth watching are ordinary: whether staff crouch down to speak to someone in a chair, whether residents look occupied, whether call bells are answered or left ringing. Ask how many carers are on at night, what training the team has had in dementia and end of life care, and what happens when a resident's needs outgrow what the home can offer. Wordsley House, Elwick Grange, Sheraton Court and Greenfield Lodge each appear in the listing with their own profile, and arranging a look around is simply a matter of getting in touch.

Assessments, Funding and What a Place Actually Costs

Deciding where someone should live and deciding how the bill is met are handled separately, and the first of them comes first. A care needs assessment establishes what support is required, and only after that does anyone look at money.

Asking for a care needs assessment

Assessments are free and open to any adult who appears to need help, no matter how much they have in the bank. A practitioner will go through daily life in detail, covering mobility, personal care, eating, medication and how safe someone is on their own, and will produce a written record. Hartlepool Borough Council adult social care is responsible for arranging these assessments and for organising funded support where a person qualifies. Families paying privately often skip this step, which is a pity, because the written outcome is a useful yardstick when comparing what different homes say they can provide.

How fees are worked out

A financial assessment follows the care one, looking at income, pensions, savings and capital to decide what someone can reasonably pay. Full council funding, a partial contribution and paying the whole fee privately are all common outcomes, and where a person's needs are chiefly medical the NHS may fund the placement instead. Weekly fees are not comparable until you know what sits inside them, so ask each home for the figure in writing along with anything billed separately, such as chiropody, hairdressing or trips out. If a top up payment is mentioned, find out who would be paying it and what would happen if that person could no longer afford to.

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