Home Care in Bath

Bath has 17 CQC registered home care agencies. 7 are rated Good, 4 Requires improvement, and 6 have not yet been rated. 10 of the 17 were last inspected more than three years ago.

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

What home care in Bath involves and what to look for

The hours matter less than who fills them, which is the first thing most families discover once a package of care begins. A morning call to help someone wash and dress, a visit at lunchtime, perhaps another at bedtime: the shape is simple, the execution is not.

Making sense of a mixed rating picture

Seven agencies here are rated Good, four are rated Requires Improvement and six carry no rating yet. Inspectors write about the things families actually notice: whether visits arrive when promised, whether staff are trained and supervised, whether medicines are recorded correctly and how the office responds when something goes wrong. Where an agency is rated Requires Improvement, read exactly what was found, check the date, and ask the manager what has changed since. Unrated agencies are generally newly registered, so ask how long they have operated locally and who is running them.

Questions that separate one agency from another

Ask how many different carers a person will see over a fortnight, because continuity affects everything from medication to morale. Ask what happens when a regular carer is ill, how late a visit may run before the office telephones, and who is reachable at the weekend. Ask how the care plan is written, how often it is reviewed and whether you can meet the carers before they start. Ask finally how quickly hours can be increased if someone returns from hospital needing more help than before.

Getting assessed and sorting out the funding

The assessment decides what care is considered necessary, and every funding conversation afterwards refers back to it.

The care needs assessment

An assessment is free, is not means tested and belongs to anyone who appears to need care. It examines getting up, washing, dressing, meals, medication, mobility and how someone manages alone in the evening, then results in a support plan setting out the hours considered necessary. Bath and North East Somerset Council Adult Social Care carries out both that assessment and the financial assessment that follows. The relative providing daily support can request a carer's assessment of their own, which sometimes leads to practical help in its own right.

Rates, contributions and direct payments

Home care is charged by the hour or the visit, with higher rates at weekends and on bank holidays. Where the financial assessment finds savings below the national threshold, the council contributes towards the cost, and many people take that contribution as a direct payment so they can choose their own agency. Above the threshold, the arrangement is private. Ask for the full rate card in writing, including travel charges, minimum visit lengths and notice periods, because those details change a weekly total more than the headline hourly rate does. Ask how invoices are presented and how quickly a package can be reduced again if someone recovers, since flexibility in both directions is what makes an arrangement last, and check whether the agency charges for visits cancelled at short notice.

Related searches

• Care Homes in Bath
• Nursing Homes in Bath

Home Care near Bath

• Bradford-on-avon
• Radstock
• Corsham
• Trowbridge