Home Care in Birkenhead

Birkenhead has 20 CQC registered home care agencies. 10 are rated Good, 1 Requires improvement, and 9 have not yet been rated. 12 of the 20 were last inspected more than three years ago.

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

Choosing a home care agency in Birkenhead

Nine of the twenty agencies here have not yet been inspected and rated, which shifts a fair amount of the checking onto the family. That is manageable, provided you know what to ask.

Making use of the ratings that exist

Ten agencies are rated Good and one is rated Requires Improvement. Where a rating exists, read the report rather than the grade, since inspectors comment on punctuality, staff training and supervision, medicines records and how the office responds when something goes wrong. Where an agency is rated Requires Improvement, note what was found and how long ago, then ask what has changed. Where no rating exists, ask how long the agency has operated locally, who manages it and whether the people behind it have been inspected elsewhere, because an unrated service is usually new rather than troubled.

The questions that reveal how an agency runs

Ask how many different carers will visit over a fortnight, because continuity matters more than anything else on a brochure. Ask what happens when a regular carer is unwell, how late a visit may run before the office telephones, and who answers the phone on a Sunday evening. Ask how care plans are written and reviewed, whether you can meet the carers before they begin, and how complaints are logged and resolved. Ask finally what the agency turns down, since a provider that accepts every request is often stretched too thin to keep its promises. Ask how travel between visits is planned as well, because an unrealistic rota is the commonest reason a morning call arrives at eleven.

Getting an assessment and arranging the funding

The assessment establishes what care is considered necessary, and the funding conversation follows from it.

The care needs assessment

An assessment is free, is not means tested and is open to anyone who appears to need care. It examines getting up, washing, dressing, meals, medication, moving safely about the house and coping alone in the evening, then results in a support plan setting out the hours considered necessary. Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council Adult Social Care carries out that assessment and the financial assessment that follows it. A relative providing regular support can request a carer's assessment in their own right.

What home care costs and who contributes

Care at home 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 that money can be taken as a direct payment so the household selects its 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, and check whether visits cancelled at short notice are charged for. Ask as well how quickly hours can be increased if someone comes home from hospital needing more help, and how quickly they can be reduced again if matters improve, since that flexibility is what keeps an arrangement affordable.

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