Home Care in Bolton

Bolton has 63 CQC registered home care agencies. 39 are rated Good, 1 Outstanding, 2 Requires improvement, and 21 have not yet been rated. 34 of the 63 were last inspected more than three years ago.

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

Planning and paying for care at home in Bolton

Support at home tends to follow something ordinary rather than dramatic. Getting washed and dressed has become a struggle, tablets are being missed, or the relative who has quietly been filling the gap can no longer keep it up. Whoever ends up providing the visits, the route into funded support runs through two stages, and knowing which comes first saves a good deal of frustration.

The care needs assessment

Adult social care at Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council Adult Social Care must assess anyone who appears to need care and support, free of charge and with no savings test. A practitioner works through washing, dressing, meals, medication, continence, mobility and the risks of leaving any of it unmet, alongside what family are already doing unpaid. The result is a written record of eligible needs and a support plan describing how many visits are required, at what times and for what purpose. Anyone providing regular unpaid care can ask for a carer's assessment at the same time, which often uncovers practical help nobody had mentioned.

What it costs and who meets it

A financial assessment follows separately, weighing capital and income against limits set nationally. Above the upper capital limit a person arranges and funds their own care; below it the council contributes while the person pays an assessed amount and keeps a protected sum for living costs. Funded support may be commissioned by the council or taken as a direct payment, which gives the person control over which agency attends and when, in exchange for a little administration. Hourly rates shift with early starts, evenings, weekends and bank holidays, so ask for a written schedule rather than a headline figure. Where the need is essentially clinical, ask whether NHS continuing healthcare should be considered first.

Choosing a provider in Bolton and what to check

Judging an agency is harder than judging a building, because there is nothing to walk round. What you are really assessing is whether the right person turns up at the right time and works the same way each week.

Making use of the published record

Thirty eight agencies here are rated Good and one is rated Outstanding, which is a solid base for a shortlist. Two carry a Requires Improvement rating, and those reports are worth opening rather than using as a filter, because the concern may sit in paperwork or may be something people receiving visits notice daily. Twenty one agencies have no published rating, so for them the enquiry shifts to how long the service has operated locally, who the registered manager is and what they did before. Check inspection dates as well as grades, since an agency can change character quickly when its management changes.

Questions that reveal how an agency really works

Ask how many different carers a person sees across a fortnight, and whether the same team covers weekends and bank holidays. Find out the shortest visit accepted, how arrival times are agreed and what happens when the regular carer is off sick. Check the training staff hold for the conditions involved and how medication is recorded at each call. Before anything is signed, ask how the care plan is reviewed, how concerns are raised and what notice each side must give.

Related searches

• Care Homes in Bolton
• Nursing Homes in Bolton

Home Care near Bolton

• Leigh
• Bury
• Eccles
• Wigan
• Salford
• Darwen
• Heywood
• Chorley