Home Care in Burnley

Burnley has 32 CQC registered home care agencies. 18 are rated Good, 1 Requires improvement, and 13 have not yet been rated. 12 of the 32 were last inspected more than three years ago.

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

What home care in Burnley involves and what to look for

Home care ranges from a single short call each morning to several visits a day, and in some cases live in support. Because the work takes place in someone's own house, with nobody else watching, reliability and continuity matter more than anything a brochure can promise. The questions worth asking are mostly about how an agency behaves on a difficult day rather than a straightforward one.

Working out what support is needed

Start with the practical shape of the week: what time help is needed, how long each visit should last and exactly what it has to cover. Personal care, prompting with medication, preparing meals, shopping and companionship are all common requests, but agencies differ in how they handle memory loss, moving and handling, or a relative who is reluctant to let anyone in at first. Ask how many different carers would normally attend over a fortnight, because a rotating cast unsettles most people and defeats much of the point. Ask too what the agency does when a regular carer is on leave or off sick.

What the inspection record shows

Every rating rests on five separate judgements, covering whether a service is safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led. Eighteen agencies on this list are rated Good and twelve have not yet been inspected, so for a good part of the list you will be relying on your own questions rather than on a published report. Where a service sits at Requires Improvement, read exactly what the inspectors found and ask the manager what has changed since. Check the date of any report as well, since a small agency can look quite different a year or two on from an inspection.

Getting an assessment and sorting out the funding

Care at home is charged by the hour or by the visit, which makes the arithmetic easier to follow than residential fees, though the route to public funding is much the same.

Asking for a care needs assessment

Anyone who appears to need care and support can request an assessment, whatever their savings, and there is no charge for it. It considers personal care, mobility, nutrition, memory, medication and the risks of managing alone, and produces a written record of the support required. Lancashire County Council Adult Social Care carries out that assessment and the financial assessment that decides what public funding contributes. If funding is agreed, ask whether it could be paid as a direct payment, because that generally gives a family more control over which agency is chosen and how visits are arranged.

Understanding the hourly rate

Agencies set their own rates, shaped by the time of day, the length of each call, the skills needed and whether weekends or bank holidays are involved. Ask for the rate in writing, ask what the shortest visit is that the agency will accept, and ask how travel time between calls is treated. Check how quickly a package can be increased if needs change, and what notice each side must give to end it. Where the council is contributing, confirm whether its rate covers the full hourly charge or leaves a difference for the family to meet.

Related searches

• Care Homes in Burnley
• Nursing Homes in Burnley

Home Care near Burnley

• Nelson
• Accrington
• Colne
• Rossendale
• Clitheroe
• Blackburn