Home Care in Canterbury

Canterbury has 29 CQC registered home care agencies. 9 are rated Good, and 20 have not yet been rated. 9 of the 29 were last inspected more than three years ago.

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

What Home Care in Canterbury Involves and What to Look For

Support delivered at home rests on a straightforward trade. A worker arrives, does the things that have become difficult, and leaves the rest of the day much as it was, which is why so many families try this route before considering a move. Visits are bought in blocks of time, from a single short call to get someone up and dressed through to four visits a day, and the pattern can be widened or trimmed as needs shift.

Matching the visits to real life

Be specific about when help is actually needed rather than accepting a standard slot. Morning and bedtime calls are the ones most in demand, so ask how closely an agency can commit to a time and what happens when a worker runs late. Ask how many different people would come in a fortnight, because continuity is the single thing families most often wish they had pressed on. Find out too whether the agency can cover weekends and bank holidays without a drop in service. Where a relative needs two workers for safe moving and handling, confirm that the agency can reliably send a pair rather than one person who then improvises.

Judging quality when most providers are unrated

Nine providers here are rated Good, among them Seniors Helping Seniors, Kent Home Care Limited, Rusko Care Ltd and Expertise Homecare Ashford and Canterbury. Eighteen carry no published rating yet, so for the greater part of this list there is no inspection judgement to lean on. That makes your own questions the main evidence. Ask how long the agency has been operating locally, how staff are recruited and trained, whether workers are employed or self employed, and how the agency checks that visits have actually happened. Ask for the name of the registered manager and how to reach them when something goes wrong.

Getting an Assessment and Sorting Out the Funding

Requesting the care needs assessment

Anyone in Canterbury who appears to need care and support has a right to an assessment, and Kent County Council is the body that carries it out. The assessment records what the person can manage alone, where they need help and what risks follow if that help is missing. A financial assessment comes afterwards and compares capital and income against the national means test limits. If a relative has been providing the care so far, ask for a carer's assessment at the same time, since it considers their needs rather than the person being cared for.

Paying for visits

Home care is charged by the hour or by the visit, with higher rates at weekends and on bank holidays. Where a person qualifies for council support, the funding can often be taken as a direct payment, which lets a family choose the agency themselves rather than accept an allocated one. Anyone above the means test limits arranges and pays privately, in which case it is worth comparing hourly rates and asking whether travel time or mileage is added. Ask any agency for a written schedule of charges before agreeing to start, and check what notice either side has to give.

Related searches

• Care Homes in Canterbury
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Home Care near Canterbury

• Herne Bay
• Whitstable
• Sandwich
• Faversham