Home Care in Dartford

Dartford has 72 CQC registered home care agencies. 24 are rated Good, 5 Requires improvement, and 43 have not yet been rated. 25 of the 72 were last inspected more than three years ago.

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

Arranging and Paying for Home Care in Dartford

Sorting out the practicalities first tends to make the choice of agency much easier, because you end up knowing exactly what you are buying. A care needs assessment is free and open to anyone who appears to need support, whatever their income or savings. Kent County Council carries out that assessment and arranges funded support where the eligibility criteria are met, and the written outcome sets out the hours and type of help required, which turns a vague enquiry to an agency into a specific one.

How Funding Is Worked Out

Where eligible needs are identified, a financial assessment follows and considers income and savings. The value of the home a person lives in is disregarded when care is delivered there, which is an important difference from residential care. Those who qualify may be offered a direct payment, allowing them to choose and employ an agency themselves, or a package arranged on their behalf. Anyone assessed as able to meet the full cost still has the right to the needs assessment and to advice on arranging support.

What Home Care Costs

Visiting care is normally priced by the hour or by the call, and shorter visits tend to carry a higher effective rate. Ask what the quoted rate covers, whether travel or mileage is charged separately, and how evenings, weekends and bank holidays are priced. Ask about the minimum visit length, the notice required to cancel a call, and how often rates are reviewed. Where two carers are needed for safe moving and handling, the cost doubles, so establish that early.

Choosing Among the Home Care Agencies in Dartford

With seventy one agencies covering the town, the sensible filter is not reputation in the abstract but capacity in practice. An agency that cannot reliably staff a seven o'clock morning call is the wrong agency however well it interviews.

Questions That Separate Agencies

Ask how many different carers would attend in a typical fortnight, since continuity matters greatly to someone anxious or living with memory problems. Ask who covers sickness and annual leave, how late a visit can run before you are told, and how you reach someone out of hours. Ask for the name of the registered manager and how long they have been in post, because a settled manager is one of the better indicators of a well run agency.

Reading the Inspection Position Honestly

Twenty four of the agencies listed are rated Good and five carry a Requires Improvement rating, while forty two have not yet been rated. An unrated agency is not a poor one, simply one that has not yet been inspected, often because it registered recently. Where no rating exists, lean harder on the questions above, ask to speak to an existing client or their family, and check the registration details to confirm the agency is permitted to provide the care you need. Where a rating does exist, read the report itself rather than the single word summary.

Related searches

• Care Homes in Dartford
• Nursing Homes in Dartford

Home Care near Dartford

• Bexleyheath
• Erith
• Swanscombe
• Swanley
• Grays
• South Ockendon
• Longfield
• Sidcup
• Welling
• Rainham