Home Care in Dunstable

Dunstable has 22 CQC registered home care agencies. 8 are rated Good, 1 Outstanding, 5 Requires improvement, and 8 have not yet been rated. 10 of the 22 were last inspected more than three years ago.

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

Arranging home care in Dunstable and working out the cost

An hour of help at breakfast can be the difference between staying at home and not, so it is worth understanding how such an arrangement is set up and paid for before ringing round.

Requesting an assessment of need

Anyone who appears to need care can ask for an assessment, and it is free and not means tested. It examines the practical shape of a day: getting up, washing, dressing, preparing food, taking medication, moving safely about the house and coping in the evening. Central Bedfordshire Council Adult Social Care carries out that assessment and the financial assessment that follows, and the support plan it produces sets out how many hours are considered necessary. A relative who has been providing support can request a carer's assessment in their own right, which occasionally leads to help that the main assessment misses.

Hourly rates and who contributes

Home care is charged by the hour or by the visit, usually at a higher rate at weekends and on bank holidays, and higher again where two carers are needed. Where the financial assessment finds savings below the national threshold, the council contributes towards the cost, and a direct payment can be taken instead so the family arranges the care itself. Above the threshold the arrangement is private. Ask any agency for its full rate card in writing, including travel charges, minimum visit lengths and the notice required to change a visit, because a weekly total often looks quite different once those are included.

Choosing a home care agency in Dunstable

There is no building to walk around, so judgement has to rest on reports, references and the quality of the answers you get on the telephone.

Making use of the inspection picture

With one agency rated Outstanding, eight rated Good, five rated Requires Improvement and eight not yet rated, this list rewards careful reading. Inspectors comment on the things that matter day to day: whether visits arrive when promised, whether medication is recorded properly, whether staff are trained and supervised, and how the office responds when something goes wrong. Where an agency is rated Requires Improvement, the report will name the specific shortfalls, and it is fair to ask the manager what has changed since. Unrated agencies are often simply new, so ask who runs them and where else those people have worked.

The questions that reveal the most

Ask how many different carers will visit over a fortnight, since continuity matters more than almost anything else. Ask what happens when a regular carer is unwell, how late a visit can run before somebody telephones, and who picks up the phone on a Sunday evening. Ask how care plans are written, how often they are reviewed and whether you can meet the carers before they start. Finally ask how complaints are logged and what was done about the last one, because the answer says a great deal about how an agency is run. Ask as well whether the same office covers evenings and weekends, and how quickly a package can be increased if someone comes home from hospital needing more help than before.

Related searches

• Care Homes in Dunstable
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Home Care near Dunstable

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• Harpenden
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