Home Care in Gillingham

Gillingham has 31 CQC registered home care agencies. 8 are rated Good, 2 Requires improvement, 2 Inadequate, and 19 have not yet been rated. 9 of the 31 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 Gillingham

The care needs assessment comes first

Before comparing agencies it helps to know how much help is actually needed and at what times of day, and an assessment of need is what establishes that. Anyone living in Gillingham can ask for one, whatever their savings, and a relative or friend can request it on someone else's behalf. It looks at washing, dressing, meals, medication, mobility and safety around the house, and it produces a written record of the support required. Carers looking after someone can also ask for a separate assessment of their own needs, which is easy to overlook and often worth having.

How funded support is decided

Money is worked out separately from need. A financial assessment measures income and capital against the national thresholds, and Medway Council social care team is responsible both for assessing need and for arranging funded support where someone qualifies. Support that is funded may be delivered by an agency the council commissions, or taken as a direct payment so that the person picks their own provider from a list like this one. Those who pay for their own care can still ask for an assessment, and it is sensible to do so because it records what is needed and simplifies any later claim.

What care at home costs

Home care is priced by the visit rather than by the week, so the bill follows the length and number of calls rather than a single headline figure. Ask each agency for its hourly rate, whether half hour calls are charged at half the rate, and what applies at weekends and on bank holidays. Ask whether there is a set up fee, what notice is needed to change the schedule, and how waking nights and sleep in cover are charged, since those sit on quite different scales.

Choosing an agency in Gillingham and what to check

Making sense of a patchy rating picture

Thirty one agencies is a lot to sift through, and the inspection record only narrows part of it. Eight agencies here hold a rating of Good, among them Hamilton House, Right at Home Medway, Wisteria Care, Home Instead Medway and Mulberry House. Two are rated Requires Improvement and two are rated Inadequate, and those reports repay careful reading. The remaining nineteen have no published rating, so nothing independent has been recorded about them, and any judgement has to come from your own enquiries and from asking how long the agency has been operating.

The questions that tell you most

Ask how many different carers a person is likely to see over a fortnight, because continuity affects the experience of home care more than anything else. Ask what the shortest visit is, whether carers are given travel time between calls, and what the agency does when a visit cannot be covered. Ask who writes the care plan, how often it is reviewed, and how quickly extra calls can be added if someone comes out of hospital needing more support.

Checking an agency before you commit

Confirm that the agency actually covers your part of Gillingham at the hours you need, since coverage rules out more candidates than quality does. Ask whether you can meet the carers beforehand, whether there is an out of hours number that reaches a person, and how complaints are dealt with. Ask for references or for the name of a district nurse or social worker who knows the agency, and start with a short trial period if the agency will agree to one.

Related searches

• Care Homes in Gillingham
• Nursing Homes in Gillingham

Home Care near Gillingham

• Longfield
• Sevenoaks
• Swanley
• West Malling
• Swanscombe
• Gravesend
• Dartford
• Aylesford
• Orpington
• Tilbury