Home Care in Sutton

Sutton has 51 CQC registered home care agencies. 39 are rated Good, 1 Outstanding, 1 Requires improvement, and 10 have not yet been rated. 22 of the 51 were last inspected more than three years ago.

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

Choosing a Home Care Agency in Sutton and What to Look For

Home care is bought in visits, and the shape of those visits decides everything: what gets done, what it costs, and whether the arrangement lasts. Working out the hours that genuinely matter before contacting anybody makes the comparison between agencies far easier.

What these agencies are registered to do

All fifty one providers listed here are home care agencies, delivering personal care in a person's own home: washing, dressing, help to the toilet, prompting or administering medication, preparing meals and supporting safe movement about the house. Shopping, laundry and companionship are frequently available alongside, though it is the personal care that the regulator inspects. None of them provide accommodation, so when someone cannot safely be left between visits the conversation usually has to widen to include residential care.

What the ratings show

Trinity Homecare holds Outstanding. Thirty nine agencies are rated Good, among them Westminster Homecare Limited, Rosemil Care, Clovecare Limited, Community Living Ltd and Lakeshore Care Ltd. One has been told it Requires Improvement, and ten have no rating yet because they registered too recently for an inspection. That is a strong picture overall, though a rating still describes a single inspection on a single date, so it is worth checking when the report was written.

The questions that predict how it will go

Ask how many different carers would attend over a fortnight and what happens when one is off sick. Ask whether visit times are built around the person or around the round, what the agency counts as a late call, and who telephones the family when one occurs. Ask how medication is recorded and how a missed visit is picked up on the day. Where an agency has no rating, ask when it registered, how long the manager has worked in care, and whether you may speak to a family already using it.

Arranging Care and Sorting Out the Funding

The care needs assessment

The assessment is free, it is not means tested, and anyone who appears to need care can request one, as can a relative acting on their behalf. It looks at washing, dressing, meals, medication and mobility, then records what help is needed and at which points in the day. London Borough of Sutton adult social care is the authority responsible for carrying out that assessment and for deciding what funded support follows from it. Ask for the written outcome, because an agency can quote against it far more accurately than against a description over the telephone.

Who pays for what

A financial assessment then considers savings and income, and for care delivered at home the value of a property the person still lives in is disregarded. Below the national upper capital threshold the council contributes through a personal budget, which can be taken as a direct payment so the family engages the agency itself. Attendance Allowance sits outside the means test and is worth claiming at the same time.

Understanding the rates

Agencies price by visit length, and short calls usually work out dearer per hour than longer ones. Ask for written rates covering weekdays, weekends and bank holidays, check whether travel or mileage is added, and establish what notice is needed to change a package.

Related searches

• Care Homes in Sutton
• Nursing Homes in Sutton

Home Care near Sutton

• Carshalton
• Wallington
• Morden
• Worcester Park
• Mitcham
• Epsom
• New Malden
• Coulsdon
• Chessington
• South Croydon