Home Care in Windsor

Windsor has 13 CQC registered home care agencies. 5 are rated Good, 4 Requires improvement, and 4 have not yet been rated. 7 of the 13 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 Windsor

Before comparing hourly rates it helps to know how many hours are genuinely needed, and that is a question for an assessment rather than for an agency. The answer also determines what help with the cost is available.

Requesting a care needs assessment

An assessment is free, is not means tested and belongs to anyone who appears to need care. It examines the ordinary shape of a day: getting up, washing, dressing, preparing food, taking medication, moving safely about the house and coping alone in the evening. Windsor and Maidenhead Royal Borough Adult Social Care carries out that assessment and the financial assessment that follows it, and the support plan produced states how many hours are considered necessary. A relative who has been providing support can ask for a carer's assessment of their own, which occasionally produces help the main assessment does not reach.

Rates, contributions and direct payments

Agencies charge by the hour or by the visit, at higher rates on weekends and bank holidays and higher again where two carers are required. Where the financial assessment finds income, savings and capital below the national threshold, the council contributes towards the cost, and that contribution can be taken as a direct payment so the household chooses its own agency. Above the threshold the arrangement is private. Ask for a complete rate card in writing, covering travel charges, minimum visit lengths and the notice needed to change or cancel a visit, because those terms shift a weekly total more than the headline rate does.

Choosing an agency in Windsor and what to check

With no building to inspect, the judgement rests on published findings and on how a manager answers awkward questions.

Making use of a mixed rating picture

Six agencies here are rated Good, three are rated Requires Improvement and four carry no rating yet. Inspectors comment on punctuality, staff training and supervision, medicines records and how the office responds when something goes wrong, which is precisely what families notice within a fortnight. Where an agency is rated Requires Improvement, read what was found, note the date and ask directly what has changed since. Unrated agencies are usually newly registered, so ask how long they have worked locally, who manages them and where those people were before.

The questions that matter most

Ask how many different carers will visit over a fortnight, since continuity affects everything from medication to mood. Ask what happens when a regular carer is unwell, how late a visit may run before the office telephones, and who is reachable on a Sunday evening. Ask how care plans are written and reviewed, whether you can meet the carers first, and how quickly hours can be increased after a spell in hospital. Ask finally how travel between visits is planned, because an unrealistic rota is the commonest reason a morning call arrives at lunchtime. Ask too whether the agency covers your part of Windsor reliably rather than in principle, and what it does when a visit cannot be staffed at all.

Related searches

• Care Homes in Windsor
• Nursing Homes in Windsor

Home Care near Windsor

• Slough
• Egham
• Maidenhead
• Ascot
• Staines-upon-thames
• West Drayton
• Bracknell
• Chertsey
• Uxbridge
• Bagshot