Paying for private at home care

I sometimes provide an on call service for my private clients. I charge a small monthly retainer and then an hourly rate if I get called out

My parent uses Home Instead and pays £31 an hour. One of the ‘selling points’ is they won’t do less than one hour visits. This is better for them however I think it is also true that it is better for the client too. They are a franchise so I’m not sure how the rate or quality varies per area. My parent has had excellent staff visit her however she has also, in about one year, experienced one no show and about 3 changes to time of visit where no notice was given. This really pees her off and worries me as I sometimes arrange for deliveries to coincide with the carer being there. However the care industry is struggling for (suitable and trained) staff so I guess this incident rate is understandable.

you say
What me and my brother would like is someone seeing her regularly, checking in on her and hopefully being on call (via the agency) if she falls again at home, or to help her when she can't make a GP appointment, use the internet, pick things up from the floor, or help her sit outside in the garden for half an hour or whatever he and I cannot do as we live miles away

home instead do all of this EXCEPT being on call - I don’t know any service that does that. If anyone else does, please share. I suspect you’d need a private carer to do this. The home instead contract specifically says you can’t employ their employees privately so you cant get the carer to do this as ‘extra’ either.

home instead do offer support for hospital visits. I am not sure how practical this is as anything ad-hoc seems too difficult for them to arrange. Again, it seems down to staff availability.

emergency alarms are often mentioned. Again, as far as I understand, though the initial call may be routed to a third party, they ultimately call you so they provide ‘safety’ but not a service to go round to your Mum.

it is my experience that anything regular is doable but anything ad-hoc is not.

Has she signed up with a careline alarm and a keysafe just in case she does fall, the agency could be the first responders and call for extra help if they need it. If she is paying for a private carer then she can have as many visits as she wants but they wont be on call to just pop round to sit in the garden. If she likes to be up washes and dressed by 7am do check that she is charged the right rate, that might be a night rate if the carer gets there before 7. There might be a local befriending group, her gp may offer social prescribing who can help her with appointments, company, trips out.

I had to look into this recently when it looked as though my father might need care at home after a hospital stay. I looked at Home Instead, a nationally available homecare service, who are very highly rated by CQC. In the end they were not required but I keep them at the back of my mind just in case.

Why on earth do you think she wants/needs 3 showers a week, when she was happy with one in 5 months? Does she smell? Is she getting lots of infections? It sounds as though she’s got full capacity to make those decisions for herself - don’t bully her into doing stuff she doesn’t want or need to do. If she’s a bit lonely find a different set of solutions.

SS can get involved/do an assessment/arrange the care but there’s little benefit to that - it’s likely to take ages, involve a financial assessment first, and end up with no choice of care agency. In this market you pay for consistency, reliability and choice and personally I feel that’s money well spent.

If she is paying for her own care, then I don't think that social services will become involved She is entitled to an assessment of needs at least. And SS can arrange the care and ask her to contribute/pay in full either to them or direct to the agency.

I agree with @BlanketsBanned , if she can manage a flannel wash a shower isn’t necessary if she doesn’t want or enjoy them. When she was growing up, few people had showers, and people certainly weren’t having daily baths. She won’t sweat as much as a younger person, it’s the nether regions that really need to be kept scrupulously clean and that can be done with a flannel.

We have private care for fil (Surrey/Hants borders) and it costs £32.50 for an hour, £34.50 at weekends and double on bank holidays. They will basically do anything from personal care to cooking, putting washing on and changing beds.

Carers definitely need to have public liability insurance and a dbs!

A home carer should be dbs checked and receive training before they offer to help someone with personal care

It won't be £52 per hour 2 x £27 is £54 for starters

Haha maths was never my strong point

It's the sort of thing a sahm with school age children might be interest in for instance, to perhaps ask that demographic if anyone knows someone. If you happen by chance to be near me I know of someone suitable though because she doesn't drive it's highly unlikely it's the right town

It's worth investigating if you could hire someone directly to visit twice a week for an hour, yes to shower her but also to spend time - offer £20 an hour which is far more than they will get through the agency. I hired through word of mouth and paid £15/ hour 2.5 years ago

Mum, tried council and agency but not good enough so we paid 2 local women to cover full time weekday care, nightime was shared with family members. That worked well care was done properly and probably didn’t cost much more, but what price knowing we had done our best.

Is your mum able to wash herself? If she can do that adequately then there is no need for showers, surely?

Does she want 3 showers a week, is she hapoy with a flannel wash. In a carehome she might only ask for one shower a week. Ime a lot of older people dont really like showers, they feel unsafe and slippery, they feel cold afterwards and never properly dry. For company could she join a befriending or social group .

Thank you for what you do @DenholmElliot1

See if your council have a list of approved self employed carers. Then your mum can have the same carer every day, or two carers in rotation agreed between them. I pay £20 per hour for my mum, they do 2 weeks on two weeks off between them. The money is going straight to the carers with no agency fees. After initially not being very happy about the situation, my mum now loves them.

We have 3 half hour visits and 45 mins in the morning for shower.

SS arranged care for DF (didn’t live near) with early dementia.

it was a 15 minute visit! They asked him if he was ok and made him a sandwich. They asked him if he wanted to get changed if he was in dirty clothes which, as they didn’t put anything in the machine to wash, meant he was just rotating the same dirty clothes! He hadn’t showered for a long time and they certainly didn’t have time to do it in a 15 minute visit! Thankfully we were able to find him a place near us in a home relatively quickly and he is very well looked after.

I think they would be pushed to bathe your DM in 30 mins tbh but if they aren’t doing anything else it might be possible. Do look at her claiming attendance allowance, Age Concern can visit and help complete the forms if you wish -they are very lengthy!

Edit - carers 4 x 30 minutes a week

The fees are the going rate, double on BH’s or flat rate if no carer required.
FiL pays slightly more for 30 minutes plus travel. He was very reluctant to employ carers but twice daily visits as a minimum were getting too much for my DH.
We were very firm, a united front, and basically said this will be happening. He moans a bit but likes the carers and given he’s virtually chair bound it’s nice to see a different face.
I think DH (who does all FiL life admin) paid 4 weeks upfront plus an admin fee but he now pays in arrears so the first bill must have been something like 8 weeks later.
There are cheaper agencies but we like the staff and contract with Home Instead
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If she is paying for her own care, then I don't think that social services will become involved....they used to keep info on local care services but they will not recommend or otherwise. Here's the hampshire info and contacts. www.hants.gov.uk/socialcareandhealth/adultsocialcare. What you can do if she has mental capacity is nothing. Even if you have financial POA you have to administer it according to her wishes. Sorry but that is the story.

I think 30 mins isn't long enough. Could you sell it to her as a bit of company too. They could start off perhaps making breakfast, sitting with her for a cup of tea? Then once trust has been established a but of personal care?
Apply for attendance allowance too.