Key safe - where to put it?

[gen799]

So Dearest mother is having carers come in to help her in the mornings and whilst currently she is ok there is likely to come a time where she wont be able to easily answer the door so the agency has suggested a keysafe.

Looking at the ones available it seems there are extra secure police approved ones for £70+ or standard ones for around £20-30. Not sure but will probably go for a secure one I suppose or is this not worth it?.

Question then is where to put it. Mother lives on row of terraced houses with bay windows. They have a small space at the front of the house and small porch but are only a meter os back from the pavement. Several houses on mother's road already have them and they seem to be at eye level height in the porch. My thought is surely this is a bit obvious - advertiing to anyone that there is a vulnerable person in the house and providing a means for them to try and get at the key fairly easily. Instead should it go lower down so that its out of sight? Or would this be too tricky for carers to find? Any advice?

Do you have a garden wall? Could you attach it to the back of that, or to a fence post or something, so at least it isn't facing the road. Alternatively, what about putting it so it could be partly obscured from view by a pot plant or bush?

When I worked as a carer, the info on our phone showed us where the key safe was
So it might show “77yo female, hard of hearing, use key safe on side of garage, code is…”

There was access that was virtually an episode of crystal maze to do so a slightly hidden key safe will be no issue!

My mum's key safe was for the back door and was on a gate post.

I'll caution you, however. The one time that I forgot to remove the key when I was on holiday and Mum was in respite, a carer used it to enter the house and steal the plain gold jewellery in the house.

No, we couldn't prove it, but she was removed from the care register. Mum had already expressed alarm over this carer and I thought that Mum had misunderstood, Lord help me. (She was looking through Mum's china cabinet.)

It was another carer who alerted me to the fact that the carer was problematic. I didn't want to believe it - I'd taught the carer's siblings and had gone to school with her aunts and uncles.

The carer should never have been allowed to work with Mum - she'd had a civil case against her for persuading an elderly client to hand over £700 in cash.

The other carer showed me the court report in the newspaper. I contacted Mum's social worker and the carer was struck off by the Care Commission.

Does she have a wall in her front garden it could go on, so you can’t see it from the road? Lots do have keysafes now, not just the elderly. I have one as teen kids kept forgetting their key, student houses, air bnb etc. Have you looked into Care and Repair? They can provide them (and other great stuff) for free.

I wouldn't associate a key safe with a vulnerable person. We have one at home for DH and I and two young adult children (intermittently). None of us carry a house key on a regular basis, we just use the key safe. There is also one at our airbnb.

We do have they key safes positioned somewhere not in an obvious sight line though. Slightly round the corner and/or lower down. Seems sensible if you can,

I’d think it was an air b&b or for the dog walker 🤣