Cost of private at-home carers

[Delphigirl]

Hi my mum has dementia and has been managing to live independently, with some help from a companion an hour or so a day, but she is now becoming much more confused and neglecting her personal care, housekeeping etc so we are meeting a care agency with a view to putting in some care to manage housekeeping, personal care assistance and companionship, for a good few hours a day. She is privately paying and can afford it.
I have no idea what the likely hourly costs are for daytime care of this nature and so I have no way of judging the prices we are offered. Can anyone give me a ballpark range? We are in oxford so assume higher rather than lower (I understand Oxfordshire has the highest care home rates in the country, for example).
Also are there any top questions I should be asking the care coordinator? This is all totally new to me.
Many thanks

That's so difficult and I don't know the answer sorry.

Would she be better splitting the cleaning and personal care into two or do you think she might be better having a live in Carer?

I'm in North West. I pay £13.20 for a half hour, I think it's about £21 for a full hour.

We pay £15ph for a cleaner, one hour a week. But mum is quite clean and tidy....at the moment. And we have a gardener cones once every two weeks.

Family friend has just used a local (Gloucestershire) company, and depending on the requirements, it's anything between £18 to £25 an hour. It's not cheap, you may get a better price if you employ a carer direct and not go through an agency. Just make sure that they have a current DBS check, are qualified and have insurance.

For housework it's probably cheaper to get a cleaner.

I don't know about cost I'm afraid, but some things maybe to consider asking/finding out -

The cqc rating, which you can look up on the cqc website.
What training do they give their staff? Dementia training, nvq training, moving and handling, infection control etc.
Try and find out if anyone has used them/personal and client testimonials and reviews.
Is there back up for if a carer doesn't arrive?
How, and by who, will your mum's care needs be assessed and will you, your mum and anyone else have full involvement in this process?
What exactly is offered in the care package? Is it housekeeping as well as personal care or just personal care?

I'd make a list of what needs your mum has yourself, and how you and her (and anyone else involved) would like them to be met and discuss that with the coordinator at the meeting.

Hope everything goes well.

I've used a couple of care agencies for my parents, and standard rates round here (Bristol) seem to be about £24-£28/h, more for nights, weekends, bank holidays etc.

A cleaner would probably be cheaper for the housekeeping portion of what is needed, and if you are lucky you could find someone who is also chatty and companionable.

I also looked into a live-in carer at one stage, and I think that would have been about £1,300 a week, compared with £900 a week for the home my father eventually ended up in. Specialist dementia care can be a lot more.

You can still approach social services for support even though your mum is self-funding. They will be able to support with sourcing an agency and provide advice.

In London I pay £25 for an hour visit in the morning for mum. But I think some agencies reduce the hourly rate if you increase the time. Our care agency charges £17.50 for a 30 min visit.

Midlands here and we were quoted £15 per half hour for that sort of service. It was easier and cheaper to source a cleaner locally to do the housework and the same person also offered to dog walk daily and then chat for half an hour which meant DM had someone come in daily while we were at work informally. It meant she didn't feel that she had given up too much independence even though the support was happening.

Eventually social service became involved and carers were allocated and she didn't like that as they were very time pressured and if she didn't want to do something she sent them away and they just went.

If you go down the carers route via social services you need to ascertain what times they are going to come in and how many staff would be involved. How are they going to communicate what they have done with or for your mother in each visit and what exactly are they going to do. Also consider getting a key safe installed and an emergency alarm in the house in case of falls.

Questions to ask care agency...

Do you need them to give medication? There are all sorts of various policies on this? Most require a blister pack and they will document the medication she takes. Maybe ask what they can do if your mum needs a course of day antibiotics? Would they be happy to give this from a GP prescription? As as hoc medications won't be in a blister pack.

Maybe sure they have a system in place to communicate if they have any concerns with your mum, if they think she needs to see a Dr etc. Will they contact you first or contact the GP directly?

Ask safeguarding questions about training they receive? Police checks etc.

How will they access your mums house, will she answer the door or will you need to put a key safe in place? Most like this.

Do they document their visits and can you see the documentation or not?

How many different carers will go? Would your mum have a regular Carer or 2 so she becomes familiar with them.

Also just make it very clear what you want then to do, lots of info about what your mum likes and dislikes. If you want then to take her out for a walk etc.

There's probably more but off the top of my head this is what comes to mind first.

Thanks very much everyone, that is really helpful. The difficulty is that she is super resistant to any help. We only managed to get the companion in by stealth - she was visiting a friend of hers and so she would just “pop in for tea” and now she really looks forwards to seeing her every day, but because she thinks of her as a social visitor (although she knows she is paying her to come every day) she won’t let her do much housekeeping /laundry and will not let her assist with personal care. And anyway she is no longer available so hence the change. So we are thinking it might be easier to pay one agency to have max 2 carers she becomes familiar with to come every day, who will do whatever is needed, rather than have a cleaner plus a carer with a risk she will tell the carer to go away.
But I am still trying to work out what is best so I will certainly think about this a bit more.
Re hiring myself - I want the oversight and responsibility on an agency. I work full time and don’t have the expertise to know what my mother needs or the ability to monitor attendance, quality of care etc to the extent the agency will.

Questions are brilliant thanks, I am cutting and pasting into a doc and googling key safes… thank you!!

I have a mother with dementia too she was incredibly resistant to help from anyone except me!! now we have carers every morning and she's fine at accepting them. It's a big adjustment so needs a lot of perseverance. I'm also a nurse so that's probably helped me navigate the whole thing! PM me if you need to ask anything x

My mum has alzheimer's. When she was still living at home we employed a cleaner first off. If my mum sent her away she would wait outside for 5 minutes and then return by which time my mum had forgotten she'd seen her.

Is your mum able to leave the house? Do you have a Ring doorbell where you get notified if someone comes to the house. Fire service need to know number for key safe. Make sure your mum can't turn the gas on (we had a cut off switch put in a cupboard).

Lots of good advice here but if you think she is becoming more confused she should have a doctor or district nurse review to assess her and see if there is anything they can do to help, rule out infections, check her skin, check her walking and continence etc. Does she have a community dementia nurse who keeps an eye on her. A therapist can visit her at home to see if any adaptations could be made to help with her safety like rails, raised seats, falls mats, maybe a care line would help her to if she falls or needs help when the carers are not there. A decent care agency manager would want to out a careplan in placed and any risks to her or their staff must be assessed. If she is confused do you think she will be safe on her own when carers are not there, what about overnight, if she needs the loo, is the kitchen safe. The fire brigade can visit and install smoke detectors and assess any risks, have you applied for attendance allowance which helps towards any costs. Even for people who are privately funding their care she can still have a free care needs assessment from ther local health authority.

In the north west
Agencies charge £25 an hour, but the carers get half of that.

We pay our team of carers £15 hour directly.
We were lucky, our main carer has worked in the industry for a long time and has handpicked a team for us.
They do a bit of cleaning, cooking and laundry too.
It started with them popping in and taking him out for coffee, or lunch. He definitely thinks they are his friends now.
Ime it’s all about the relationship, some haven’t been suitable just because they didn’t click with him.

I think with your DM's reluctance to accept care, and from what you've mentioned here, I'd advise getting a Care Needs Assessment, one when you are there to talk to them.

Even if she's self funding, it will give you an idea of what's required.

I'd also fill in the Herbert Protocol, and keep a copy on your phone.

The Carers might find the This Is Me document useful as well. SIL keeps it on her phone for DMIL so that she can email it to the Ward if she's ever admitted to hospital.

Not a million miles from you OP and we used a brilliant agency called Extra Help. It was £15 per hour including agency fee and they do just about anything apart from personal care ( although we did arrange that separately with the lady as she was experienced in personal care) If there is anyone local to you I thoroughly recommend them. Mum's lady did a bit of cleaning, would cook a chicken then make soup and go to the pharmacy/ post office etc. Basically anything she needed help with. There was also a handy man who did light DIY.

I have never heard of the Herbert Protocol, thanks. Chemists also have small white ICE canisters that you can keep somewhere safe, ours are in the fridge.

Even if your mum is self funding she will be entitled to attendance allowance as it is not means tested so please apply for that. I am in Wiltshire and care costs range from £18 per 30 min visit up to £26 per hour visit, more at weekends and bank Holidays. I used to look after a lady with dementia and like pps I started by going in for a coffee and a chat and increased what I did. By the time personal care was needed I was seen as a friend providing that care rather than a carer.

SE here and my Nan has 3/4 carers a day.

For stuff like popping her dinner in, getting her changed, showered and it's about £4000 pcm.

it's about £4000 pcm.

That's a lot, but perhaps it's regional. NW here and DMIL is on a home for Dementia. It's £600 pw which works out at £2580 a month.

I have never heard of the Herbert Protocol, thanks

No problem. It's one of those things you hope you never need but really useful if you do. We had a tracker on DMILs keys and always kept the door locked. Thankfully the one time she really did wonder, she'd taken her keys with her so we found her within 5 minutes.

For the people talking about trackers and similar, are you aware that if the person lacks capacity the agreement to install such equipment needs to be sought from the Court of Protection by means of a Community DoL as this is otherwise an unlawful deprivation of a persons liberty.

For the people talking about trackers and similar, are you aware that if the person lacks capacity the agreement to install such equipment needs to be sought from the Court of Protection by means of a Community DoL as this is otherwise an unlawful deprivation of a persons libery

I wasn't aware no. It's too late for us now anyway as DMIL is in a home but would this apply even if one had a POA?