Questions to ask prospective care companies?

[MyDadIsTheGreatest]

We have a couple of care companies coming to meet my dad and work out what care he needs. We will then need to choose one of them. He is elderly with cancer and declining very fast. He hasn't had any care so far but now needs personal care eg dressing and food and help around the home.

What would be good questions to ask them?

Continuity of staff. Whether the same people will be regulars or if different people will come.
Times. Obviously times can't be guaranteed, but if they are able to be within a chosen time period. Some people want to be up at the crack of dawn, some prefer a more leisurely one.
Im a home carer and these are the most common questions

Definitely these.

After a while with DM we had a good routine and start time was generally within 15mins of preferred time, and they were rarely more than 10mins late.

Other things:

Prices for 30, 45, 60 mins. 60 was nowhere near double 30.

What they will or won't do as needs increase. Ours could only apply creams if prescribed for example.

Access to house.

Do they also provide live in should that be needed? Helpful for continuity.

Is there an app for you to see visit times and notes (v.helpful)

Can you request (or request not) certain carers.

Rules on gifts (safeguarding)

A real issue for my Nanna turned out to be the language barrier. We were not able to choose carers because it was the social worker who dealt with it all. My Nanna had dementia so communication was already difficult but several of the carers who came could barely speak English and it really affected the way she responded to them. She became agitated and scared and started to display aggressive behaviour which we had never seen before. I ended up having to attend during a lot of the visits so I could be a go between which entirely defeated the purpose. If communication is important ensure you have people who can do it effectively.

Tha ks very much for those suggestions- really helpful. My brain is just frozen at the moment.