Home Care in Stourport-on-severn

Stourport-on-severn has 3 CQC registered home care agencies. 2 are rated Good, 1 Requires improvement. All 3 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 Stourport-on-severn

How funded support works

Care at home is funded in a different way from a care home place, and the mechanism is worth knowing before you call an agency. An assessment of need is free, open to anyone who may require support, and it records how someone manages washing, dressing, medication, meals, mobility and safety. Ask Worcestershire County Council Adult Social Care to carry it out and to arrange the financial assessment that follows. Where support is funded, the council may either arrange the package itself or offer a direct payment, which lets the person choose and pay their own agency.

What home care costs

Visiting care is normally charged by the hour or by the visit, with higher rates at weekends and on bank holidays, and some agencies set a minimum call length. Where capital falls below the national threshold, the council may fund an agreed package, and above it the care is paid for privately. Ask for the rates in writing, together with any travel charges, notice periods and the terms for changing or cancelling visits. Ask too what happens if more visits are needed later, since the cost rises in steps rather than smoothly.

Choosing a Provider in Stourport-on-severn and What to Check

Two Good records and one asking for improvement

Agincare Worcester and Riverside Home Care both hold a Good rating, so read their reports for what inspectors said about staffing, about the supervision of carers in people's homes and about how the service responds when something goes wrong. Advantage Health & Social Care is rated Requires Improvement, and that report names the shortfalls found, which the provider may already have acted on. Ask the manager what has changed and what evidence supports it, and check how recently each inspection took place.

Questions that reveal how an agency runs

Ask how long each visit lasts, how many different carers would come in a week and whether a small regular team can be arranged. Ask what happens when a carer is ill or caught in traffic, how a missed visit is picked up and who answers the telephone out of hours. Ask how the care plan is written and reviewed, and how medicines, meals and personal care are recorded at each call. Ask finally how carers are supervised in people's homes, since that is where the quality of visiting care is settled.

Home Care near Stourport-on-severn

• Kidderminster
• Droitwich
• Stourbridge
• Bromsgrove