Question 1

Which providers in Woking offer home care?

Accepted Answer

Fifty seven home care agencies registered with the Care Quality Commission are listed for Woking on this page. They include Alina Homecare Chobham and Woking, Sylvian Care Woking, Walfinch Guildford and Woking and Caremark Guildford and Woking, among others. Each has its own profile giving registration details and any published inspection outcome. Opening a profile is the quickest way to check what an agency is registered to provide.

Question 2

What should we ask a home care agency in Woking before choosing?

Accepted Answer

Ask how carers are recruited and trained, and whether a small consistent team would attend rather than a changing rota of faces. Ask how the care plan is written, how often it is reviewed and how you would hear about anything that changed. Ask what happens when a carer is delayed, how the office is contacted out of hours and what the complaints process involves. Requesting a sample care plan and the name of the registered manager is entirely reasonable and tells you a good deal.

Question 3

What is the difference between a care home and a nursing home?

Accepted Answer

A care home provides accommodation alongside help with the everyday business of living, such as washing, dressing, meals and medication support. A nursing home offers the same and additionally has registered nurses on duty at all hours, so it can meet needs that require clinical care. Home care is different from both, since the carer travels to the person rather than the person moving into a building. Many families start with home care and look at residential options only when visits can no longer cover the need safely.

Question 4

Can Surrey County Council fund home care in Woking?

Accepted Answer

It can, where the care needs assessment identifies eligible needs and a financial assessment shows the person cannot meet the full cost themselves. The financial assessment considers income and savings, and the value of the property someone lives in is not counted for care delivered at home. Those who qualify may receive a direct payment to arrange their own support or a package commissioned on their behalf. People assessed as able to pay in full arrange care privately but keep the right to an assessment and to advice.

Question 5

How do we arrange a care needs assessment in Woking?

Accepted Answer

Contact the adult social care team at Surrey County Council and request a care needs assessment. It is free and available to anyone who appears to need care and support, whatever their income or savings, and it can be requested by the person or by a relative acting for them. The assessment looks at what someone manages alone, where they struggle and what help would make a difference. A family member giving regular support can also ask for a separate carer's assessment.

Question 6

How far in advance should we start looking?

Accepted Answer

Start as soon as the need looks likely rather than waiting for a crisis, because the assessment and the setting up of a rota each take time. Agencies covering Woking may not have capacity in the precise slots you want, and breakfast and bedtime calls are the hardest to secure. Where care follows a hospital discharge the timescale is far shorter and the discharge team will usually arrange something interim. It is worth reviewing that arrangement properly once the immediate pressure has passed.

Home Care in Woking

58 home care in Woking (showing 51–58)