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A Guide to live-in care and support
Common questions asked by users of our service
What is live-in care?
Who can you help?
What kind of help do you provide?
What locations do you cover?
How much does it cost? Are there any hidden extras?
How long does the service last for?
Who will my carers be?
How are they selected, trained, supported, managed and monitored?
Is Prime Care registered with the appropriate regulatory bodies and professional associations?
How will my care be managed?
What happens if the regular carer is sick or takes a holiday?
Do you directly engage the staff who attend my home, or do you just act as an ‘agency’ and take a fee?
What is your experience of ‘end-of-life’ care?
Live-in care is where a care worker lives in your own home and carries out household tasks, provides practical support, and assists with your personal care needs. Where required, this can also include specialist services to assist with a wide variety of health and social care needs . You can stay in your home, with your home comforts, memories, pets and maybe family.
Live-in care enables many people to maintain fulfilled lives with independence and dignity. It puts them back in control of how they lead their lives. In many cases it offers a genuine, cost effective, alternative to those who would otherwise require long-term residential care.
Our care workers promote your right to privacy, dignity, independence, safety, choice, respect, and to a fulfilling life.
Live-in care can help people who:
• are older and frail;
• have mental health problems or dementia;
• have mild to moderate learning disabilities;
• have physical disabilities;
• need help with recovery and rehabilitation following a stay in hospital;
• need to be accompanied on holiday;
• have family carers who may need to take a break;
• are terminally ill and require ‘end-of-life’ palliative care;
• and who want to remain at home, in familiar surroundings.
People also use our service simply because they need a housekeeper / companion to take the strain out of daily life.
What kind of help do you provide?
Your live-in care worker or companion will help you in a wide variety of ways, including:
• Household Services. These can include vacuuming, dusting, general cleaning, doing your laundry, shopping and cooking for you.
• Personal Tasks. For example, collecting pensions or prescriptions and running errands for you. Helping with form-filling, letter writing or phone calls on your behalf.
• Social Excursions. Going with you on walks, to appointments and on trips out.
• Companionship. Joining you in conversation, reading with you, listening to you, joining you in interactive games and puzzles.
• Personal Care. This can include getting up in the morning, washing and personal hygiene, dressing, going to the toilet, making your bed, going to bed at night, and many other daily tasks that you may need support to carry out.
• Specialist Care. Our staff are trained to support specific needs. Specialist care and support can include helping you with your medication, assisting you with your mobility and equipment needs, and dealing with many health-related issues such as help with using a catheter or coping with dementia.
• Rehabilitation. We can provide help and support when you come out of hospital or are recovering from an illness.
• End-of-life Care. We can provide more intensive care aimed at dealing with people’s symptoms rather than curing them.
• Caring for your pets.
Prime Care provides live-in care and support services along the coast of East Sussex from Eastbourne to Brighton & Hove and inland to Haywards Heath and the surrounding villages. This includes Lewes and Hailsham.
How much does it cost? Are there any hidden extras?
The basic cost of live-in support from Prime Care starts at around £575 per week. However, the cost will depend on the level of care required and this is determined following an individual assessment by our qualified assessors.
Prime Care has lots of experience helping people to access different sources of funding to balance their budgets, and so we will try to accommodate most circumstances. We welcome enquiries from both private clients and those in receipt of direct payments.
Our live-in care and support staff are all engaged directly by us so we are responsible for taking care of Income Tax and National Insurance contributions, which are also included in the price you pay. You will not need to worry about their travel costs either, as this is included as well.
How long does the service last for?
As long or as short as you would like it to. It may be a one-off break, intensive support lasting just a few weeks, or a more permanent arrangement. In any event, we will design a Care Needs Assessment, Service User Plan, System of Care and Schedule of Tasks with you that ensure that you receive the best possible care and support, whether it is for weeks or for years.
Our live-in care and support staff are diverse and reflect our approach to equal opportunities. Some are local people and others come from other parts of the World. Some are drivers but only a few have their own car.
Our diverse workforce gives us greater choice in being able to find someone with whom you will be compatible. We bear this in mind when we introduce relief care or support staff to you, for example when your regular care worker has to take a break.
How are they selected, trained, supported, managed and monitored?
Prime Care’s live-in care and support staff are carefully selected and undergo strict and detailed background checks. This includes an interview, the taking-up of references and a CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) referral as well as being checked against the Protection of Vulnerable Adults (POVA) list.
Our Induction programme covers Moving and Handling, Health and Safety, First Aid, Food Hygiene, Safe Handling of Medication, Basic Infection Control, Incontinence Care, and Adult Abuse Awareness. Our advanced training also extends to Stroke/Heart Attacks, Catheter/Stoma Care, Arthritis Care, Epilepsy, Pressure Ulcers, Diet and Nutrition, Dementia and Diabetes. We won a prestigious National Training Award in 2006 for our staff training and development.
Visits to monitor our staff in your home are conducted on a regular (announced) and random (unannounced) basis to ensure that the service continues to meet your needs. The monitoring and mentoring of our live-in care and support staff is maintained through a process of spot-checks, individual meetings, team and peer-group meetings and appraisals. We won the Sussex Business Awards in 2003 for being the best training and staff development company in East and West Sussex, and in 2006 we became the first social care organisation in the country to achieve the advanced Investors in People (IiP) Profile award.
In summary, we ensure that the staff who attend your home are qualified, trained, experienced and supported to do their job and provide you with a first-class live-in care and support service.
Is Prime Care registered with the appropriate regulatory bodies and professional associations?
Yes, we are registered with the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) to provide all aspect of live-in care. The latest inspection report conducted by CSCI on Prime Care is available on this website (click here) or direct from CSCI’s website: www.csci.org.uk. We are officially rated by CSCI as an ‘excellent’ provider of home care services. We are also a member of the United Kingdom Home Care Association (UKHCA) and CERETAS.
A dedicated Care Manager provides a point of contact and is responsible for the allocation and ongoing supervision of the live-in care and support that you receive. You will not be burdened with the responsibility of ‘employing’ a carer yourself. Your initial care needs will be discussed with our Manager at the time of your enquiry and again in more detail during our Risk Assessment and Care Planning process which involves you and your family (where appropriate). Care and support staff will automatically undergo routine observations and monitoring on a regular basis by visits to you both in your home. We update your Care Plan regularly to reflect changes to your health, well-being and requirements.
Our live-in care department can be contacted on 01323 491975. We also operate an ‘out of office hours’ service by dialing the same number.
What happens if the regular carer is sick or takes a holiday?
Once your live-in care service starts, we will ensure cover.
Do you directly engage the staff who attend my home, or do you just act as an ‘agency, and take a fee?
We are a Direct Service Provider in accordance with the Domiciliary Care Regulations 2001. This means that we are able to directly apply our award-winning standards to our live-in care service because we are required by our regulators to take responsibility for every aspect of the care that we deliver. We engage, select, recruit, train, supervise, support, manage, monitor and mentor our live-in care and support staff - so that you don’t have to worry.
We take care of all statutory engagement obligations, including Income Tax and National Insurance contributions, statutory sick pay, and annual leave entitlement and pay. We cover rest breaks, where required, and take responsibility for getting our staff to and from your home. In doing this we ensure that you do not have to deal with the increasingly complex legal burden of becoming an ‘employer’. Our service is fully managed.
What is your experience of ‘end-of-life’ care?
Our award-winning health and social care training is directed by a Registered General Nurse (RGN) who also has a Degree in Health & Social Care. We have helped families on many occasions to support their loved ones to spend their final days at home with dignity and privacy, in familiar surroundings. We have special equipment to assist our live-in palliative team to deliver ‘end-of-life’ care and our risk assessment process will identify any other equipment that needs to be brought-in to cope with the demands of a palliative situation.
We work closely with GPs, hospices, community nurses and specialist nursing teams to ensure that we can play a key part in delivering an holistic approach to sensitive ‘end-of-life’ circumstances. We understand living wills, end-of-life ‘pathways’ and issues around capacity, preference, choice and personal dignity.
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