What does Christies Care do?
We provide living-in care assistants for our clients. People come to us at Christies Care when they need continuous care at home, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
We do not provide hourly or daily care. Our care assistants live-in, seven or more days at a time, looking after their client.
IF YOU NEED LIVING IN CARE, COME TO CHRISTIES CARE
RING US ON 01728 605000
An example of our commitment.
When building our purpose-designed training centre and guest house, we set aside a guest room for our clients with an adjustable bed, overhead tracked hoist and an en-suite washroom. It is an invitation to our present and potential clients to come and visit us and see the company at first hand. Please give us a few week's notice as it is very popular with our clients!
Who is a typical client?
We don't have a typical client.
We have every sort of client.
Look at some of the clients we have on our Meet Some of Our Clients page.
How long does our care last?
Many clients want us for respite care, to give their regular care assistant a break or while relations take a holiday. This may be one week in four, or perhaps a two-week break in the summer. Some want us for a few weeks of convalescent care, recovering from a hospital operation, or a spell of sickness.
Most clients want us for ever, to make sure that they can continue to live at home and not go into a residential or nursing home.
YOU TELL US WHAT YOU WANT - WE WILL DO OUR BEST TO HELP YOU
What do our care assistants do?
Our care assistants are there to help you at all times.
You may want a companion, to be with you, go out on trips or visits to friends and to stop you feeling lonely.
You may want a housekeeper, who will do the shopping, laundry and housework, cook for you and do light cleaning as well.
You may need a lot of personal care, help washing, dressing and managing your incontinence, confusion or dementia.
You may want a "pair of hands" to help you do things, so you can remain independent in your own home.
WE WILL ASK YOU WHAT YOU WANT AND NEED. WE WILL DO OUR BEST TO PROVIDE IT.
How does it work?
If you think that we are right for you, please get in touch. We will tell you if we can help and give an estimate of the cost and how quickly we can provide help.
Then, if you want us to go ahead, we like to come and see you. We want to find out more about you. You will have questions that you want to ask us: this is much easier face to face. Every client has the right to be visited by Christies Care and we expect to see you four times a year in any case: it's part of the service.
No two clients are alike. Two clients with cerebal palsy, a spinal injury, or "general frailty" will have common wants and needs, but are not the same. You have different habits, different homes, even your pets behave differently! At our meeting, we can confirm and agree the fine details of our arrangement together.
We will get in touch with you during or just after every care assistant 's tour of duty to check on the suitability of the care assistant and see whether he or she should be asked to return to you.
How much does our care cost?
The weekly cost depends on the sort of care assistants you select and the work you want them to do.
In total, including the care assistant 's salary and travel expenses, our fee and VAT, it is likely to be between £460 and £600 per seven day week. We will give you a firm cost and terms of service before we start.
This is for private clients: those supported by local authorities have their own cost structure.
What part of England do we cover?
Our Head Office is in Suffolk and we do all our training and administration from there. Many of our care assistants are based within 25 miles of London.
We have Local Area Assessors based throughout the UK.
We can provide care all over the UK.
RING US UP TO DISCUSS IT: 01728 605000
Who are our care assistants?
Most of our care assistants are ladies, but we do have male care assistants as well.
All our care assistants are selected, trained, monitored and supervised to the standard required by the Care Standards Act 2000. We believe that a client will generally prefer to use an agency which meets these standards in full.
Christies care assistants are all interviewed face-to-face and spend four days at our training centre in Saxmundham with induction and initial training. We must get to know them well, to make sure we do the best possible match with our clients. Most will go on to further practical training, in a client's house under the guidance of the resident care assistant , before they start work on their own.
They come from a wide variety of backgrounds and range in age from under 20 to very nearly 70! This is because we have an equally varied client range, from simple companionship to seriously disabled clients, from 18 year olds to those over 100.
You can meet some of our care assistants here
Building up your team of care assistants
You want care seven days a week, not six, and that is what we provide.
No care assistant , however loyal, can work "forever" seven days a week. So we need to set up a team. A team of care assistants accepted by you and happy to work for you.
We like our care assistants to return to their clients again and again, so we can establish a regular team of 2, 3 or 4 care assistants who will know you well, and between them, attend to all your wants and needs.
We know it is usually possible to set up a good team after a few weeks, provided our clients play their part in making "Living-in Care" possible.
How do I know it will work?
There are four ingredients of successful care:
- the choice of care assistant
- the client, tasks and living conditions
- our reliability in providing care assistants without fail
- our administration and operations management
The choice of care assistant
We do our best to get to know our care assistants well and to learn their strengths and weaknesses. Four days of interview and training in Saxmundham. Often four days more practical training before they start on their own, a period under probation, regular support, monitoring and supervision: all these things help us to know our care assistants. In addition, we like to know if they were a success with their clients and want to return. We need to create and maintain a good team of care assistants.
We involve our clients and their relations as much as possible in building up our team of care assistants. In the end it is your choice of care assistants and not ours!
The client at home
We like to know what the client wants a care assistant to do in a normal week. It must be realistic: care assistants cannot work all day and be up at night several times too! We also want our care assistants to have reasonable living conditions. Clients must be friendly to their care assistants. A client who is intolerant to a care assistant cannot expect that care assistant to want to return. We are in touch with our clients during or just after every tour of duty by a care assistant . We visit all our clients face to face, usually before we start care and , in any case, at least four times per year. We ask our clients if they want a care assistant to return and for their opinion on the care given. All this helps us maintain a successful package of care.
Our commitment to reliability
We work very hard indeed to make sure that, whatever happens, no client is left without a care assistant . Our track record for reliability underpins our continuing success with our clients. We do not let you down. Being one of the largest specialised agencies in the country helps here. We have the expertise and resources to be reliable.
Administration and operations management
As we are large and specialised, we can focus exclusively on making sure that our records, administration and support and emergency systems are up-to-date and work well for the benefit of client and care assistant alike. As we are profitable, we can invest in extra technology and and staff before they are needed and not just at the last moment.
If things go wrong?
However hard we try, not all care packages work smoothly. A care assistant may have an accident or suddenly fall ill. A client and care assistant may not get on and a replacement is needed at short notice.
Our office is open over an extended working day. We have an answerphone service for out-of-hours problems. We have an effective mobile phone system for emergency out-of-hours problems.
WE ARE A LARGE AGENCY IN OUR SPECIALISED FIELD: WE WILL HAVE THE CARE ASSISTANTS AVAILABLE TO FILL THE GAP.