What's the benefit of Living-In Care?
We all start with the same thought, that people prefer to stay at home, if they have a choice. Some people thrive on institutional life. Living in care is not for them. Social Services Departments arrange care for those with disabilities and these packages often increase in intensity and cost as time goes by. Sooner or later (usually when there is a need for help at night on top of help in the day) it makes sense to have a single helper, living-in, to cover all care needs over the 24 hours.
Accreditation
We started working for local authorities in 1993, as soon as the Community Care Act came into force. Since then, we have steadily expanded the number of boroughs and local authorities for which we work.
So have hundreds of other agencies, but very few specialise in living-in care and have grown as big as we, on the success of the work we do.
We are registered with the Commission for Social Care Inspectorate(regional office Ipswich in Suffolk) and are in the process of registering with the equivalents in Scotland and Wales.
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What have we got to offer?
Every week we are approached by Social Work Professionals, who don't know us. Why? Because we can solve their problems, because we respond quickly to all requests and often because our service is keenly priced.
Other living-in care packages for my service user have broken down.
Can Christies Care do any better than other providers? Not always. Our size helps. With perhaps 700 care assistants, we can choose the right team and we have back up if things go wrong. Our expertise helps. With over 20,000 weeks of living-in care a year, we know the ingredients which contribute to success and to failure.
My service user has complex needs.
We have service users who need two care assistants at a time. Who need support at agreed times in teh day, perhaps even at night. We welcome this and work well with providers, social work professionals or family. However we are not specialised in seriously complex needs. We can give our teams special training but living-in care is by its nature, not a job forever and we cannot expect teams to last forever. In spite of this we are increasingly asked to be part of a team providing care to users with compex needs.
Typical Service Users.
We look after a very wide variety of service users. Our service users wholly or partly funded by Local Authorities or Health Trusts fall into two main groups. The largest group is adults with physical or learning difficulties supported by the local authority and the Independent Living Fund. The second main group is older people, generally financed partly by the LA and partly privately.
There is however an increasing awareness by NHS Trusts that a living-in care agency can often offer satisfactory solution to problems of bed-blocking or continuing care.
Almost everyone assessed as needing residential care could stay at home with a Christies Carer instead. Many needing a nursing home can be looked after by Christies Care instead. Not everyone, we know, but we can often help even seriously dependent people for a long time, in their own homes.
We can provide the living-in care component of a nursing based, Health and Local Authority jointly funded package.
DO YOU HAVE SERVICE USERS WE MIGHT HELP?
RING AND ASK: WE WILL DO OUR BEST FOR THEM
0844 477 6461
When you call us
We welcome enquiries from social workers, whether for service users wholly or partly funded by their local authority or for private service users.
When you ring us, we are usually able to give an outline costing and tell you how quickly we can act. We will send brochures and other information about our Company to you or to your service user on the same day.
Unless you are asking for help at very short notice, we can usually come and visit before the care package starts. Then we can discuss it in detail and we can make certain we give our service user the right type of carer.
A Range of Costs
Living-in care is more than tasks: to be successful it involves the service user's home environment and living conditions as well as emotional, cultural and social issues.
We quote an individual price for each service user.The cost will vary from about £630.00 to over £750.00 per seven day week.
Many service users are funded by direct payments: we welcome this and can fit in with it easily. Costs are generally reduced by £80.00 - £100.00 per week with direct payments.
With some service users, we split the costs between local authority and service user, by agreement. In pratical terms this means that we have two contracts, one with the service user and one with the local authority.
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Sharing the costs
Many service users are supported by the ILF; we work closely with the fund.
Some local authorities have a weekly cash limit per service user, whether for residential or domiciliary care. We can work with a top-up from the service user direct, or can have an overall contract with the local authority, seeking a contribution from the service user over an agreed amount.
If family will top-up the local authority contribution, the service user can continue to stay at home and not lose independence. The local authority is no worse off.
WE HAVE A FLEXIBLE APPROACH TOWARDS FUNDING CARE AND WILL TRY TO MAKE THE BEST OF LIMITED RESOURCES
Policies and Procedures
Our Statement of Purpose is the backbone of our accreditation procedure. It contains all Christies Care's policies which direct the company, as well as the procedures by which we aim to follow our policies. It is updated regularly as we adapt and change to improve the service we give our service users and staff.
MAY WE SEND YOU A COPY?
SHALL WE SEND YOU OUR CLIENT BROCHURE TOO?
Ring us on 0844 477 6461
Working to a standard
It is company policy to provide a standard of service that will fullfil the physical and emotional needs of each service user and provide rewarding employment for all care workers within their ability to perform.
It is company policy that our administration, which is the background to the service we give, should be efficient and supportive in all communications with care workers and service users alike. Standards are constantly being revised and improved. Our service users, whether private or in the statutory sector, look for a company which is prepared to change its procedures to reflect current best practice or legislation.
We do change and update our methods. We aim to give a service which satisfies our service users and staff.
PLEASE RING AND ASK ABOUT OUR SERVICE
0844 477 6461