Home Care in Ealing

Yes, we can provide visiting home care in parts of Ealing, but only where we have carers available to cover the visits reliably, so the first step is a call to check your street. Our office is in Lewisham, on the other side of London, and for much of the borough the dependable option is live-in care, where the carer moves in and travel stops mattering. Either way, care starts with a free home assessment and a written care plan.

Is visiting care from a Lewisham agency realistic in Ealing?

It depends on where in the borough you live, and we would sooner tell you that now than after a missed visit. From Lewisham High Street the quickest route west is the DLR to Canary Wharf and then the Elizabeth line, which takes roughly an hour to an hour and ten minutes to Ealing Broadway or Acton. Southall, Greenford and Northolt are more like 75 to 90 minutes. Visiting care means several short calls a day, every day, so a carer has to live reasonably close to the person they visit.

In practice, that makes visits easiest to arrange in the east and centre of the borough, around Acton, Ealing Broadway, West Ealing and Northfields, and hardest out along the A40 in Perivale, Greenford and Northolt, where north-south public transport is weak. We can only say yes to a visiting package when we know who will do the visits. If we cannot staff it, we will tell you at the first call.

What a carer can do on a visit

Visits are planned around the routine that matters to the person: getting up and washed, breakfast and tablets, lunch, a check in the afternoon, and settling for bed. The care plan sets out what happens on each call.

• Personal care
• Medication support
• Home help
• Companionship
• Sit-in service
• Dementia care
• Complex care
• Palliative care
• Hospital discharge support

We also give family carers a break through respite care in Ealing. Our mobile nail care service does not currently reach Ealing; it runs in Lewisham, Blackheath, Tower Hamlets, Bromley and Southwark.

Edwardian stairs in W5, 1930s semis on the A40

Ealing's housing splits in two, and the split changes what care at home looks like. In central Ealing, West Ealing, Northfields and Hanwell, most older homes are large Victorian and Edwardian terraces and semis, many converted into flats. Narrow hallways and steep internal stairs make stairlifts awkward and hoists hard to manoeuvre, and a first-floor flat with the only bathroom up another flight is a common reason visits have to change shape. An occupational therapy assessment through the council is worth asking for early.

Greenford, Perivale and Northolt are mostly interwar semis. They usually have room for a bed downstairs or a ground-floor shower, which makes personal care simpler and keeps live-in care open as an option later. In Acton, Southall and Northolt there are also large council estates and tower blocks, where a broken lift can leave someone with limited mobility stuck. If that is a risk, tell us at the assessment so the plan allows for it.

Parking for carers in Ealing's controlled zones

Much of the borough sits inside controlled parking zones, including central Ealing, West Ealing, Hanwell and Acton Town. A carer who drives needs somewhere legal to stop for each call. Ealing Council runs a personal carers parking permit for someone who regularly visits a resident in a CPZ. It costs £10 for 12 months, lets the carer park in residential permit bays for up to three hours, and needs a GP declaration letter. Away from the stations, Perivale and Greenford mostly have free on-street parking.

How do I ask Ealing Council for a care assessment?

Adult social care in Ealing starts at the Social Care Advice and Referral Centre on 020 8825 8000. It handles first contact and the initial assessment, and refers on for a social care or occupational therapy assessment. You can also refer yourself, or someone else, online; the council's contacting adult social care page links both forms.

If the assessment finds eligible needs, a financial assessment decides what you pay towards home care. Ealing's paying for your care page sets out the rules: the home you live in is not counted, and people with savings and assets above £23,250 get no financial help from the council. Reablement and occupational therapy equipment up to £1,000 are not charged. Council funding can be taken as a direct payment to pay an agency such as us. For self-funders, we give a written figure after the assessment.

Groups and day centres that sit alongside visits

Visits cover the essentials. Company and a change of scene can come from these local groups, some of which a carer can help someone get to.

• Age UK Ealing, at Greenford Community Centre on Oldfield Lane South, offers information and advice, befriending and shopping trips. Its Wellbeing Day Centre runs on Mondays and Thursdays and is for people who manage their own personal care.
• The Michael Flanders Centre on Church Road, Acton, is the council's day centre for older people. A place is agreed through a support plan after an adult social care assessment.
• The St Barnabas Church memory cafe on Pitshanger Lane meets on Thursday mornings, and Hanwell Neighbourly Care runs drop-ins for older people in Hanwell. Both appear on the council's dementia support listing.
• Healthwatch Ealing, on St Mary's Road, takes feedback on local health and care services, including ours.

What we can help with in Ealing

• Personal care, washing and dressing
• Medication prompting and support
• Meals, laundry and home help
• Companionship and getting out
• Dementia care at home
• Support after a hospital stay
• Short breaks for family carers
• Live-in care when needs grow