Hackney · East London
Home Care in Hackney
Visiting carers for washing, dressing, meals and medication in Hackney homes, from estate flats in Hoxton and Homerton to converted terraces in Dalston and Clapton.
Yes, we provide visiting home care in Hackney, with carers coming in at set times for personal care, medication, meals and company. It starts with a free assessment at home and a written care plan. Visits are most practical in the south and centre of the borough, so tell us the address and we will tell you honestly whether we can staff it.
Can a visiting carer reach your part of Hackney?
Our office is on Lewisham High Street, and Hackney is not on our doorstep. What makes it workable is the Overground. The Windrush line runs north from south-east London through Shoreditch High Street, Hoxton and Haggerston to Dalston Junction, and from Lewisham that puts Hoxton, Dalston, Hackney Central and Homerton about 40 to 50 minutes away. Those are the areas where regular visits are most realistic for us.
Stoke Newington, Stamford Hill and Upper Clapton are another story. They are roughly an hour or more from SE13, reached on the Weaver line out of Liverpool Street, and short daily visits that far north depend on having a carer who lives nearby. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't, so ask before you plan around us. If visits cannot be covered, live-in care works anywhere in the borough, because the carer lives in.
Getting around once here matters too. Almost all of Hackney sits inside controlled parking zones (Hackney Central's runs until 11pm, Monday to Saturday), there are low-traffic neighbourhoods around London Fields and elsewhere, and the whole borough is in the ULEZ. Carers here travel by Overground, bus and on foot, so visit times are planned around the trains and the Mare Street and Kingsland Road buses.
What a visit covers
A typical package is built around the parts of the day that have become hard: getting washed and dressed in the morning, a hot meal at lunchtime, tablets taken at the right times, and help getting ready for bed. Between those, carers can do some shopping on Mare Street or Kingsland High Street, keep the flat clean underfoot, or walk with someone to the bus stop for a hospital appointment.
Estate lifts, converted flats and small bathrooms
Hackney has one of the largest shares of social housing in London, and a lot of older residents live in the same estate flat they have rented for decades: Woodberry Down, Kingsmead, Nightingale, Clapton Park, Wenlock Barn and the big estates around Hoxton. On the upper floors, a working lift decides whether someone can get out at all. When it breaks, carers can still climb the stairs, but the person they visit may be stuck indoors. We note that in the care plan and plan shopping and errands around it, and the repair itself is one to keep pressing with the landlord.
The other common home is a Victorian terrace split into upper and lower flats, which is most of Stoke Newington, Clapton, Dalston and De Beauvoir. Upper flats mean a steep internal staircase, and both kinds tend to have a small bathroom with a bath. When getting in and out of that bath stops being safe, the answer is often an occupational therapy assessment for equipment or adaptations, which the council arranges, with our carers working to whatever is put in.
Coming home from Homerton? Homerton University Hospital is the discharge hospital for most of Hackney; parts of the south of the borough may come out of the Royal London in Whitechapel instead. Discharges that need care are arranged with Hackney Adult Social Care, often through short-term reablement first. Call us while discharge is still being planned so we can tell you honestly whether we can cover it and from when. Read how our hospital discharge support works.
Asking Hackney Council for help
If you think the council should help pay for care, start with a needs assessment. Hackney Adult Social Care takes requests through its online request for adult social care support, or by phone on 020 8356 6262. Family members can make the request on someone's behalf.
The council explains its assessment process: it phones first, and if it cannot decide over the phone a social worker or occupational therapist visits at home. It says it aims to finish assessments within 28 days of the request, with the most urgent cases first. If care is needed before then and you are paying privately in the meantime, we can start once our own assessment is done and adjust when the council's plan arrives.
How much does home care cost in Hackney?
We do not quote prices on the phone. What visiting care costs depends on how many visits a day, how long each one is and what happens in them, and we give you a written figure after the home assessment.
Who pays depends on the council's financial assessment. The NHS guide to paying for your own care explains that people with savings above the upper capital limit of £23,250 usually pay for their own care, and that below it the council may help. If Hackney funds care, it can pay you as a direct payment so you can choose an agency. Our guide to paying for care in London covers this, plus NHS Continuing Healthcare for people whose needs are mainly health needs.
Communities, food and faith
Hackney's older population is long settled: Caribbean elders who came to Stoke Newington and Clapton decades ago, Turkish and Kurdish families around Dalston, the Charedi Orthodox Jewish community in Stamford Hill, and Irish and East End families on the estates. In personal care, the details matter: hair and skin care, how food is cooked, prayer times, the Sabbath, who is comfortable being washed by whom. Tell us at the assessment and it goes into the care plan, and we try to match carers to it.
Places worth knowing about
The Marie Lloyd Centre on Queensbridge Road, E8, is the most useful single address in the borough. It houses Age UK East London (020 8981 7124), which offers advice, befriending and activities, and the City & Hackney Carers Centre for family members doing the caring. If memory is the worry, a GP can refer to the NHS Diagnostic Memory Clinic in Homerton, run by East London NHS Foundation Trust.
What we can help with in Hackney
- 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
Areas of Hackney we cover
Care across the borough, including these neighbourhoods. Each has its own page with local detail.
Our services
How we can help in Hackney
From a few visits a week to a carer who lives in, choose the support that fits.
Hackney FAQs
Home care in Hackney: what families ask
Questions families ask us about Hackney. If yours is not here, ask us directly.
Ask a questionMy mother lives in Upper Clapton. Can you send visiting carers that far north?
Possibly, but we will not promise it until we have checked. Upper Clapton is about an hour from our office, so regular short visits there depend on having a carer who lives nearby. Call us with the postcode. If visits cannot be covered reliably, we will say so, and talk through live-in care instead.
The address is in Shoreditch. Is that Hackney or Tower Hamlets?
It could be either, because Shoreditch straddles the boundary. The same applies at the top of Stamford Hill, where the north side is Haringey. We cover all three boroughs, but the council that assesses and funds care is the one where the person lives, so check the council tax bill before you apply.
Dad has just had reablement visits after Homerton. Can you take over when they stop?
Yes, if we can staff the visits. Reablement is short-term and ends once the council has reviewed how someone is managing. Ask us before it finishes so the handover is planned, and ask the council whether ongoing care will be funded or privately paid.
Do your carers drive? Parking in Hackney is difficult.
Most carers coming to Hackney use the Overground and buses, because nearly every street is in a controlled parking zone and the borough is inside the ULEZ. If a care plan does need a carer to drive, we will discuss parking with you at the assessment.
Nearby
Other areas near Hackney
Get started
Looking for care in Hackney?
Tell us what is happening and we will tell you honestly whether we can help, and how.