Home Care in Hammersmith and Fulham

Yes, we provide visiting home care in Hammersmith and Fulham, from White City down to the river at Sands End. Our office is in Lewisham, roughly an hour away, so regular visits depend on having a carer who can reach your street reliably: call us and we will tell you honestly what we can staff. Before you pay anyone, though, ask the council for an assessment, because council-arranged home care in this borough is free.

Is home care free in Hammersmith and Fulham?

If the council arranges it, yes. H&F abolished charges for home care in 2015 and says it is still the only council in the country to have done so. The council's home care page lists what that service can help with: washing and dressing, laundry, housework and shopping, collecting a pension or paying bills, and emptying a commode, every day of the year.

Two things decide whether you get it. First, you need a Care Act assessment, and you have to meet the national eligibility criteria. You can ask for one yourself, or a GP, community nurse or mental health nurse can refer you. Call Adult Social Care free on 0800 145 6095 (8.45am to 5pm, Monday to Friday) or use the council's online contact form. Second, the hours you get are the hours the assessment says you need.

So where does a private agency fit? Mostly in the gaps. Someone may not meet the criteria yet but is clearly struggling, a family may want longer visits or companionship as well as tasks, or an assessment may still be pending. We charge for our care, and we give you a written figure after a free home assessment, never over the phone. If the council agrees ongoing care, a personal budget taken as a direct payment lets you choose who provides it: see the council's assessments and paying for care page.

What our carers do on a visit

• Personal care
• Medication support
• Home help
• Companionship
• Sit-in service
• Dementia care

Visits run from help getting washed and dressed to a sit-in for someone with dementia who shouldn't be left alone. Where more is needed, we also provide complex care and palliative care at home.

Getting a carer from Lewisham to your door

From Lewisham High Street it takes roughly 50 to 65 minutes door to door, by District line from London Bridge or Victoria, or by Overground via Clapham Junction to Imperial Wharf or Shepherd's Bush. That makes south and east Fulham and Shepherd's Bush the easier end of the borough for us. The western side of Hammersmith, Ravenscourt Park and White City are an hour or more. We won't take on a pattern of daily visits we can't keep up, so we will tell you plainly at the first call whether we can cover your area. If we can't, live-in care is the dependable alternative, because the carer moves in and the journey stops mattering.

A carer who drives needs to park, and almost the whole borough is in controlled parking zones. Residents book visitors in through RingGo using a virtual visitor permit, which is discounted for Blue Badge holders. In south Fulham there's a second thing to sort. The South Fulham Clean Air Neighbourhood uses cameras to stop through-traffic on residential streets either side of Wandsworth Bridge Road. Any H&F resident can let carers through those cameras free by booking them in with the same resident visitor permit, so set that up before the first visit, or the carer risks a fine.

Stairs, mansion blocks and walk-up estates

Much of Fulham is long streets of two-storey Victorian terraces, and many of them are now split into an upper and lower flat. The upper flats have steep internal stairs and a bathroom that was squeezed in later, often with a bath and no shower. That is where personal care gets difficult first, so ask the council about an occupational therapy assessment for rails, a bath board or a level-access shower.

Around Barons Court, West Kensington and Hammersmith the red-brick mansion blocks bring different questions: whether there is a lift, whether it fits a wheelchair, and how a carer gets in through a shared entrance. Some of the White City Estate's 1930s to 1950s blocks are walk-ups without lifts, which matters for anyone using a frame. The riverside blocks at Imperial Wharf, Fulham Reach and Chelsea Creek have lifts, but the concierge needs to know who the carers are.

Where we cover

We cover the whole borough, across the W6, W12, W14 and SW6 postcodes and the small corners of W3 and NW10 around Old Oak. That includes Hammersmith and Ravenscourt Park in the west, Brook Green and West Kensington towards Olympia, Shepherd's Bush and White City in the north, and Fulham, Parsons Green and Sands End in the south.

Local help to use alongside paid care

• Age UK Hammersmith and Fulham runs an activity centre at 105 Greyhound Road W6, close to Charing Cross Hospital, with classes, lunches and help with Lasting Power of Attorney.
• Nubian Life in Shepherd's Bush is the borough's day centre with roots in the African Caribbean community; our Shepherd's Bush page has the details.
• Action on Disability in Fulham gives free welfare benefits advice, including PIP, Blue Badge, Freedom Pass and Taxicard applications, to disabled residents and their carers.
• Memory assessment for the whole borough is done by West London NHS Trust in Hammersmith, on GP referral. Council-arranged home care is free whether or not there is a diagnosis yet, so the two can run side by side.

What we can help with in Hammersmith and Fulham

• 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