Home Care in Northfields, Ealing

Yes, we provide home care in Northfields, both visiting carers and live-in care. Northfields is one of the easier parts of Ealing for us to reach from Lewisham, but visits still depend on having a carer free for every call, so we confirm that first. Care begins with a free assessment at home and a written care plan agreed with you.

Stairs, hallways and the bathroom upstairs

Northfields is mostly long streets of Edwardian terraced houses, with some purpose-built flats. Many people who live in them have been there for decades. The houses are good family homes, but the layout gets harder to live with as someone becomes frail. Hallways are narrow, the stairs are steep, and the only bathroom is often on the first floor at the back.

For care at home, this has practical effects:

• A mobile hoist needs turning space that a narrow hallway or small back bedroom may not have. A ceiling track hoist or a bed moved downstairs can be the answer, and that is a conversation for the council's occupational therapists.
• A stairlift can often be fitted to a straight Edwardian staircase, but it narrows the stairs for everyone else, including a carer helping someone up.
• If the stairs are no longer safe, washing may have to happen downstairs for a while. That changes how long a personal care visit needs to be, so we plan for it from the start.

Raise the stairs with Ealing adult social care before a fall forces the issue, and ask specifically for an occupational therapist to visit the house. Equipment and small adaptations recommended that way are free up to the council's £1,000 limit.

Will Ealing Council pay for carers in Northfields?

It might. For someone who owns the terrace they have lived in for decades, the house itself is not counted when Ealing means-tests care at home; savings and income are. The first step is a needs assessment through the council's contacting adult social care page or 020 8825 8000. Funding can then be taken as a direct payment to pay us, and NHS Continuing Healthcare may pay where needs are mainly health needs. Private clients get a written quote after our assessment. The full process is on our Ealing home care page.

Keeping Northfield Avenue in the routine

The shopping street is Northfield Avenue, singular, though the station and the area are Northfields. It is mostly independent shops and restaurants, with a street festival each year run by the local traders' association. The old 1932 Odeon, now Grade II* listed, has been the Ealing Christian Centre since 1994. Lammas Park and Walpole Park are close, and Blondin Park and Niagara Avenue are named after the tightrope walker Charles Blondin, who retired here and lived in the area until he died in 1897.

A companionship visit can keep these places in someone's week: the walk to the shops, the bench in Lammas Park, church on Sunday.

Getting here

Northfields station is on Northfield Avenue, on the Piccadilly line in zone 3. Charles Holden designed the 1932 building, and the line's depot lies just to the west. South Ealing station is one stop east. Buses E2 and E3 serve the station, linking it with Greenford, Ealing, Hanwell, Brentford, Acton and Chiswick, and the night bus N11 runs to central London.

Live-in care and respite

If the house has a spare bedroom for the carer, live-in care is usually possible, and it avoids the stairs becoming a daily obstacle course of carers coming and going. For family carers, a live-in carer can cover a holiday. Ealing Council offers a carer's assessment to look at what support you need yourself. Our supported living home in Whitton is reachable via Hounslow if a short supported living stay would suit a younger adult with a disability. If you have concerns about any local care service, including ours, Healthwatch Ealing on St Mary's Road takes independent feedback.

What we can help with in Northfields

• 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