Home Care in Paddington, W2

Yes, we provide home care in Paddington. After a free assessment at home, carers visit at agreed times to help with washing, dressing, medication and meals, or a live-in carer moves in. Paddington is 40 to 55 minutes from our Lewisham office, so regular visits depend on which carers are free at the time, and we will tell you plainly before anything is agreed.

Home from St Mary's

Paddington is the neighbourhood that lives next door to the hospital. St Mary's Hospital on Praed Street, run by Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, is the main A&E and the usual discharge hospital for the north and west of Westminster. Care often first comes up on a ward there, when someone is ready to go home and nobody is sure who will help.

Ongoing care after discharge goes through Westminster Adult Social Care and community health services. If a parent or partner is in St Mary's now, call us early so we can check whether we can cover the visits and from when. Our hospital discharge support page explains what the first days at home usually involve.

Estates, terraces and the new blocks by the basin

Paddington's housing changes from one street to the next. Around Westbourne Green and towards the Harrow Road there are council estates such as the Warwick and Brindley estates, mostly blocks of flats where the lift is the only easy way up. Around Sussex Gardens and Westbourne Terrace, Victorian stucco terraces have been split into flats, many of them with long communal staircases and no lift. Around Paddington Basin and Merchant Square, newer blocks have level access, concierges and wide lifts.

Each of these changes the care plan. A third-floor walk-up raises the question of whether someone can safely get out for appointments. A new-build makes hoists and hospital beds simple to bring in. We go through access, the bathroom and equipment at the assessment, and if adaptations are needed, the council's occupational therapy route is where to ask.

What carers do on a Paddington visit

• Personal care in the morning and evening: washing, shaving, dressing, continence care
• Medication support, which matters after discharge, when the tablets have often changed
• Meals and drinks, and a check that the fridge holds what it should
• Company and help getting out, along the canal towpath to Little Venice or to the shops on Praed Street
• Dementia care and palliative care at home, planned with the family

How do I arrange council-funded home care in Paddington?

Paddington is in the City of Westminster, whose adult social care is run jointly with Kensington and Chelsea. Ask for a needs assessment through the council's adult social care referral form or by calling 020 7641 2500. If the person is eligible, a financial assessment works out what they pay towards it, and any personal budget can be taken as a direct payment and spent with a registered agency of your choice. Paying privately is also fine: we give you a written quote after the assessment, not over the phone. Our Westminster home care page covers the council route in more detail.

If you are looking after someone yourself, you are entitled to your own carer's assessment. In Westminster, Carers Network (020 8960 3033) can carry these out as well as the council.

Live-in care and respite in W2

Live-in care is not affected by the journey from Lewisham, because the carer lives in. It does need a spare bedroom, which rules out many one-bedroom estate flats but is often possible in the larger converted flats and family houses. For a family carer who needs a break, respite care can be a fortnight of live-in cover or a few extra visits a week.

What we can help with in Paddington

• 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