Home Care in St Mary Cray

Getting help from Bromley Council

St Mary Cray is in the London Borough of Bromley. Any council help, from a grab rail to a full package, comes through Bromley Adult Social Care, which can then arrange care itself or hand you a budget to spend with an agency of your choosing.

For a morning-and-evening pattern, an agency with carers living around the Cray valley is a better bet than us; the CQC register lists every one, and the council's assessors know them. We would rather tell you that now than take on visits we cannot keep.

Aspley Court: extra care on Wellington Road

One of Bromley's four extra care housing schemes, Aspley Court, is at 100 Wellington Road, BR5 4AQ, in St Mary Cray ward. It is for Bromley residents over 55 who already have, or qualify for, a council personal budget, and have care needs from a disability or dementia; the council's assessor decides. Tenants have their own flat, with staff on site day and night and a care team seven days a week, and the council says couples with different care needs can move in together. Places come through the council's assessment, then a nomination to the housing provider. For someone who can no longer manage at home but does not want a care home, it is worth asking about.

A town that cares a lot

St Mary Cray was a market town on the River Cray long before it became a suburb of Orpington, and its paper mills employed many local people into the 1930s. Today it has a younger profile than much of Bromley, but the 2021 Census shows a lot of caring going on. Almost 3 in every 100 people in St Mary Cray ward were caring unpaid for at least 50 hours a week, second only to St Paul's Cray, and more people than average were limited a lot by disability. Over a thousand households were someone aged 66 or more living alone.

If you are one of those carers, you are entitled to a carer's assessment from Bromley Council, and Bromley Well's carers service, on freephone 0808 278 7898, Monday to Saturday, offers free support, training and help planning for emergencies.

Houses, estates and adaptations

Some nineteenth-century cottages and terraces survive around the old High Street, where stairs and bathrooms can be tight. Most of the rest is twentieth-century housing, including council-built estates from the 1950s and 1960s; Bromley's former council homes are now owned by Clarion Housing Group. In the ward, nearly half the homes are semi-detached and about one household in five rents from a council or housing association. For equipment such as rails, a shower seat or a stairlift, ask Bromley Council for an occupational therapy assessment; in a rented home, adaptations also need the landlord's agreement.

Buses to the hospitals

The main hospital for St Mary Cray is the Princess Royal University Hospital at Farnborough, with rehabilitation and step-down care at Orpington Hospital on Sevenoaks Road. Southbound, the R11 leaves St Mary Cray station, calls by the retail park and climbs through Orpington to Orpington Hospital and Green Street Green; northbound, it ends at Queen Mary's in Sidcup, where some Bromley patients finish their rehab. The R3 links the Kent Road and Marion Crescent side with Petts Wood and the PRUH. The 273 runs from St Mary Cray station through Chislehurst and Mottingham to Lewisham.

Without a car in BR5

Almost a quarter of households in St Mary Cray ward had no car or van in 2021, close to the Bromley average but a real problem in a place built along a valley road. Between the 273, the R11 and the R3, most streets are within reach of a bus to Orpington, and the station has trains to Bromley South and Victoria. For hospital appointments, book transport early or ask the GP surgery whether non-emergency patient transport applies.

Shops, library and company

The Nugent shopping park on Cray Avenue is a short walk from the station. The nearest library is St Paul's Cray Library on Mickleham Road. Careplus Bromley volunteers help people over 65 with shopping, befriending and lifts to medical appointments, and Age UK Bromley & Greenwich runs friendship groups through Bromley Well. The Saxon Day Centre on Lych Gate Road, Orpington, offers day care for older people.

What we can offer in St Mary Cray

A carer who lives in is not affected by the distance from Lewisham, because they travel only at the start and end of a placement. They are there through the day for personal care, meals, medicines and company, and they can take your relative on the R11 to a clinic at Orpington Hospital. A short live-in stay is also the most practical form of respite this far out. See live-in care in St Mary Cray, and our Bromley home care page for the wider council picture.

Everything our carers can help with →