Sutton · South and south-west London
Home Care in Sutton, Carshalton and Wallington
Visiting carers for washing, dressing, meals, medication and company where we have someone free nearby, and live-in care anywhere from Worcester Park to Beddington.
Yes, we provide home care in the London Borough of Sutton, but Sutton is a long way from our Lewisham office, so how we do it depends on where you live. Visiting care is possible when we have a carer free within reach of your address, and we check that before agreeing anything. Live-in care we can arrange anywhere in the borough, because the carer travels once and then stays.
Can a visiting carer from Lewisham reach Sutton?
Sometimes. Our only office is on Lewisham High Street in SE13. Sutton has no Tube or Overground line, so the journey from us is a train to London Bridge and then Southern to Sutton, Carshalton or Wallington, or a route round through Norwood Junction and West Croydon. Door to door that is roughly an hour to an hour and a quarter, and longer again for Worcester Park, North Cheam or Belmont. By car it is about 45 minutes to an hour across south London, depending on traffic.
Short visits several times a day only work if the carer lives near you, not near us, so we check who is available near your part of Sutton before saying yes. If we can't keep visits going reliably, we'll say so and talk through live-in care in Sutton, which doesn't depend on the daily journey.
What a visit covers
- Personal care: getting up, washing or showering, dressing, continence care and getting ready for bed
- Medication support, from reminders to giving medicines from a blister pack and recording each dose
- Breakfast, a hot lunch or supper, and keeping an eye on whether food and drink are actually going down
- Home help: laundry, changing beds, tidying and a run to the shops
- Companionship, a slow lap of Nonsuch Park or Beddington Park, or company on the way to a GP appointment
- A sit-in so a husband, wife or daughter can get out of the house for a few hours
Everything starts with a free home assessment, usually with Jackie, our registered manager, and a written care plan saying what happens on each visit.
Semis, St Helier cottages and town-centre flats
Most older people in Sutton live in a 1920s or 1930s semi or a short terrace with a garden. Those houses usually have the only bathroom upstairs, often with a shower over the bath. When climbing into that bath stops being safe, the answer may be a bath lift, a level-access shower, a stairlift or a bed brought downstairs, and an occupational therapist from the council can assess for adaptations.
The interwar St Helier estate in the north of the borough is different again: two-storey cottage terraces, many now privately owned, with small upstairs rooms and narrow stairs. A stairlift or hoist can be harder to fit there, so it is worth getting equipment advice early. Flats cluster around Sutton town centre and on estates such as Benhill and Roundshaw, and converted upper-floor flats near the stations can make hoisting and bathing awkward.
Parking a carer's car: Sutton's controlled zones and care permits
Most residential streets in Sutton are uncontrolled. The exceptions are the council's Controlled Parking Zones in Sutton Town Centre, Belmont, Wellington Avenue, Longfellow, Park Lane in Cheam and the Collingwood Estate, plus Permit Parking Areas around some stations.
Inside one of them, a Resident Care Permit (£43 a year, for residents with an evidenced care need) can be used by any of your carers in your own zone with no daily time limit. Care providers can also buy a Carer (organisation) permit at £54 a year, valid in any CPZ or PPA bay for up to three hours a visit. Details are on the council's carers' parking permits page.
How do I ask Sutton Council for a care needs assessment?
Sutton Adult Social Care is based at the Civic Offices on St Nicholas Way. You, or someone with your permission, can start online with the council's care needs checklist, which leads to the request form if you look likely to be eligible, or you can phone the Contact Centre on 020 8770 5000, 9am to 5pm on weekdays. The council's assessment page sets out the steps.
According to the council, it aims to contact you within 10 working days of receiving the form. The assessment itself is usually in person and can take up to six weeks, and a statement of needs follows within 10 working days. It usually helps residents aged 18 or over with a condition affecting at least two everyday tasks such as washing, dressing or preparing food. If you have more than £23,250 in savings, the council can still arrange care, but you pay the full cost plus an arrangement fee.
Council-funded care can be taken as a direct payment, so you choose the provider. Our guide to paying for care covers the financial assessment and NHS Continuing Healthcare; our own charges are quoted in writing after the assessment.
Home from St Helier, the Marsden or Croydon
Most Sutton residents who go into hospital in an emergency are admitted to St Helier Hospital on Wrythe Lane in Carshalton, run by Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust. Residents of Wallington and Beddington near the Croydon border may be taken to Croydon University Hospital instead.
The usual first step home is the council's START reablement service: free, from about a week up to six weeks, between 7am and 11pm every day. A social worker or health professional has to refer, so ask the ward. Community nursing and therapy come from Sutton Health and Care. People finishing treatment at the Royal Marsden in Belmont may need something gentler and longer, which our palliative care covers.
Call while the discharge is still being planned. If care will be needed after START, or alongside it, the time to ask us is before the discharge date, not on the day. That gives us time to check honestly whether we can staff visits at your address or need to talk about a live-in carer. See how our hospital discharge support works.
Where in Sutton we cover
The whole borough: Sutton town centre, Carshalton and Carshalton Beeches, Wallington, Hackbridge and Beddington in the east, Cheam, North Cheam, Belmont and Worcester Park in the west, and the St Helier estate in the north. Postcodes are SM1, SM2, SM3, SM5 and SM6, the Sutton side of SM4 and KT4, and the small CR0 strip around Beddington Lane. Visiting care anywhere in them depends on carer availability; live-in care covers them all.
What we can help with in Sutton
- 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 Sutton we cover
Care across the borough, including these neighbourhoods. Each has its own page with local detail.
Our services
How we can help in Sutton
From a few visits a week to a carer who lives in, choose the support that fits.
Sutton FAQs
Sutton home care: what families ask
Questions families ask us about Sutton. If yours is not here, ask us directly.
Ask a questionMum lives in Cheam and we're in Lewisham. Is it easier for you to visit her than for us?
Not automatically. Visiting care in Cheam depends on us having a carer who lives within reach of her, not on our office. Call with her postcode and we'll tell you honestly whether we can keep visits going, or whether a live-in carer makes more sense.
Dad is on the START service after St Helier. What happens when the six weeks end?
START is short term. Before it ends, the council should look at whether he needs ongoing care, which can be arranged by the council or taken as a direct payment. Talk to us before the end date so there is no gap.
Our street in Belmont is in a controlled zone. Will the carer get a ticket?
Belmont has its own CPZ near the hospital sites. A Resident Care Permit (£43 a year) lets any of your carers park in your zone, and care providers can buy an organisation permit valid for up to three hours a visit. Check the council's permits page before visits start.
Is Housing with Care in Wallington an alternative to care at home?
For some people over 55. Cloverdale Court and Dymond House are council Housing with Care schemes: self-contained flats with lifts and assisted bathing. A place needs a council assessment showing at least five hours of care and support a week, and it means a move, so it's worth raising with the council alongside care at home.
Get started
Looking for care in Sutton?
Tell us what is happening and we will tell you honestly whether we can help, and how.