Thames View · Barking and Dagenham
Home Care on the Thames View Estate
Help at home for long-standing Thames View tenants and owners in IG11, from the houses and maisonettes off Bastable Avenue to the blocks on the estate's edges.
We can provide home care on the Thames View estate, either as visits or with a live-in carer. It starts with a free assessment in the home, followed by a written care plan. Our office is in Lewisham, so we will be honest about which visit times we can cover; live-in care avoids that question entirely.
An estate people stayed on
Barking Borough Council built Thames View between 1954 and 1960 on marshland south of the town, putting about 2,000 homes on piles and raft foundations. It was the largest development the old council ever carried out. Bastable Avenue runs through the middle, with a small pedestrian shopping precinct along it, and Christ Church serves the estate. It remains a settled community with many long-term older tenants. Barking Riverside, all new building, has grown up immediately to the south.
Houses, maisonettes and blocks: what each one means for care
The estate mixes terraced houses, maisonettes and flats, and the right care plan depends heavily on which one you live in.
Terraced houses generally have the bathroom and bedrooms upstairs. Once stairs become risky, families usually choose between a stairlift and moving a bed downstairs, with a commode or a downstairs toilet if there is one. The upside is that a three-bedroom house nearly always has a room for a live-in carer.
Maisonettes are the hardest. They often have an internal staircase and are reached by external steps or a walkway as well, so someone can be safe inside but unable to get out. Visits often need to cover the steps: help getting to an appointment, or doing the shopping. Tenants can ask their landlord and the council's occupational therapists about rails and adaptations.
Flats in the low and medium-rise blocks are usually on one level, which helps, but a wheelchair or hoist plan depends on the block having a lift.
How do I get the council to assess Mum on Thames View?
Contact Barking and Dagenham's Adult Intake Team on 020 8227 2915 or intaketeam@lbbd.gov.uk, or use the council's online needs assessment. If she qualifies, a financial assessment decides what she pays, and the council's share can come as a direct payment that she can spend with an agency like us. If you are the one doing the caring, ask for a carer's assessment for yourself too. The fuller council picture is on our Barking and Dagenham home care page. Our own fees are quoted in writing after we assess.
The health centre on Bastable Avenue
The estate's health centre is on Bastable Avenue, IG11 0LG. It is now run as Aurora Medcare, and NELFT also lists it among its Barking and Dagenham sites, under its old name, Thames View Health Centre. A carer can go with someone to appointments there as part of a visit. For hospital stays, Thames View patients are usually admitted to Queen's in Romford or King George in Goodmayes, and some go to Newham University Hospital.
Travel and parking for carers
Thames View has no station. East London Transit buses EL1 and EL2 run through the estate, stopping at Christ Church and the health centre; both go to Barking station, and the EL1 continues to Barking Riverside station on the Overground. Barking is roughly 45 to 55 minutes from our Lewisham office by public transport, plus the bus, so visits depend on carer availability. If your road is in one of the council's controlled parking zones, a resident receiving care can apply for a Community and Healthcare permit for visiting carers.
Short breaks and live-in care
For a husband or wife caring around the clock, respite from us might be a few regular sitting visits or a live-in carer for a week or two while they rest or go away. The council also arranges short breaks for carers after a carer's assessment, and runs Kallar Lodge, a dementia care home with respite places. When the need is permanent, one live-in carer can look after a couple in their own Thames View house.
Services available on Thames View
- Personal care
- Medication support
- Home help
- Companionship
- Sit-in service
- Live-in care
- Respite care
- Dementia care
- Complex care
- Palliative care
- Hospital discharge
Nail care is the one service we do not offer here: it only covers five areas closer to our office.
What we can help with in Thames View
- 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
Elsewhere in Barking and Dagenham
Home care pages for other parts of Barking and Dagenham:
Our services
How we can help in Barking and Dagenham
From a few visits a week to a carer who lives in, choose the support that fits.
Visiting care in Barking and Dagenham
Regular visits for personal care, medication, meals and company.
Read more →Live-in care in Barking and Dagenham
A carer who lives in, for one person or a couple.
Read more →Respite care in Barking and Dagenham
Cover so a family carer can rest, recover or go away.
Read more →Supported living in Barking and Dagenham
Our homes in Whitton, Kingston and Uxbridge.
Read more →Thames View FAQs
Thames View FAQs
Questions families ask us about Thames View. If yours is not here, ask us directly.
Ask a questionDad lives in a maisonette and can no longer manage the outside steps. What can you do?
Carers can bring shopping and prescriptions in, and help him on the steps when he has somewhere to be. Ask the council's occupational therapists and his landlord about rails or other adaptations too. We will cover all of this at the assessment.
Can a carer take Mum to the Bastable Avenue health centre?
Yes. Give us the appointment time and we will check that a carer can cover it as part of her visit.
My parents have lived in the same council house since the 1960s. Can a live-in carer stay there?
Yes, if there is a bedroom free for the carer. If you rent from the council or a housing association and are unsure what your tenancy says about someone living in, ask the landlord before care starts.
Is Thames View close enough to Lewisham for daily visits?
Sometimes. It depends on the times you need and on whether we have a carer free for that route, so call us and we will give you a straight answer before anything is agreed.
Mum has dementia and has started going out at night. Would live-in care help?
It often does, because someone is in the house. Tell us about the night-time pattern at the assessment so the plan, and the carer's own rest, are arranged around it. See our dementia care page.
Get started
Looking for care in Thames View?
Tell us what is happening and we will tell you honestly whether we can help, and how.