Home Care in Waltham Forest

Can a Lewisham care agency really visit Waltham Forest?

Our only office is on Lewisham High Street in SE13, and we do not have a base or a team in east London. We cover Waltham Forest because the journey is workable for part of it. Leyton and Leytonstone are roughly 45 to 55 minutes from us by DLR to Stratford and then one or two stops on the Central line. Walthamstow is nearer an hour, and Highams Park and Chingford, at the top of the Weaver line, are 70 to 80 minutes away.

That distance matters for visits. A carer who has to cross London twice a day can be held up, and a 7.30am call to Chingford Mount is not something we will promise unless we know we can keep it. So the honest picture is this: visiting care in E10 and E11 is often possible, Walthamstow (E17) is case by case, and in E4 we will usually talk to you about live-in care, which is not affected by distance at all. Give us the address when you call and we will tell you which of those applies.

What a visit covers

Visiting care, also called domiciliary care, is a carer coming to the home at agreed times to help with the things that have become hard or unsafe to do alone:

• Personal care: getting up, washing or showering, dressing, continence care and getting ready for bed
• Medication support: prompting, helping with blister packs and recording what was taken
• Meals and drinks, and checking the fridge has something in it
• Home help: laundry, changing the bed and keeping floors clear
• Companionship, or a sit-in so a family carer can go out

Jackie, who runs the service, does the assessment. The care plan is written down and agreed with you before the first visit, and it records who comes, when, and what they do.

Warner flats, tower block lifts and Chingford semis

The kind of house someone lives in decides a lot about their care, and Waltham Forest has three quite different kinds.

Much of Walthamstow and Leyton is late-Victorian and Edwardian terraces, and a large share of them are Warner flats: an upper and a lower flat behind two front doors. If your relative lives in the upper one, there is a full flight of stairs straight inside the door, and usually a small bathroom with a bath. Getting in and out of that bath is often the first thing that stops being safe. A carer can help with a strip wash or with a shower over the bath where there is one fitted, and we will point out at the assessment when an occupational therapy assessment for a bath lift or a level-access shower is worth asking the council for.

Most of the borough's big post-war towers have gone: the Cathall Road estate in Leytonstone was rebuilt by the Waltham Forest Housing Action Trust, and the Beaumont Road estate in Leyton has been almost entirely redeveloped. What remains is a mix of 1960s blocks, newer flats along the main roads and the borough's sheltered and extra care schemes. In any of them, the lift decides a lot. When it is out of order, someone with a walking frame cannot get down, and equipment cannot easily come up. Let us know which floor the flat is on and whether the lift is reliable.

Further north, in Highams Park and Chingford, homes are mostly interwar semis and terraces with gardens. They have more space for equipment, and more often a spare bedroom, which is why live-in care is so practical there.

How do I get a care assessment from Waltham Forest Council?

Phone the council's Adult Social Care Team on 020 8496 3130 and ask for a needs assessment. It can be done face to face or over the phone, and the person gets a written copy. If you want a sense of eligibility first, the council has an online self assessment tool. The council's getting help page explains the process. It also says the council will arrange an independent advocate if there is no one to help the person take part.

If the council finds eligible needs, a financial assessment follows. If the person qualifies for funding, they can take some or all of it as a direct payment and use it to pay an agency they choose. Our guide to paying for care in London covers the means test and NHS Continuing Healthcare. If you are paying privately, we quote after the assessment.

Home from Whipps Cross

Most Waltham Forest residents are discharged from Whipps Cross University Hospital in Leytonstone, run by Barts Health NHS Trust and currently being rebuilt on the same site. Some people in north-west Chingford may be treated at North Middlesex in Edmonton instead.

When someone needs support after a hospital stay, the usual first step is the council's reablement service. It is free for up to six weeks and includes reablement officers, occupational therapists and physiotherapists. The best time to call is while the discharge is still being planned. Read how our hospital discharge support works.

Memory problems and the Dementia Hub

The NHS memory service for the borough is run by NELFT from Red Oak Lodge off Langthorne Road in Leytonstone, and referral is usually through the GP. The council's Dementia Hub on Sidmouth Road in Leyton hosts activity sessions, an Alzheimer's Society group, CREST's Ageing Well sessions and a weekly Age UK Waltham Forest advice drop-in. A visiting carer can work around those days, for example by getting someone ready and out of the door in the morning. Our dementia care page explains how we approach it.

What we can help with in Waltham Forest

• 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