Home Care in Westminster

Yes, we provide visiting home care in the City of Westminster. Carers come to the flat or house at set times to help with personal care, medication, meals and company, and the plan is agreed after a free home assessment. The south and centre of the city are among the easiest parts of London for us to reach from Lewisham; the north-west takes longer, so visits there depend on which carers are free.

How far is Westminster from your Lewisham office?

Closer than most people expect. Southeastern trains run direct from Lewisham to Charing Cross and to Victoria in roughly 15 to 25 minutes, which puts Pimlico, Victoria, Belgravia, Soho, Westminster itself and the southern half of Marylebone about 25 to 35 minutes door to door from our office. That is a realistic distance for regular morning and evening calls.

Paddington, Bayswater, Maida Vale, St John's Wood and Queen's Park are a different matter: a train into town and then the Bakerloo or Jubilee line, so 40 to 55 minutes each way. We do cover them, but whether we can keep the same carer coming every morning depends on availability at the time. Ask, and we will tell you honestly. If visits there aren't workable, live-in care is not affected by the journey at all.

We don't have an office in Westminster. Our only office is on Lewisham High Street, SE13.

Carers come by Tube and train

Driving between visits in Westminster is slow and expensive. On-street parking is controlled across the whole city, paid bays usually have a maximum stay of a few hours, the West End, Mayfair, Soho, Victoria and Westminster sit inside the Congestion Charge zone, and the whole borough is in the ULEZ. So our carers travel by train, Tube and bus, and you won't be asked to find a parking permit. The upside is that Westminster has more Tube stations than any other borough, so most addresses are a short walk from a stop.

What a visit covers

• Personal care: a wash or shower, shaving, dressing, continence care and getting up or ready for bed
• Medication support: prompting, assisting and recording, in line with the pharmacy's instructions
• Meals and drinks, and checking the fridge is stocked
• Home help: laundry, a change of bed linen, keeping floors clear
• Companionship and help getting out, whether that's the shops on Marylebone High Street or a walk round a Pimlico square
• Sitting with someone who shouldn't be left alone, including people living with dementia

Everything is written into a care plan after the assessment, and the plan changes as needs change.

Mansion flats, walk-ups and estate lifts

Westminster is almost entirely a city of flats. An older relative might be in a converted stucco house in Pimlico or Bayswater with three flights of communal stairs, a red-brick mansion block in Maida Vale with a lift the size of a phone box, a flat above a shop in Soho, or a block on Churchill Gardens, Lillington Gardens or the Church Street estates. Each raises its own questions: can a wheelchair or a hospital bed get in, is there room to use a hoist, and is the bathroom a bath under a window with no space to stand beside it?

We look at all of this at the assessment. Where equipment or adaptations are needed, the council's needs assessment is the route to ask for them, and we plan visits around what the flat allows.

How do I get a care assessment from Westminster City Council?

Adult social care in Westminster is run jointly with Kensington and Chelsea, and the shared information site is called People First. You can ask for a Care Act needs assessment by filling in the council's adult social care referral form, by calling Adult Social Care on 020 7641 2500, or by emailing adultsocialcare@westminster.gov.uk. People First explains what the assessment involves.

If the council finds the person eligible, a financial assessment decides what they contribute. A personal budget can be taken as a direct payment and used to pay a registered agency you choose, which can be us. If you are paying privately, we give you a written figure after our free assessment. We don't quote prices over the phone. Our guide to paying for care in London covers the means test and NHS Continuing Healthcare.

Where in Westminster we cover

The whole city, from SW1 to NW8: Pimlico, Victoria, Belgravia and Westminster in the south; Soho, Mayfair, Fitzrovia's Westminster side and Covent Garden in the West End; Marylebone and Lisson Grove; Paddington and Bayswater in W2; Maida Vale and Little Venice in W9; St John's Wood in NW8; and Queen's Park at the north-west tip. Queen's Park and Belgravia both sit on borough boundaries, so check whether the address is in Westminster, Brent or Kensington and Chelsea before you contact the council.

What we can help with in Westminster

• 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