Home Help and Domestic Care in London
Keeping a home clean, warm, stocked and safe to walk across, which is most of what keeps someone living independently.
Not a cleaner
Home help looks like housework and it is not really housework. A cleaner does the house. A care worker doing home help is watching the house: noticing the food going out of date in the fridge, that the heating is off in November, that there is a rug at the top of the stairs that was not there last week, that the post has not been opened since Tuesday.
It is often the first service a family arranges, because it is the least intrusive, and it is frequently the one that keeps someone at home longest.
What it covers
- Light housekeeping: hoovering, dusting, kitchen and bathroom
- Laundry, ironing and changing the bed
- Washing up and keeping the kitchen usable
- Preparing and serving meals, and sitting down while they are eaten
- Food shopping, either together or on their behalf
- Errands: the post office, the pharmacy, the dry cleaner
- Taking the bins out and keeping on top of the recycling
- Keeping floors and walkways clear, so hazards in the home do not turn into falls
Meals are worth doing properly. Poor nutrition in older people is common, easy to miss and does real damage. A meal cooked in the house, that smells like food, and is eaten with someone else at the table, gets eaten. A microwave tray left in the fridge often does not.
Falls, and the state of the floor
Around a third of people aged 65 and over, and around half of people aged 80 and over, fall at least once a year, and environmental hazards in the home are one of the recognised risk factors (Office for Health Improvement and Disparities). Many of those hazards are entirely ordinary: trailing flexes, loose rugs, a hallway with boxes in it, a bulb that went months ago on the landing. Someone in the house weekly who fixes those things as a matter of routine is doing genuine preventive work.
How it fits with everything else
Home help is often booked on its own at first, then grows. A weekly visit becomes two. Shopping is added. Then company, then personal care when the time comes. Because it is the same small team throughout, that progression happens with people your relative already knows and trusts, which makes each step considerably easier.
Questions families ask
Is this the same as hiring a cleaner?
No. Our staff are care workers, recruited with the pre-employment checks a CQC-registered provider must carry out, working to a care plan, and they are watching for changes in someone's wellbeing as well as doing the practical tasks. A cleaner will not notice that your mother has stopped eating.
Can you do the food shopping?
Yes, either taking someone with us, which is much better where they are able, or on their behalf with a list. Getting out to the shops is worth preserving for as long as it is realistic.
How long is a home help visit?
Long enough to do the job properly and still talk to the person. We agree the length at the assessment, based on what needs doing.
Will you tell us if something is wrong?
Yes, and quickly. Noticing and reporting change is a core part of what the visit is for.
Talk it through with Jackie
No call centre and no obligation. Tell us what you are dealing with and we will tell you honestly whether we can help.