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 A care worker doing home help is watching the house: noticing the food going out of date in the fridge, that the heating is off in November, that there is a rug at the top of the stairs that was not there last week, that the post has not been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, which is the single biggest falls risk in most homes
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
Falls are the leading cause of injury-related hospital admission among older adults in the UK, and a large share of them happen at home over entirely ordinary hazards: 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 trained care workers, DBS checked, 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.
What is the minimum visit?
An hour. Less than that and you are choosing between doing the job properly and speaking to the person.
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.