Live-in Care in Bromley

Where the carer sleeps: Petts Wood semis to SE20 conversions

Live-in care cannot work without one thing: a bedroom for the carer, with a bed, somewhere to keep their belongings and a door that closes, plus use of the kitchen and bathroom. In most of Bromley that is the easy part. The borough is overwhelmingly owner-occupied, and in Orpington, Petts Wood, West Wickham, Hayes and Chislehurst the typical home is an interwar or post-war semi or detached house where a second or third bedroom has stood empty since the children left.

The north-west is different. In Penge, Anerley and the older streets around Beckenham's stations, many Victorian and Edwardian houses have been split into flats. A two-bedroom conversion can take a live-in carer; a one-bedroom upper-floor flat cannot. Where there is no spare room, regular visits are the usual answer, and our home care in Bromley page covers those.

In a 1930s semi the bedrooms, and often the only bathroom, are upstairs. A live-in carer helps with the climb at bedtime, but if the stairs have stopped being safe, a stairlift or a bed downstairs makes the house workable again; raise equipment when you ask the council for a needs assessment. Biggin Hill is often the reverse: single-storey bungalows on hilly, sometimes unmade roads, where getting past the front gate is the harder part.

Coming home from the Princess Royal with someone living in

Most hospital discharges in the borough come from the Princess Royal University Hospital at Farnborough Common, run by King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, with rehabilitation and a frailty unit at Orpington Hospital on Sevenoaks Road. Bromley Council's advice is that if you are in hospital and will need help when you go home, you contact the social services care manager based at the hospital, directly or through the ward staff.

If the family wants live-in care considered, say so to the ward and that care manager early, before a plan is settled without you. Then call us while the discharge is still being planned, so we can assess, look at the room and the stairs, and tell you honestly whether we can staff it and from when. Bromley Well's Take Home and Settle service helps some over-50s who live alone to settle back in, but it is short-term and arranged by professional referral.

One carer for two people, or an extra care flat?

The council's own needs assessment says Bromley has the largest population aged 65 and over of any London borough, around 60,100 people in 2023. When one half of an older couple comes to need a lot of care, the usual routes can split them up: a care home for one, an empty house for the other.

Bromley offers one alternative itself. Its extra care housing runs across four schemes for people over 55, with staff on site day and night, and the council says it lets couples with very different care needs stay together. It means moving to a flat on a tenancy, and you need to be eligible for a council personal budget.

Live-in care keeps a couple together without the move. One carer supports both people in the house they own: full personal care for one, a lighter hand for the other, meals cooked for two, and someone else in the house at night. Ask the council's assessor to put both options on the table, and ask us to quote for the live-in one.

When nobody in the house drives any more

Away from the main rail lines, much of Bromley is built around the car, and when the driver stops, the GP, the chemist and the shops all get harder at once. Tell us at the assessment how errands worked until now, so the care plan says how they will work from here: bus, taxi, family or home delivery. A live-in carer can go along to appointments at the PRUH, Orpington Hospital or Beckenham Beacon's outpatient clinics.

The carer's own time off

A live-in carer is entitled to a proper break every day and to an unbroken night's sleep. If someone needs help through the night as a matter of routine, that is a different arrangement, and we will say so at the assessment. Family, a short visit or a day centre can cover the daily break. Bromley's day centres listing includes the Saxon Day Centre run by Age Concern Orpington on Lych Gate Road and the Biggin Hill Community Care Association, plus specialist dementia day care. For someone with a dementia diagnosis, the free Memory Lane Café at Community House, near Bromley North station, is somewhere to go together.

When the regular carer takes a holiday, we plan replacement cover in advance and, wherever we can, introduce the new carer before the handover.

How much does live-in care cost in Bromley?

It depends on the level of support, whether it is for one person or two, and whether regular night-time care is needed. We give you a written figure after the assessment; we do not guess over the phone. On funding:

• Council funding. Request a needs assessment from Bromley Adult Social Care on 020 8461 7777, by email to adultsocialcare@bromley.gov.uk, or through the online care assessment form. The council's Adult Early Intervention Service makes first contact. A financial assessment then decides what the person pays, and any personal budget can be taken as a direct payment, normally loaded onto a prepaid card every four weeks.
• NHS Continuing Healthcare. Where needs are mainly health needs, the NHS may fund the whole package. In Bromley that decision sits with NHS South East London Integrated Care Board. The NHS guide to Continuing Healthcare explains the checklist and full assessment.
• Paying privately. Most Bromley households own their home, and the means test treats the house differently for care at home than for a care home. Our guide to paying for care in London sets out the difference.

What we can help with in Bromley

• A carer living in, with their own room
• Care for one person or a couple
• Personal care through the day
• Medication support
• Cooking, housekeeping and laundry
• Dementia support at home
• Company, outings and appointments
• Cover arranged for the carer's breaks