Old Bexley · Bexley
Live-in Care in Old Bexley, DA5
In Old Bexley a live-in carer may be moving into a village cottage with two small bedrooms, a tall Victorian house up the hill, or a 1930s semi. Each works differently. This page covers which homes suit live-in care, changeover at the borough's best station for luggage, the one-hour parking zone and the hospitals that discharge patients back to DA5.
Cottage, villa or semi: which homes work
Old Bexley's housing comes in three layers, and the answer differs for each:
- Cottages in the conservation area, round the High Street and St Mary's Church. Many have just two compact bedrooms off a steep, tight stair. Jackie takes a tape measure on her visit: a single bed and a hanging rail must go in the smaller room with space to stand. If the stair is the problem, a stairlift may not fit, and a bed downstairs may be the better answer.
- The 1880s houses around Parkhurst Road and Knoll Road. Bedrooms are seldom the issue; height is. Give the carer the room nearest your relative's, even if a bigger one sits a floor higher.
- The 1930s semis, including the council-built streets north of Bourne Road. The standard Bexley three-bedroom layout, with a box room for the carer.
Grab rails, a raised seat or a commode can be requested from Bexley's OT service on the main adult social care number. In the conservation area, check with the council's planners before anything permanent goes on an outside wall, such as a ramp or external handrail.
Changeover day at Bexley station
Bexley station, on the Sidcup line, is one of only two stations wholly inside the borough that National Rail rates fully step-free (Abbey Wood, on the Greenwich border, also has lifts), with lifts to both platforms. For a carer arriving with a suitcase, that makes changeover easier than almost anywhere else in Bexley. Many of the village streets are a short walk from the platform.
Zone H, covering the High Street and station roads, is enforced for a single weekday hour, ten till eleven. Set the changeover for the afternoon and a driving carer needs nothing; inside that hour, a resident's scratch card does the job, and Bexley asks you to allow up to 21 days for a booklet to be issued.
Back from Darent Valley or Queen Elizabeth
An ambulance from DA5 may head east to Dartford's Darent Valley or west to the Woolwich hospital, Queen Elizabeth. Wherever the ward, the patient goes home into Bexley's care. For later clinic appointments at Queen Mary's, the 229 and the 269 both leave from beside Bexley station.
State the aim plainly at the first discharge meeting: home, with someone living in. Ask, too, about the council's six free weeks of reablement, which the ward has to refer. The sooner we hear, the sooner Jackie can see the house and a carer can be booked to arrive before the patient does.
Couples in the village
A husband and wife in a DA5 cottage can share one carer: washing and dressing for the partner who needs it, shopping, cooking and laundry for both. Where a hoist or two-person transfer is involved, a single live-in carer cannot do it alone, and we plan extra help for those moments.
Support for the family carer, a bus ride away
The spouse or child who has been coping until now has a right to their own carer's assessment. Carers' Support Bexley carries these out from Wolsley House in Crayford (020 8302 8011), and the 492 links Bexley village with Crayford. If the person you care for has a mental health condition, Mind in Bexley runs a separate carers' service.
The carer's break in the village
Two hours away from the house each day keep a carer at their best, and the village offers plenty: the High Street, the river walk by the Cray, Bexley Village Community Library, or Hall Place and its gardens on Bourne Road. Anyone can join Bexley's libraries for nothing. Before the start we settle who sits with your relative while the carer is out.
Outings together can be by bus as well as on foot: the 229 and 269 to Sidcup, the 492 or B12 to Bexleyheath, the 132 towards Blackfen and Eltham.
Paying
Old Bexley follows the borough rules. Bexley Council's assessment, means test, direct payments and Individual Service Funds are explained on our Bexley live-in care page, and NHS Continuing Healthcare on paying for care. Bexley Village's library is volunteer-run, so take the council's online form to Sidcup or Central Library instead if you want staff help. Jackie's quote arrives in writing, never as a phone estimate.
Live-in care elsewhere in Bexley
Living in Old Bexley
Homes and health services in Old Bexley
Homes in Old Bexley
Older cottages and village buildings in the conservation area, an 1880s Victorian commuter estate around Parkhurst Road and Knoll Road, and 1930s estates of semis, including council-built housing north of Bourne Road.
NHS hospitals
Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich and Darent Valley Hospital, Dartford
Memory and dementia
Mum's cottage has a tiny second bedroom. Will it do?
If a single bed and a rail fit with room to turn round, usually. We check on the visit rather than guess.
Will the carer need a parking permit on the High Street?
Only between 10am and 11am on weekdays, when zone H is controlled. Otherwise, no.
Dad likes walking by the river. Can the carer take him?
Of course, on steady days. The Cray runs right past the High Street, and Hall Place's gardens make a longer outing.
The Dartford ward mentioned Kent County Council. Is that right for a DA5 address?
No. DA5 is London Borough of Bexley territory, so Bexley's adult social care team should be the one contacted.
Nearby
Nearest areas to Old Bexley outside Bexley
Closest first, measured in a straight line from the centre of Old Bexley.
