Live-in Care in Tottenham

Yes, we provide live-in care across Tottenham, in N17 and N15. Jackie, our registered manager, carries out a free assessment at the home, we agree a written care plan with you, and then a trained carer moves into the spare room and supports your relative through the day. The carer travels in for the start of each placement, so the distance from our Lewisham office has no effect on the care itself.

Coming home from North Middlesex with a carer already in the house

For most of Tottenham, a hospital stay means North Middlesex University Hospital on Sterling Way, just over the Enfield border. When someone comes back weaker than they went in, the first weeks are often the hardest: the stairs of a terrace, new tablets, eating properly again. A live-in carer is there for all of it, not only at visit times.

Call us while your relative is still on the ward, so we can assess, see the carer's room and tell you honestly whether we can have someone in place for the day they leave. Our hospital discharge support page sets out what we need to know.

Which Tottenham homes can fit a live-in carer?

The carer needs a bedroom that is theirs for the whole placement. Whether that exists depends on the street.

• Terraces around Bruce Grove, West Green and Lordship Lane. A back bedroom or a small front room upstairs usually works. The pinch point is the staircase, often steep and narrow, so if a stairlift won't fit, a bed downstairs may come into the plan.
• Tower Gardens. The cottage houses have front gardens and ground-floor front doors, which suits a carer helping someone out of the house each day. We check that the second bedroom will take a proper single bed and somewhere for the carer's clothes.
• Broadwater Farm and Northumberland Park. Most homes at Broadwater Farm are one- or two-bedroom flats. A two-bedroom flat can work if the second room is free. If the flat is reached by stairs, or the block's lift is unreliable, we ask whether your relative can still manage the way down to the street, because a carer living in will want to get them out.

In a one-bedroom flat, live-in care cannot work. The choices then are visits, which are more practical in Tottenham than in west Haringey but still depend on carer availability, a few weeks at a relative's home with a live-in carer there, or asking the council about a move, for example to an Extra Care scheme for over-55s.

Changeover day and the stadium calendar

At each handover the incoming carer arrives with a suitcase. On most days that is easy in Tottenham: the Victoria line reaches Seven Sisters and Tottenham Hale, the Overground Weaver line stops at Bruce Grove and White Hart Lane, and the Stansted Express calls at Tottenham Hale for a carer travelling in from further afield. The 149 and 279 run the length of the High Road between them.

Event days at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium are different. According to the council's event-day restrictions, the High Road between White Hart Lane and Bromley Road closes to traffic two hours before a match or concert and buses divert around the stadium. We avoid booking a changeover on an event day if the home is anywhere near the ground. If family are driving over to meet the new carer, they will need a visitor permit and must arrive before the road closures begin.

Where the carer spends their break

A live-in carer is entitled to a break each day. Lordship Recreation Ground and Bruce Castle Park sit side by side off Lordship Lane. On wet days, Coombes Croft Library on Tottenham High Road (N17 8AG) is open Monday to Saturday, and Marcus Garvey Library in the Tottenham Green Leisure Centre on Philip Lane opens every day of the week, Sundays included; both have study space and free wi-fi.

For a parent who shouldn't be left on their own, the carer's time off can be matched to a day at the Grace Organisation, whose Pretoria Road centre has long served the area's African and Caribbean elders. Its minibus collects from home, so the carer can see your relative off, take their break, and be back in before the return trip.

Sunday service, Friday prayers and food from home

Tottenham has long-settled Caribbean, African and Turkish communities. A live-in carer has time for what a visit can't fit in: getting someone dressed for a Sunday service and walking with them to it, helping them reach Friday prayers, or cooking the dishes they have always eaten with ingredients from the High Road. Tell us what matters and we will write it into the plan. We cannot promise a carer of a particular faith or language, and we will be plain about who we have.

How is live-in care in Tottenham paid for?

Haringey Council can contribute after a needs assessment and a financial assessment, and a personal budget can be taken as a direct payment and used with us. The details are on our Haringey live-in care page. If needs are mainly health needs, NHS Continuing Healthcare may pay instead. We give you a written quote after the free assessment and publish no prices. If you only need help at set times of day, see home care in Tottenham, and for how live-in care works in general, our London live-in care page.

What we can help with in Tottenham

• 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