Live-in Care Cambridge

 

What is Live-In Care?
A dedicated carer providing care to a client in their own home, seven days a week. Many consider it an affordable and more attractive option than entering a Nursing Home or Care Home or receiving multiple visits from Home Care Assistants.

How do you assess what care is required?
In order to recommend the best service, we make an initial assessment of our clients’ needs, both personal and medical. Our assessment process begins when you make your first contact with us. We talk to you about the service you want and begin to understand what we need to do to meet your requirements. Our Care Manager will arrange a visit to discuss your needs further and to talk to you about what we can offer.

We will then conduct our thorough assessment including gathering information from all the people that play a part in our client’s life socially or medically in order to provide a bespoke, client focused service. Once we have all the information necessary and understand our client’s needs, we will suggest suitable carers and begin to develop a bespoke Care Plan.

What do you mean by a Bespoke Care Plan?
A bespoke Care Plan will be developed and agreed to ensure that we all know what we aim to achieve. Our Care Plans are not fixed or inflexible. We develop an ‘open’ Care Plan that means that our clients can choose what they want to do, and how and when they want to do it. We take on the daily responsibilities of providing care and ensuring that our clients remain safe and secure. We enable friends and families to spend quality time together enjoying the activities that they choose whilst we take care of the necessary daily duties and tasks.

What training do live in carers receive?
All our carers have previous care experience, so have honed their practical skills and are experienced in the delivery of individual Live-In Care. As part of the City Care Services team, all our carers receive additional, comprehensive in-house training, to ensure that they meet the high standards that we set for all City Care Services employees.  On-going training and development, regular updates and careful management by our experienced Care Managers, all ensure that we consistently exceed industry standards, such as the Skills for Care recommendations set by the Care Quality Commission.

What food will be prepared by the Live in Carers?
We understand that good quality and interesting meals are important to our clients and so we ensure that all our carers have good cooking skills so that they can prepare fresh, varied and nutritious food from healthy ingredients each day. All City Care Services are trained in diet and nutrition as we feel this is such an important facet of care.

What is your approach to dementia care?
City Care Services is an experienced provider of all levels of dementia care. This means that our carers know the importance of ensuring the safety and dignity of our clients and minimising their anxiety whilst providing companionship delivered with compassion, diligence and sensitivity. We have a good understanding of how dementia affects the client and those close to them.

How long will the live in carer stay for?
We are flexible about how long carers stay in post, based on the individual requirements of our clients. We understand that many people prefer continuity of care, so that they can build a relationship with their Live-In Carer, and so we facilitate this wherever possible and in doing so avoid the situation where clients are subjected to a rota pattern involving multiple carers. We do of course continually monitor our carers to ensure they do not get tired, so that we can find a suitable temporary replacement should that be required.

Why is it important that it is ‘Managed’ Live-In Care?
At City Care Services we engage and manage our own carers, unlike many other agencies who simply introduce carers to clients in return for a fee and then have no or limited involvement. We ensure that our carers undergo a stringent recruitment process and we thoroughly check their criminal and employment background and legal right to work in the UK, and handle all employment, contract, payment, tax and National Insurance matters.

Our clients and their families tell us that we are different from other agencies because we have a dedicated Care Manager you can talk to, who knows their circumstances and can discuss any aspect of their care.  Continual monitoring and contact with our clients ensures that high standards of quality and safety are always maintained.  Furthermore, you can be assured that if your carer is sick or on holiday a suitable replacement will be found.

What will the live in Carer require?
The carer’s needs are simple; they require a bedroom, use of bathroom, provision of food and drink and Wi-Fi. Food and drink would be the same for the client, and if the carer has any particular dietary requirements they will provide this themselves at their own cost. Additionally, it is a minimum requirement that all carers have a 2 hour break and 7 hours sleep (10pm-7am) – unless the client has different bed time/wake up times, which can be discussed during the creation of their bespoke care plan.