What Is Home Care?

Personal care

Help with washing, bathing, dressing, continence, oral care, skin care and getting up or to bed. This is the regulated core of home care. Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, “personal care” is defined as physical assistance with these activities, or prompting and supervising someone who cannot do them without it, and any organisation providing it to people in their own homes must be registered with the CQC.

Practical daily support

Preparing meals and drinks, prompting or assisting with medication, light housekeeping, laundry, shopping, and keeping the home safe. These are not regulated on their own, but a registered provider delivers them under the same care plan and the same supervision.

Companionship and getting out

Conversation, support to keep up hobbies and faith, accompanying someone to appointments, the shops or a club. For many people the company matters as much as the task.

Support shaped around a condition

Care planned around dementia, Parkinson’s, a stroke, sight or hearing loss, diabetes, a physical disability or the end of life. The tasks are the same kinds of tasks; what changes is how the visit is planned and what the carer knows.

It is not nursing care

Care workers are not nurses. Clinical tasks such as injections, catheter insertion, wound care and the management of medical equipment sit with the GP, district nurses and NHS services. Some providers, including Starling Homecare, carry out a small number of specific tasks such as stoma bag or catheter bag care once a nurse has assessed the person and signed the carers off for that task. A provider that offers “nursing care” at home must employ registered nurses and be registered for the regulated activity of treatment of disease, disorder or injury.

It is not a care home

In a care home the person moves into the setting and care is available around the clock from staff on site. With home care the person stays at home and care comes to them at the agreed times. Our guide to home care or a care home sets out how families decide between them.

It is not the same as a private carer

A self-employed carer found through an introductory agency or a personal recommendation is not a regulated home care service: there is no registered manager, no inspection, and the family is usually the employer. Our guide to private carers versus regulated home care explains the difference and the responsibilities it carries.

Anyone over 18 who needs support to manage at home. In practice that is most often an older person whose daily tasks have become harder, someone recovering after a hospital stay, someone living with a long-term condition or a disability, a person approaching the end of life who wants to stay at home, and the family carer who needs a break. Children’s home care is a separate, differently regulated service.

Home care also supports the family around the person. A regular visit means a daughter who lives two hours away knows her mother has had lunch and her tablets, and a husband caring for his wife gets a morning to himself each week.

Care usually starts with a conversation and a home assessment by the provider, which produces a written care plan. Care can begin within a few working days where a provider has capacity. It is paid for in one of three ways: privately, by Hertfordshire County Council following a care needs assessment and a financial assessment under the Care Act 2014, or by the NHS through Continuing Healthcare where someone has a primary health need. Our care funding guide explains each route, and our how care starts page describes the first steps. Starling Homecare’s own fees are set out on our cost of home care in Hertfordshire page.