Care at home and care agencies

About care at home

Care at home is when you pay a carer to help you at home with day-to-day tasks. They might help with:

• getting washed and dressed
• preparing meals
• taking medication
• getting out and about
• getting to and from medical appointments

We sometimes call this home care, home help or domiciliary care. You can have home care for a short time or long term. It can help you to stay healthy, independent and stay in your own home for as long as possible.

You can find out more on the 'help at home from a paid carer' page on the NHS website.

You can get home care from a home care agency or employ your own personal assistant. We've explained each of these options below:

Home care agencies

Home care agencies employ, train and manage carers. The agency can arrange a carer to come to you, but you might not always get the same carer every visit.

If you use an agency, you need to make sure they are 'regulated'. This means that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has checked that they are safe and reliable.

Personal assistants

A personal assistant is a carer that you employ yourself. This means you can choose your carer and arrange your care schedule. There are two ways of employing a personal assistant. You can either act as their employer, or use a self-employed personal assistant.

When you act as the employer, you will need to arrange the employment, including payroll and insurance. You can find a simple guide to employing a private carer on the Money Helper website. You can find more detailed guidance in the Skills for Care employing personal assistants toolkit.

Getting home care services

Getting support from the council

Please see our care needs assessment and eligibility page to find out about getting help from the council.

If you already receive direct payments from the council, you can ask our direct payments team for advice on employing a personal assistant.

Arranging your own care

If you arrange your own care and support, you do not need to be assessed by the council. You can search for home care agencies or employ your own personal assistant using the links and resources below.

However, even if you arrange and pay the full costs of your care, you can still contact us for advice and information.

Find a care agency

The  Berkshire Care Directory [3MB]  has information on agencies that can provide care and support at home. If you prefer, you can view the Berkshire Care Directory e-book online.

You can find home care agencies in West Berkshire on our directory.

Find information about providers' standards of quality and safety on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website.

You can find other ways to get help at home on our staying healthy and independent pages. This includes equipment and home adaptations, help getting out and about, and looking after your home.
 

Paying for your care

Visit our paying for your care pages for further information.

If the council arrange and help fund your care and support, see our charges for care from the council pages. If you will arrange and pay the cost yourself, see our funding your care as a self-funder page.

You can also get in touch with us for help and guidance.