What is live-in care?

A live-in carer can provide discreet, compassionate support with daily routines, including bathing, dressing, medication reminders, and continence care, all aimed at enhancing comfort and well-being.

Ensuring you take your medications on time. Depending on which live-in care service you receive, some live-in carers may also administer medications.

Supporting your mobility in and around the home, including support with walking and transferring, helping with regular exercise and preventing falls.

A live-in carer is there to provide socialisation and emotional support, reducing feelings of loneliness or isolation if you live alone and lack close relatives. They can organise and participate in activities you enjoy, such as reading or going for walks, and we carefully match our carers to ensure there are shared interests and beliefs.

Your live-in carer will be able to cook a variety of nutritious meals, (including rustling up your favourite snacks), planning and cooking meals according to your dietary needs and preferences, supporting your health and well-being through a balanced, nutritious diet.

A life-in carer will perform light housekeeping tasks like cleaning, laundry, ironing, and keeping your home tidy and safe, promoting comfort and minimising fall risks. They will also handle grocery shopping, collecting prescriptions and running other errands as needed.

Your live-in carer will observe, monitor and respond to your health and wellbeing, noting any changes in condition, and reporting concerns to family members or healthcare professionals.

Providing transportation to medical appointments, social engagements, or outings. Accompanying you to any medical appointments, ensuring you understand and follow medical advice.

Making sure your living environment is always safe, helping to prevent falls or accidents, and being on hand in case of emergencies. A live-in carer will be equipped and prepared to respond to emergencies, such as a fall, sudden illness, or other critical situations.

If you are living with a condition, such as dementia, or require end-of-life care, your trained and experienced carer or nurse will be on hand to manage complex healthcare needs and offer emotional support. If you have greater healthcare needs, we offer a live-in nursing service.

A live-in carer will communicate regularly with family members, keeping them informed about their loved-one’s well-being, and any concerns that arise.

Providing much-needed respite to family members who may also be involved in caring for their loved one, allowing them to take breaks to recharge and attend to their own needs.

Live-in care is a highly personalised care service where a professional carer lives in your home to provide one-to-one care and support, around the clock.  It enables people to maintain independence and safety in the comfort and familiarity of their own home, whilst receiving all the support they need.  We know through our decades of experience that people feel better in their own homes, and our live-in care and live-in nursing give more people the freedom to make their own choices, and to live life their way.

A live-in carer is there to support your holistic needs, including all your care and support requirements, lifestyle and social preferences and companionship.  They will help with:

·        Personal care

·        Medication support

·        Mobility support

·        Companionship and emotional support

·        Meal preparation and cooking

·        Housekeeping and domestic tasks

·        Health monitoring

·        Transportation and running errands

·        Ensuring a safe and secure environment

·        Specialist care of conditions, such as dementia and Parkinson’s

·        Family support

·        Ensuring connections with your local community

·        Respite for family carers

Carers cannot perform any medical procedures, such as administering injections, dressing wounds or handling complex medical equipment.  If you need medical care, we provide expert live-in nursing to support clients who have nursing needs.  Additionally, carers cannot provide services outside of the scope of their role, like heavy lifting or manual tasks requiring specialist equipment.

We work closely with you and your family to match you with a carer based on your preferences, lifestyle and care needs.  To ensure you have continuity of care, you will have a team of carers who will get to know you and provide cover for each other’s time off.  We have over 60 years’ experience in successfully matching carers with clients ensuring peace of mind for everyone.

The cost of live in care is based on your specific care needs and circumstances, but ranges from a starting package of between £1,036 to £1,540 per week. Find out more about our live-in care services.

Live-in care is ideal for individuals who need continuous support due to age, illness, disability or who are recovering from surgery.  It is also suitable for couples who want to stay together whilst receiving the care they need, or for anyone preferring not to have to leave their home and move into residential care.

Yes.  We offer short-term live-in care, which can be arranged for respite care to give a family carer a much-needed break or following surgery to support rehabilitation and recovery.  Short-term respite care also offers an opportunity for a family to try live-in care for the first time to make sure it is the right long-term care choice.

Yes.  Live-in care is the ideal choice for couples who both need care.  It provides a cost-effective way to provide tailored support, whilst allowing both individuals to remain together in the comfort of their home, avoiding the need to be separated through a move to a residential care home.

Yes of course.  One of the many benefits of live-in care, when compared to moving into a residential setting, is that you do not need to be separated from your beloved pet.  When we are planning care and matching you to the perfect carer, we will take this into consideration when making our carer selection.  Many carers are happy to help with pet care, such as feeding, walking and companionship.

You will need to provide a private bedroom with basic amenities, including a bed and somewhere to store their clothes.  They need to have access to a bathroom, but this doesn’t need to be a dedicated bathroom.  Carers will also need access to WIFI to enable them to complete administration tasks.  Meals and food allowance will also need to be agreed between the you and the carer.  Most of our carers enjoy cooking and eating with their clients.

It is expected that your live-in carer sleeps during the night, so they are rested and refreshed to provide high-quality care during the daytime.  We understand that occasional night calls are required, which the carer will respond to.  Your dedicated Care Consultant will monitor this, to ensure it is not impacting our carer’s wellbeing and their ability to perform their role.   Should you need more care during the night, then a second carer can be provided to cover a waking night package of care.

This will completely depend on your care and support needs. Should you have healthcare needs that a professional carer cannot support, for example help with administration of injections or PEG feeds, or tracheostomy care then you would need a live-in nurse. Our Care Advisors are here to guide you through which of our services would best meet you or your loved one’s needs, to ensure you have the right level of care and support.

There are many differences in the level of care and oversight provided between our fully managed, regulated live-in care service and our introductory service.

Fully managed care is just that. Our service is fully managed by a dedicated Care Consultant local to you, who provides high levels of oversight, management and support to the client, their families and our care team. In addition, there is 24/7 around the clock emergency support. This service is regulated and inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in England, to ensure the highest possible standards of care. We are very proud to be rated a ‘Good’ service by the CQC.

Introductory care is when we match you with a self-employed carer, providing initial support, but with on-going oversight and management of the care provided by a nominated family member or representative. 

All our carers are thoroughly vetted through a rigorous selection process, which covers all background checks, including Right-to-Work, an enhanced DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check and employment reference checks.  Carers then complete an aptitude test to ensure they have the necessary skills, ability and personality traits to provide high-quality live-in care.  Candidates then go through an interview process and once successful complete our market-leading training, followed by a two week on-boarding in a client placement, overseen by their local Care Consultant, as they work to complete their Care Certificate.  We are dedicated to ensuring all our carers are compassionate and have the necessary skills and experience to meet our client’s needs.

If you’re not satisfied with the carer for any reasons, we will work quickly with you to address your concerns and arrange an alternative carer.  Our priority is to ensure continuity of care whilst a change of carer is facilitated.

Live-in carers will typically work over a 12-hour period, working up to 10 hours a day with a two-hour daily break. If a client cannot be left alone, a family member or other care provider will need to ensure their care needs are met during the carers break.

Carers are entitled to adequate breaks and time off.  We ensure you have a small team of carers who get to know you or your loved one, and understand your needs who then cover each other’s time off ensuring continuity of care.

Our live-in care service is highly flexible.  Care plans are regularly reviewed by your dedicated Care Consultant, who will ensure it accurately reflects the support required working closely with the care team, the client’s family and any healthcare professional involved in your care.  Should your health needs evolve and cannot be met by a professional carer, we can offer our expert live-in nursing service and seamlessly transition you to this level of care.

Carers are trained to respond to emergencies, such as contacting emergency services, notifying family members, and following agreed protocols to ensure your safety. If you are receiving our high-quality managed live-in care service, you have around-the-clock support from a Care Consultant local to you and our office-based team.  Should you be receiving our introductory live-in care service, the appointed family member or representative would need to be contacted in an emergency.

Depending on your financial and health circumstances, there may be financial support for funding live-in care, including local authority funding, or NHS Continuing Care funding from your Integrated Care Board (ICB), formerly a Clinical Commissiong Group.  Many families are faced with having to fund live-in care themselves. However, there are many options including Care Fees insurance policies, and equity release schemes that can provide the financial support you need.  At Consultus Care and Nursing, our Care Advisors are help you get the best advice, so you can make the right choice for you or your loved one.

Depending on the complexity of an individual’s needs, we can generally set up live-in care within 24-48 hours. 

It starts with a friendly discussion with a member of our experienced Care Advisory team who will talk through your requirements, expectations and guide you as to the suitability of our different live-in care services.  Should you wish to proceed with our managed care service, a Care Consultant who is local to you will conduct a comprehensive assessment of your needs in your home, alongside your family if you choose.  If you decide to go ahead with the service, will then match you with the most suited carer. Once all the contractual paperwork is concluded a service start date is agreed.  If you choose our introductory service, we will discuss your care and support needs with you as part of our registration process.  We then match you with a suitable carer who we introduce to you to provide the care you need.