Care at home information sheets
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Newcastle City Council
Adult Services Directorate
Customer Relations Team
FREEPOST NEA5336
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 1BR
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other people.
Sheet 1
Welcome to Newcastle City Council
Adult Services Directorate
Care at Home Service
Welcome to the Care at Home service. We will
try to help you achieve the aims of your care plan.
This will mean helping you to look after yourself
as much as you can over an agreed time.
The people who will work with you to do the tasks
and meet the goals in your care plan are called
Care at Home Assistants. We choose them
because they are experienced, skilled and
helpful.
People that manage our services are called team
leaders and senior workers. The team leader is
responsible for making sure that your care meets
your assessed needs. They provide training,
support and supervision to all senior workers.
The senior workers are responsible for organising
your direct care. They will routinely visit you at
home to ensure your care is planned and meeting
your assessed needs.
Care at Home Assistants are part of a team of
workers who may work with you. This team could
also include nurses, doctors, occupational
therapists, social workers and staff from
independent home and day care organisations.
Sheet 2
Where we are
If you need to speak to someone about your care
at home service between 7.30am and 10pm, we
are based at:
Care at Home Service
23 Raby Cross
Byker
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE6 2FF
Phone:
Fax:
0191 278 2898
0191 278 2937
Sheet 2
Where we are
For specialist services including:
♦
black and minority ethnic services
♦
mental health
♦
disability
♦
children and families
♦
going home from hospital care at home
service
♦
short term assessment and re enablement
(STAR)
Contact:
Care at Home Service
23 Raby Cross
Byker
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE6 2FF
Phone:
Fax:
0191 278 2898
0191 278 2937
Sheet 3
What we do when we
first contact you
After the social worker contacts you, our Care at
Home team leader or senior worker will arrange
to visit you. During their first visit, they will:
•
look at things that will help keep you and the
Care at Home Assistant as safe as possible.
This is called a risk assessment. These
include:
1. if you need help with moving and handling,
including any equipment;
2. if there is anything in your home that could
be changed to make your home safer, for
example electrical equipment, loose rugs
unsafe steps;
3. if there is anything you want to tell us that
may help us decide which Care at Home
Assistant will work with you.
•
talk to you about the tasks written in your care
plan;
•
decide the times of day you need your service;
•
give you a copy of your service agreement.
This tells you the days and times of each Care
at Home task.
Sometimes we can give you the service before
we visit you. This is when
the social worker tells us
Sheet 3
What we do when we
first contact you...continued
Sometimes we can give you the service before
we visit you. This is when the social worker tells
us you need care quickly, in an emergency, for
example,
•
•
•
you are leaving hospital and need the service
when you return home
your health has got worse and you need an
increase in your service
your carer's health has got worse
Sheet 3
Our aims and objectives
Aims
We aim to provide a Care at Home service that:
•
Treats you with dignity and respect
•
Reflects your needs, your family, your carers
and other professionals involved in your care
•
Enables you to be supported in your own
home for as long as is possible
•
Enhances your right to maintain independence
•
Responds to your needs and values your
opinion
•
Maintains your confidentiality
•
Helps you look after yourself as much as you
can
Objectives
We will meet our aims by:
•
Ensuring that all services are planned and
assessed by a competent person prior to
starting
•
Ensuring that you know how to comment and
complain
•
Regularly reviewing the service with you, your
family, carers and other professionals involved
in your care
•
Training all Care at Home Assistants in equal
opportunities and how to
maintain confidentiality.
Sheet 4
Personal care
What we can do
Our main aim is to provide or help you with personal
care. If the social worker writes the following tasks
in your care plan, our Care at Home Assistant’s
duties include helping and encouraging you with
them.
They are:
•
Assistance with personal cleanliness, for
example, washing, making sure water
temperature is safe.
•
Helping you to remain mobile with the use of
moving and handling equipment.
•
Going to the toilet, including helping with
continence problems, emptying catheter bags,
and emptying commodes.
•
Washing hair, shaving, and cleaning teeth.
•
Dressing and undressing, including help with
support stockings.
•
On your behalf, and with your agreement,
contacting other people including your doctor,
family and friends.
•
Helping you with meals.
•
Medication
Where possible we expect that you are responsible
for your own medication. This gives you control. If
you need help, our Care at
Home Assistant can:
Sheet 4
Personal care...continued
Where possible we expect that you are responsible
for your own medication. This gives you control. If
you need help, our Care at Home Assistant can:
•
•
•
Remind you to take your medication.
Help you get your medication. If it is in a
controlled dosage system (medi-box), a
pharmacist or family member must put this up).
Report any concerns or problems to the Care at
Home team leader.
Sheet 4
Personal care
What we can’t do:
Bathing or showering where you:
•
cannot take your own weight
•
have severe pain on movement
because of recent illness or surgery.
•
have a skin condition which may be
affected by bathing
•
have a medical condition that gets
worse with movement.
In these cases we can help you wash your whole
body if we have written it down in your care plan,
for example a bed-bath.
•
•
•
•
•
Cutting toe nails
Changing catheter or stoma bags, colostomy
or ileostomy bags
Any aspect of health care treatment
Dispensing medication other than from a medi
box
If the guidance changes, we will let you know.
Sheet 5
Household tasks
What we can do
We provide help with essential housework, where
it is part of your care plan, if we already help you
with personal care. Our Care at Home Assistants
can help you with:
•
General cleaning in areas you use, for
example kitchen, bathroom, toilet, living room
and bedroom including making your bed and
changing bed linen.
•
Washing, although we may suggest a more
suitable alternative such as a laundry.
•
Emptying waste bins.
We ask you to provide cleaning materials and
equipment.
Sheet 5
Household tasks
What we can’t do:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Washing down walls, shampooing or cleaning
carpets.
Cleaning the outside of your home, for
example outside windows (including swivel
windows), paths, garages and gardening.
Hand washing heavy items.
Cleaning rooms mainly used by adults without
a disability.
Tasks that involve working at height except
where a risk assessment shows it is safe to do
so.
In the interest of safety, Care at Home
Assistants cannot move heavy furniture or
turn mattresses.
Sheet 6
Your money
We encourage you to make as many financial
transactions as possible through your bank
accounts or direct debits to make sure that Care
at Home Assistants carry as little cash as possible
for you. If Care at Home Assistants are to handle
your financial affairs, the social worker must write
this down clearly in your care plan. You or, where
appropriate, a family member or carer, must give
written consent, and a method of checking
agreed.
What we can do
The Care at Home Assistant’s duties may include:
•
Paying your regular bills, for example rent,
gas, electricity, at the nearest post office, bank
or public office;
•
Carrying money for shopping.
When dealing with your money, the Care at Home
Assistants must:
•
•
Provide a record of all money spent and leave
this with you in your home;
Give you receipts
wherever possible.
Sheet 6
Your money
What we can’t do
For your protection and our staff’s protection, our
Care at Home Assistants cannot:
•
Carry your books, for example, pension or
building society books for longer than it takes
to carry out the task in hand;
•
Enter your house when you are not there
unless it is an emergency;
•
Carry your keys (except if it is part of your care
plan because you cannot answer your door).
Sheet 7
Good practice
So that we can protect you and our staff, and in
line with City Council policy, we need to tell you
about some things that our Care at Home
Assistants are unable to do.
These include:
•
Smoking in your house;
•
Accepting meals from you;
•
Accepting gifts, either money or presents from
you, for themselves or their families;
•
Borrowing money from you, or lending money
to you;
•
Doing things for you outside of work.
Sheet 7
What happens when we have given
you a Care at Home service for a
period of time, or if what you need
changes
At least every six months, we will look again at
your service with you and your carers, and the
goals that the social worker set for us to achieve.
This is called a service review.
Since our aim is to help you to look after yourself
as much as you can, we may suggest to the
social worker that your service is reduced when
we look at it again, or we may suggest
alternatives. We will give you a new service
agreement if we change your service.
We will never leave you without some contact or
guidance if your service is reduced, or you do not
require us any longer.
Sheet 8
What you need to tell us
You should always tell us:
•
If you or your carer suddenly become ill and
you need extra help. Our Care at Home
Service can be changed very quickly to meet
changes in your assessed needs.
•
If you are going away from home on the day
our Care at Home Assistants normally visit.
Please inform your Senior Worker. We must
investigate if you don’t answer your door. For
your safety, if we don’t get a reply from your
house, we may ask the police to enter your
house to check whether you need emergency
help.
•
If you are feeling better and need less help,
please contact our Care at Home team leader
who will arrange to look again at what you
need. If your care needs have changed we
may refer you back to a social worker who will
look again at your assessed needs and make
changes to your care plan.
Sheet 8
What we will do
When setting up the service we will…
•
Always try to meet your request for a male or
female worker
•
Always try to meet the request for the time of
the service (within 30 minutes)
When delivering the service we will always
•
•
•
•
Tell you if our Care at Home Assistant will be
late (if there is some way we can get in touch
with you)
Tell you if our Care at Home Assistant phoned
in sick and give the names of replacement
staff and approximately what time they will be
arriving (if there is some way we can get in
touch with you)
Discuss with you if we are going to change the
Care at Home Team who visits you
Treat you with dignity, respect and courtesy
and would ask you to give the same respect to
our Care at Home Assistants
Sheet 9
Charges for your Care at Home
When your social worker looks at what you need
and agrees a care plan with you, they will also
look at your financial circumstances.
Your local office will send you a letter telling you
how much to pay and how we have worked out
the charges. You have the right to ask your
social worker for a review of your charges if you
feel that they are too high.
Our welfare rights service may contact you if they
think you are not receiving your full entitlement to
benefits. If they contact you, they will help you
claim what you are entitled to.
You pay one weekly charge for all of the care in
the home and day care services you get from us.
If you do not receive any service in an entire
week you will not pay the charge for that week.
Our leaflet ‘Care in the home, day care and
Supporting People services—A guide to what you
should expect to pay’ is available from adult
services offices or by phoning 0191 211 6340.
Sheet 10
Are you satisfied with our help?
We want you to be satisfied with our help, and
need you to tell us if we are succeeding. We
would like your comments on our services and
your suggestions for the future.
We will send you a copy of our leaflet ‘What do
you think of social services?’ with your care plan.
You can use this to tell us what you think of your
service.
If you feel that something has gone wrong, or you
do not like the way you have been treated you
should talk to our staff. You will find the phone
number on sheet 2. If you prefer, you can ask a
friend or relative to do this for you. We will do
our best to sort out the problem without you
needing to do anything else.
For more information about how to make
comments or complaints about our services
contact:
Complaints Manager
Newcastle City Council
Adult Services Directorate
Customer Relations Team
Sheet 10
Are you satisfied with our help?
Cont.
For more information about how to make
comments or complaints about our services
contact:
Complaints Manager
Newcastle City Council
Adult Services Directorate
Customer Relations Team
Freepost NEA5336
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 1BR
Phone
0191 211 6340
Fax
0191 211 4955
Textphone
0191 211 6388
e-mail
[email protected]
Website
www.newcastle.gov.uk/socialcarecomplaints
Sheet 10
Are you satisfied with our help?
You can also contact:
Care Quality Commission (CQC)
St Nicholas Building
St Nicholas Street
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 1NB
Tel: 0191 233 3600
Fax: 0191 233 3569
From 1 April 2009 the Care Quality Commission
(CQC) replaced Commission for Social Care
Inspection (CSCI).
Other useful contact numbers and
addresses
Adult Social Care Direct
Shieldfield Centre
4—8 Clarence Walk
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE2 1AL
Phone:
Fax:
Textphone:
Email:
0191 278 8377
0191 278 8312
0191 278 8359
[email protected]
Freeman Hospital
Social Work Office
Freeman Road
Newcastle upon Tyne NE7 7DE
Phone: 0191 233 6161
Sheet 11
Sheet 11
Other useful contact numbers and
addresses
Royal Victoria Infirmary
Social Work Office
Queen Victoria Road
Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4LF
Phone: 0191 233 6161
Newcastle General Hospital
Social Work Office
Westgate Road
Newcastle upon Tyne NE4 6BE
Phone: 0191 233 6161
St Nicholas Hospital
Social Work Office
Clinical Services Centre
Jubilee Road
Gosforth
Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 3XT
Phone: 0191 223 2507
Contact details for our Care at Home Service
and our emergency number are on
Information sheet 2
Website address
www.newcastle.gov.uk/socialcare