Live-in care can offer many advantages over a residential facility. Many people prefer to spend their later years living in their own homes. The familiar environment, proximity to family and friends, and sense of independence can help maintain function and improve quality of life. The advantages of live-in care include:
Familiar environment: Staying somewhere that is well known to the individual can help maintain independence and improve function, especially in people affected by dementia.
Living with a partner: Live-in care can help a couple spend the rest of their lives together.
Maintaining routines: After a lifetime of following a routine, it can be distressing and confusing to change. Living at home allows your loved one to live their life to their rhythm, not follow a schedule imposed by a care home. This is particularly important for people with dementia, where keeping to a routine helps people live independently for longer.
Staying social: People with an active social life tend to be less depressed and more mentally alert. At home, your loved one can remain in the heart of their community with friends, family, and neighbours close at hand. A Hometouch live-in carer can help them go to clubs, to the bingo hall, bridge, out for lunch with friends. Hometouch carers can help maintain your loved one’s social life and may even broaden their horizons.
Peace and privacy: At home, even with a live-in carer, there is always somewhere to get away and have peace and quiet. Care homes can be hectic, bustling places, which can be challenging, especially for introverts.
Relearning skills: Specialist support can help people with dementia relearn skills like brushing their teeth. Hometouch carers can support relearning by building on an individual’s abilities and strengths.
Pet-friendly: Pets can provide love, companionship, and a reason to get up and out in the morning. Research shows that pets can improve health in the elderly. Live-in care can ensure your loved one stays with their four-legged friend.
Help your loved one find exceptional live-in care in Essex – contact a Hometouch Care Advisor today.
Our nurse led service can assist with nursing and medical needs such as medication administration, liaison with clinical teams and specialist care such as PEG feeds.
In many instances well trained live in carers can be supervised to perform these duties with the assistance of our nursing team or by district nurses. Nursing homes can be expensive and where there are very complex needs such as challenging behaviour and persistent wandering, a nursing home may be the best option.
Here are just a few of our expert carers. Find the perfect carer for your loved one with our unique carer matching service.
Alison B.
Over 39 years experience in social care
Rodia S.
A specialist in spinal injury care
Wendy M.
A bingo aficionado with over 14 years care experience
Nyoni N.
A qualified physiotherapist who loves the great outdoors
Maggy J.
Has been assisting clients with Alzheimer's and brain injuries since 2000
Jack H.
10 years experience working with people with Parkinson's and dementia
Hometouch was founded by Dr Jamie Wilson, a former NHS dementia specialist, to help people live happily, safely and with dignity in their own homes. As well as dementia care, we offer respite care, post-operative care, palliative care and end-of-life care.
Our prices start from £1250 a week for live-in companionship care in Essex, and we also offer packages for more complex medical needs. Whatever your loved one’s care needs, companionship or clinical support, we’ll find out their interests, preferences and requirements and match them with an exceptional carer. Get in touch with a Hometouch Care Advisor to find out how we can help.
"We thought long and hard about whether a care home or live in care was the right fit for mum. In the end, we are so happy she was able to spend her final years at home in comfortable surroundings with fantastic round the clock care."
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Enter your postcode on the carer page and this will generate a list of carers in your area. You can then filter by language, skills, interests, experience. We recommend you review previous client reviews, watch videos of the carers and read our Trustpilot reviews to see how other clients have used hometouch successfully.
We regularly update our pool of carers – if you are having problems, just call a Care Advisor, and they’ll be happy to help.
It depends on the circumstances. If you need a carer urgently to cover another carer, we can recommend carers who are suitable and who have been able to help in this area before. This is best setup as an immediate contract and payment.
If you are looking for a longer term contract, we advise you meet the carer, decide they are the right person for you or your loved one and then agree the contract terms. Many clients like to meet with their carer before confirming an ongoing or longer term contract to ensure there is a good match.
Yes, carers have personal liability insurance. hometouch will ensure all carers commencing a contract will have a policy in place if this is requested by a client.
No, it is against our terms and conditions to pay for carer services outside of hometouch.
Yes, If you need a carer for different times of the day or week, you may need to find additional carers who are able to work at different times. Equally, you may have a carer who is taking leave and you can arrange a short term contract with another carer to cover this period. hometouch allows you to have multiple carer contracts simultaneously which can all be managed from the contracts page on the main hometouch dashboard.
You should pick your own carer according to the criteria you looking for. However, if you need some assistance, we can help you with recommendations. The ultimate choice though is you and your family’s. Please email us at hello@myhometouch.com or call a Care Advisor for help.
No. You can book a carer for a one-off job for a few hours or days or arrange an ongoing contract. An ongoing contract can be cancelled with two weeks notice. If cancelling a single shift, please give the carer 24 hours notice.
hometouch is committed to supporting minimum one hour visits. Otherwise it is as long as is required by you and your family.
First of all, please let hometouch know straight away if you are having problems. We are here to help and want to resolve any problems you have. We take any allegations of poor care, dishonesty, poor punctuality, incompetence or poor communication very seriously and will take action immediately if you have concerns. If you have reason to be dissatisfied with your carer, you need to decide whether they have breached the contract with you (eg have not turned up, been non-punctual), or whether you no longer wish to employ them for your own personal reasons.
We check all of our carers ID, Qualifications and CRB/DBS certificates. We also face to face interview every carer that joins hometouch and assess them against 5 criteria – punctuality, communication skills, compassion/empathy, ability to take initiative and personal presentation/honesty. We conduct detailed scenario testing and reference check all carers. We pride ourselves on the high quality bar we set and only accept a small fraction of the carer applicants we receive.
Yes, hometouch is registered and regulated by the CQC. However our introductory model of care which started in 2015 is technically not regulated by the CQC as the hometouch does not interfere in the care delivery, manage the care plan or provide rotas. Our managed care service is regulated by the CQC.
The carer will be paid the stated rate on their profile minus 20% (inc VAT) commission on an ongoing basis for the duration of the contract and any further contract with the carer. hometouch defines this as an “introductory fee” which is spread out over the length of the contract and any other subsequent contracts with that individual carer. We are committed to supporting a minimum £10/hr income for all carers.
The payment needs to be made before the contract starts. This is held in a third party (escrow) account before being transferred to the carer at the end of the following week. Weekly recurring payments are then made for contracts longer than a week.
hometouch provides a secure online payment facility. Payment details are required before any contract commences and payment is via credit/debit card or direct debit for self funding clients. For ongoing contracts payment is taken in advance every Monday.
Carers set their hourly rates according to their experience level, areas of expertise and the trust ratings they have built up on hometouch. The minimum hourly rate chargeable on hometouch is £10/hr. Please be aware that carers are working on a self-employed basis and therefore have to cover their travel costs and other reasonable expenses. We are committed to ensuring that carers can earn a living wage via offering their services on hometouch.
No, carers work on a self employed basis and there is no statutory requirement to pay Employers NI.
You can cancel at any time for an ongoing contract. If you are booking for defined time period of less than a month, you are committed to paying that amount unless exceptional circumstances have occurred. We will look at each request on a case by case basis. Please note, you are party to a contract with the carer and if there is no reasonable reason is given for ending the contract prematurely, you would be in breach of that contract and the care would be entitled to full payment. All cancellations must be submitted by email to both hometouch on hello@myhometouch.com and the carer.
If there is reason to believe the carer has not fulfilled their duties or there are any other concerns, you can dispute the contract in the contract section. hometouch will look at each disputed contract on a case by case basis and try to resolve the matter fairly. A carer also has the ability to dispute a contract in case they believe they have reason to.
Our safeguarding policy protects vulnerable adults from abuse and is a legal requirement under the Health and Social care Act