What does the council allow you

[stockport1965]

I have had a re assessment today with Mums social worker. She is currently getting 14 hours a week and they want to drop it down to 10.5.
It would be for 30 mins 3 times a day. I have argues that 30 mins in the morning is not enough to clean a soiled lady, dress her, feed her and give medication.
30 minutes for lunch, apart from heating up a microwave meal, there's not much time for Mum to eat and the crockery to be washed.
30 mins in the evening to undress, clean and meds.

I should say this is Northamptonshire Council, who decided to have a £53million building

How does this compare with others?

Mum lives in a village 8 miles from a large town, do you think I can get any company to come for 30mins? No!

 

[AliceA]

I have had a re assessment today with Mums social worker. She is currently getting 14 hours a week and they want to drop it down to 10.5.
It would be for 30 mins 3 times a day. I have argues that 30 mins in the morning is not enough to clean a soiled lady, dress her, feed her and give medication.
30 minutes for lunch, apart from heating up a microwave meal, there's not much time for Mum to eat and the crockery to be washed.
30 mins in the evening to undress, clean and meds.

I should say this is Northamptonshire Council, who decided to have a £53million building

How does this compare with others?

Mum lives in a village 8 miles from a large town, do you think I can get any company to come for 30mins? No!

My empathy I live in Northamptonshire too! Ten million for a football club too according to a volunteer driver!

 

[canary]

TBH, I think 3 x 30 min visits a day is pretty standard.
Around here you quite often get 15 min visits

 

[jugglingmum]

From what I've read on TP most councils won't do visits longer than half an hour

The maximum most councils seem to offer is 4 times half an hour a day, before they consider a care home

Some areas have sitting services and befriending services, which might be worth looking into, provided by different charities, and normally charged for, but they aren't normally provided by the council

 

[maryjoan]

We currently get 30 mins once a day, but have been told the maximum is 4 times a day. Also been told that 'they' will not put OH in a home, as we are not self funding - we will have to see what happens when he gets to that stage.....

 

[canary]

@maryjoan - I think SS want to try home care to the maximum that the LA will fund before considering a care home, so as you are only on one visit a day, they wont consider a care home at this stage. If thats not enough care then try pushing for more home visits.

 

[maryjoan]

@canary it is ok at the moment as the care visits are medical based rather than dementia based - I am just thinking ahead, if that is something one can do with this illness..... time for bed I think. Night Night x

 

[canary]

Night Night x

Sleep well
xx

 

[Szaitisja]

My friend used to have 30min visits 4 times a day. As she is not a morning person at the best of times the carers would often have to stay over that time and because the agency was billing the council for the extra time ( I think it might have been another 30min added to the bill, but not entirely sure) on a regular basis it was eventually agreed between ss and the agency that morning call has to be increased to 45min. Recently for the same reason it has been increased to 1h as my friend is getting slower and more frail. Maybe that could work in your case also if they constantly have to stay longer in the morning.

 

[witts1973]

My mum has 4 care visits at the moment but it's self funded,she's bed bound and has pad changes at each call,so do some people just have 3 calls for a pad change then?To be honest I feel like saying to them just give us 3 calls as the carers leave after the first breakfast call at about 9.15 to 9.30 and the lunch call is about 11 am that doesn't seem to make any sense.
The double round seems to be a right pain for the cc to staff,you never know whose going to turn up and the amount of times I have had to tell some of the carers that my mum should be sat up in bed and not left nearly flat during the day,I must sound like a right pain as I keep having to repeat ,she does have some excellent carers but they only do a few of the calls

 

[Cazzita]

What a minefield! My mum has 2 x 1 hour carer periods each day. 11-12 where they get her up and make her breakfast and tidy up. Then 4pm - 5pm where they take her for a drive around the countryside (her favourite thing) and prepare her dinner. All working well so far... I am also in Northants and this private company - who are fantastic with mum - charge 17 pounds per hour. Well worth it. How they can do anything in 30 mins with quality care is beyond me; this company won't come out for less than an hour as they believe that anything less is not conducive to forming a relationship and really knowing what the patient is like/needs.

 

[charlie10]

Perhaps you could encourage this company to spread their wings to other parts of the country @Cazzita .....our hourly rate is about 22 pounds, and they stay for about 15-20 mins (that might be FiL choice tho )

 

[Sirena]

Perhaps you could encourage this company to spread their wings to other parts of the country @Cazzita .....our hourly rate is about 22 pounds, and they stay for about 15-20 mins (that might be FiL choice tho )

If you're paying, they will stay as long as you like. My mother ended up on 4 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening. It was £22 ph. for us too (London).

 

[Moggymad]

Hi @stockport1965 we are in the same county. Mum now in a care home but before this was having carers 3 times a day originally 30mins per visit. The am carer really struggled to do it all in that time as mum was becoming incontinent. She regularily reported back to her manager that she was struggling with the time & along with me ringing the care agency we managed to get an extra 15 mins. It was the care agency that pushed for it on our behalf & the same at lunch time in the end because mum didn't eat unless someone stayed with her to encourage her to eat her dinner. SS did come out & reassess & agreed the changes.
Have you asked the care agency for their support in this? Mum was ' in town ' so staff were more able to provide the extra time.