Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Better at Home is registered with and regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and is a member of the UK Home Care Association (UKHCA). We are approved providers of HomeCare and live-in care to Surrey Social Services and the local Primary Care Trusts (PCTs).

You can pay your invoice in two ways:

1. By Telephone/ Internet Banking

Please contact your bank to take advantage of this service.  You will need (1) our bank account number: 18584118 and (2) our sort code: 405162.  Please allow up to 4 working days for telephone/internet banking payments.

Please include the invoice number and client name in the reference.

2. By Cheque

Please make your cheque payable to Better at Home Limited and send your cheque together with a copy of the remittance advice (or invoice number and client name) to Better at Home, Hurst House, 157/169 Walton Road, East Molesey, Surrey KT8 0DX.  Please allow 5 working days before the due day shown.  This may take longer if you use 2nd class post.

We regret that we are currently unable to accept payment via credit or debit card or by direct debit by are investigating the feasibility of offering this in the future.  Please let us know if you would prefer to pay by one of these methods.

If you have any questions regarding your invoice, these can be directed to accounts@betterathome.co.uk.  Alternatively you can contact Terriann on 020 8783 9918 or Angela in accounts on 0208 979 6204.

All of our carers must pass a thorough screening and interview process at our offices.  We complete a minimum of two reference checks on every carer, together with a Protection of Vulnerable Adult (POVA) check and an enhanced criminal records (CRB) check.

Our office hours are Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm.  Please call your local office between these hours if you need to speak to your care manager or a member of the office team.  The relevant contact details are published on the Contact Us page of this website.

We also have an on-call service for emergencies which is staffed 7 days a week from 7am - 10pm for hourly home care and 24/7 for night care and live-in care.  Please note that the on-call service is for emergencies only and you should contact the office during normal office hours for non urgent calls.

Our HomeCarers wear a uniform consisting of a light green tunic with our logo, black trousers and an identification badge with a photograph so that they are easily identifiable to you.  They also wear disposable gloves and aprons as appropriate when preparing food or delivering personal care.

All of our staff are trainined in food hygiene, health and safety and infection control.

We normally provide Home Care and sleepover services including night care within a 10 mile radius of our two offices. 

We occassionally have HomeCarers who can cover outside this area, so don't despair, if you live a bit further out just give us a call.  Even if we cannot help you, we may know someone who can.

Our Live in care service covers a wider area including South West London, the whole of Surrey and parts of neighbouring counties.

Live-in care is a real alternative for those that would like to remain within the comfort of their own familiar surroundings, rather than move into a residential care home or warden controlled environment.

Live-in care is suitable for people of differing needs.  We have live-in clients that are fully able both physically and mentally but want the security and comfort of a Live-in companion to assist them with their day to day living.

Other Live-in clients have greater dependency needs such as physical disabilities or short term memory loss issues.  In many of these cases, the live-in care will assist with personal care such as assistance with washing and dressing and well as provide companionship services.

We are not qualified to provide nursing care.  However, we liaise closely with district nurses and GPs to ensure the client receives a high standard of care.

Our live-in carers are able to complete both companionship and personal care tasks. 
Examples of the tasks that a Live-in carer can provide include:

Companionship and Support
Conversation
Light housekeeping and errands
Meal preparation
Laundry and linen washing
Shopping and trips out
Activities and crafts
Feeding pets

Personal Care
Assistance with bathing and dressing
Prompting or administering medication (subject to our medication policy)
Feeding and oral hygiene
Toileting and incontinence care

Many of our live-in carers are able to drive.  In some instances, our clients prefer to be driven in their own cars and providing the carer is insured to do so, we are able to assist.  Where the carer uses their own car, there is a small incremental mileage cost to cover the running costs of the vehicle.

Better at Home prides itself on providing flexible and reliable care packages. Most of our clients use our service on an indefinite basis, enabling them to continue living independently within their own home, rather than moving into a care home.

However we also provide short-term convalescent care, perhaps after a stay in hospital or respite care, to give family members of other carers a holiday.

We are fully committed to your needs and preferences, and understand that levels of care may need to change.

Sometimes a carer will suddenly become ill and will not be able to support you as normal.  In the event that this happens, we will quickly bring in another experienced carer to assist you until your regular carer has recovered.  

If your live-in carer has taken time off to go on holiday, agreed in advance with our Care Manager and you, we will make sure that you have a suitable replacement.

We believe in continuity of care, allowing a strong relationship to be built and the best companionship possible. We will do our best to achieve this.

Before we place a carer within your home, we try to ensure that we have found you someone suitable, who has the correct skill set and can provide the best possible care and companionship. However, sometimes the carer and client will not get on. We have regular contact with the client and carer throughout the care package and if it does not appear to be working as well as it should be, we will do our best to rectify it. If no solution can be reached we will organise another carer from our strong base of skilled and compassionate carers.  This will normally be within 24-48 hours.

If you feel that live-in care may be a good option to consider, then we would encourage you to contact us and set up a no obligation consultation.

The consultation can be completed in your own home at a time convenient to you.  We recommend that a family member or friend is also present.  We can also carry out the consultation in a hospital or residential home if you are planning to move back into your home.

During the consultation we will:

• Explain our live-in carer service
• Assess physical and other needs
• Confirm the cost and service we can provide
• Discuss profiles of appropriate carers
• Answer any questions or concerns

We also need to carry out a risk assessment of the home.  This can be completed separately if it is not possible or appropriate to complete as the time of the initial consultation.

We have a number of clients who have moved from a care home back into their own homes with the support of a live-in carer.  The feedback from our clients and their families is that they are much happier to be back in their own home with the benefit of one-to-one care.

Of course live-in care is not suitable for everyone.  If you are unsure whether live-in care is the right option for you, please give us a call and allow us to arrange a no obligation consultation.

We maintain a strong, well trained base of live-in carers from a wide variety of backgrounds and ages including males and females.  Better at Home prides itself on matching our clients needs to the skills of our carers.  We believe live-in care works best when there are common values or interests and a strong personality match between the client and the carer.  We always aim to find a good match between the client and carer.

Our live-in carers attend an intensive 5 day induction course at our in-house training center. The topics include Principles of Care, Health and Safety, Moving and Handling, Food Hygiene, Safe Handling of Medication, Incontinence Care, Basic Infection Control and Abuse Awareness of Vulnerable Adults.

The induction training consists of a combination of classroom and practical training and each carer undertakes a series of tests.  Further training is undertaken for specific medical conditions depending upon the client’s individual needs.

We have an ongoing training programme for all our staff which means that our carers have either achieved or are working towards a professional NVQ qualification in care.

Different live-in carers like to work different work patterns.  Some like to work for long periods of time and then take an extended break, e.g. work 3 months on, take 3 weeks off.  Others prefer to work 2 weeks on and take one week off.  At Better at Home, our job is to ensure that you receive continuing care by someone who is closely matched to your needs.  This is one of the areas we will discuss at the care assessment as part of the process of finding the best solution to your needs.

We want to provide a suitable match between carer and client. Once care and companionship needs have been fully assessed, we aim to place our carer within the home in 1-2 weeks. 

However we recognise that in some cases, especially where a client is being discharged from hospital that care often needs to start sooner.  In these instances we will always do our best to assist you at short notice.  However please understand that the choice of live-in carers will be more limited when care needs to start at short notice.

The costs of live in care depends on a number of factors including the level of care required, the nature of any disabilities, the number of people in the home and the number of night disturbances.

The basic cost for live in care starts at £700 per week.  We do not charge for initial consultation visits, travel costs or for any visits or reviews.

The rules around what documents are required to support a CRB application are complex.  However we normally require 3 documents from the following list:
Passport, UK driving licence, original birth certificate, evidence of your current address (e.g. recent bank statement or utility bill).

The most important qualities we seek are compassion, empathy and common sense.  You must also be fluent in English and if you are applying for a homecare position, have your own car and driving licence.  Whilst we welcome people with previous experience and NVQ qualifications, our award winning induction training will give you all the knowledge and skills you need to start a career in care.

We are required to carry out an enhanced criminal records bureau check on all of our staff.  Please note that CRBs are not portable from one employer to another and even if you have already had a CRB elsewhere, we are required by law to carry out a new one.

The current cost of the CRB is £55.  We ask candidates to pay for this in advance and we reimburse the cost once you have successfully completed your probabtionary period.