Any advantage to Social Services finding a Care Home?

vonsworld

Hi

I will soon need to find a Care Home for my Dad who has Dementia.

He will be self funding, however if requested my local Social Services will still find a home for him and negotiate the weekly rate with them, for a setup fee of £450.

This initially sounds like a lot, but it isn't if they can negotiate a fee which is less than I can arrange myself.

So should I look for a Care Home myself or trust Social Services to find a home and negotiate a lower fee?

middlewife

If your dad is self funding, where my mum lived, social services were completely overwhelmed and not able to help until mum got down to her last few thousand. You really need to visit some care homes in person and ask to see the dementia wings. Do not believe any online reviews. Does the home smell ok? What's the food like? Are there activities and people to run them separately to the care home staff? Do they allow pets to visit? Can they take residents out if they're fit enough? I personally wouldn't leave a decision like that to SS, can he try out for respite care to see how you and he feel about it? Spaces are also in demand, if you're wanting to visit, then location will be important, hth.

dnpark38

My local Social Services found a care home for my wife and I'm very happy with the home which is in the Anchor group.

elsien

I’d be visiting some in person.
All care homes will want to do an assessment to see whether they feel they can meet his needs or not. The better place may have a waiting list.

You also need to think about what is important for your dad - does he like big places with lots of space or a cozier feel? That can be the difference between a purpose-built place with wider corridors, and an old building that’s been converted. Different things suit different people.
Is outdoor space important to him? Does he like busy or quiet and if he likes quiet are they going to be proactive in trying to engage in him or just leave him to his own devices.

What about location? Proximity not just a family for family, but also friends who might want to visit.

check staffing levels - there isn’t a regulator minimum number and my grandmother’s home was like the Marie Celeste as far as staff were concerned.

Think about communication - there are a lot of oversea stuff and some of them are very good but if you have dementia communication difficulties and you can’t understand the staff and they can’t understand you it’s a trigger for frustration.

Do they support people to go out and about and take part in outside activities if they want to – you would be surprised how many places don’t do that as a matter of course.

Check activities- some place is only have one activity worker for about 70 people, so if you don’t like bingo or throwing a ball around, then you are stuffed.
Some of the above might be relevant for your dad, other bits less so I suppose I’m querying how much input with social services will put into those extras other than just ticking the “meets needs” box.

What do they do about choice and promoting independence on a daily basis? I visited a number of care homes where is pretty much only one meal option and again at my grandmother’s place if she wanted a snack after 6 pm, she was always told the kitchen was closed, which is terrible practice.

Check the CQC reports – care quality commission. Some of them are very out of date so I wouldn’t rely on anything older as somewhere that was inadequate to may have had a new manager and may have changed completely since then but newer reports can give you more of an idea.

there would be some other things I would be thinking about as a starting point because if you decide to go with social services they are still questions you need to ask.

Also think about what assets he has and how long they might last for as a self-funder as somewhere a lot more expensive may potentially mean another move in the future.

Honestly though, the only advantage I can see to social services doing it as they would take some of that initial assessment and administration burden off you. They will find somewhere that takes the boxes with meeting his needs, it may not be the best option overall.

jackieblack

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81916410#Comment_81916410

The Care Home where my father lived was also in the Anchor group. I’d heard of it through a good friend whose parents had both lived there, at different times.
We initially needed urgent respite care and we were lucky that they had a room available. Dad stayed 5 weeks initially but when he needed to move back permanently a few weeks later he was quite happy to do so.

middlewife

If you're after specific recommendations, mum stayed 2 years in an Avery healthcare home. They aren't the cheapest, but far too many of the other homes just wheeled the residents into a lounge and plonked them in front of the TV after lunch . That's a sign of low staffing because there's no spare staff to interact socially with the residents. The home with the most glowing reviews was in a beautiful Georgian manor, "en suite" just meant a cupboard with a toilet and there was one shower for 18 residents who were showered on a rota! Nuff said really....

Savvy_Sue

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81916822#Comment_81916822

Indeed: Social Services 'found' a care home for a relative whom they deemed to be unsafe at home. There's a whole back story - the notes from home care visits do not indicate any concerns about safety and are not accurate in other respects. And they said "there's a room available, they need to move in next week." So they went in without any prior visit: if I'd been 'on the spot' things wouldn't have happened that way.

It's worked out OK now, but initially it was hard work finding out what we didn't know we didn't know … Not helped by the information on their website being out of date and reflecting strict Covid restrictions.

So it's not a fancy home, and they are often understaffed, BUT there's a team of 'activity co-ordinators', a physio in regularly who works with each resident as they are able, and generally all members of staff are friendly and helpful. The manager in particular is responsive.

Our relative was regularly visiting a friend in a much more up-market home, but isn't sure that the care was any better. There were carpets on the floors - but really do you want carpets or an easy clean surface?

There are sometimes communication difficulties because many of the staff don't have English as a first language, but then nor do a significant number of the residents!