Frequently asked questions

Home care brings support to you, in your own home, rather than moving you into a residential setting. You keep your own bed, your own kitchen and your own routine. Support ranges from an hour a day to carers covering every minute of the day.

Call or message us and tell us what is happening. We will arrange a free assessment, usually at their home, to understand what is needed. There is no charge and no obligation — and it is genuinely fine to call before you have decided anything.

We visit, usually for an hour or so, and talk through the day: routines, medication, mobility, meals, what is likely to work and what is not. Family is welcome to be there. We then write a care plan together, and nothing starts until you have read it and agreed.

Often within a few days. In urgent situations, such as a hospital discharge or a sudden change at home, we can usually move faster. If we cannot cover what you need safely at short notice, we will tell you straight away rather than promise and then struggle.

Yes. Care plans are reviewed at six weeks and then at least every six months, but you can ask for a change at any point in between. There is no long lock-in. If you need to stop, tell us and we will help you wind things down properly.

Care is charged at an hourly rate. It is mostly a flat rate; however, weekends and bank holidays may vary. We talk through your costs directly rather than publishing a rate, because a headline hourly figure rarely matches what a real week looks like. We do not add surcharges such as travel time or locking you in for a certain amount of hours. If you pay for 60 minutes, then you will get 60 minutes, nothing less.

They can contribute, depending on a needs assessment and then a financial assessment. Start with a needs assessment from your council — BCP Council for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, Dorset Council elsewhere. We can point you to the right team; however, this contribution is taking place between you and them solely.

The council looks at your income, savings and capital and decides how much, if anything, you contribute towards care they have agreed you need. The thresholds change, so check the current figures with your council or on GOV.UK. This is general information and councils’ protocols may change.

NHS Continuing Healthcare is fully NHS-funded care for people whose needs are primarily health rather than social. It is assessed through a checklist and then a full assessment, usually initiated by a specialist nurse or the hospital discharge team. Worth asking about if health needs are complex or changing.

If a council has agreed to fund some of your care, you can take that funding as a direct payment and arrange the care yourself rather than the council arranging it. Yes, you can use direct payments with us. Your council’s direct payments team can explain how to set one up.

Possibly, if you are over State Pension age and need help with personal care or supervision because of a disability or illness. It is not means-tested and does not depend on savings. Age UK and Citizens Advice both help with the form free of charge.

It depends entirely on how many hours you need. A few visits a week is usually well below a care home; round-the-clock home support care can be comparable. We will help you compare honestly, including telling you if a care home would be the better answer.

You will have a small, consistent team rather than one individual, so holidays and sickness do not mean a stranger. Most clients see the same two or three carers, and everyone on your team knows your care plan and your routine before their first visit.

Cover comes from inside your own small team, from someone who already knows you and your routine. Holidays are planned in advance. We do not send an unfamiliar agency carer and hope for the best.

Yes. Every carer completes an enhanced DBS check before their first shift, along with reference and right-to-work checks, and we pay for it. No one works unsupervised with a client until those checks are complete.

All carers complete Care Certificate training, plus mandatory training in moving and handling, safeguarding, medication and infection control. Beyond that, training is matched to the people they support — dementia, catheter care, PEG feeding. Training is refreshed, not signed off once.

Yes, wherever we can arrange it. An introduction before the first visit makes an enormous difference, particularly for someone anxious about a stranger in the house. If a fast hospital discharge makes that impossible, we tell you who is coming and a little about them beforehand.

Visiting care is scheduled visits, from one hour to several hours, once or several times a day. Live-in care is a carer living in your home, there through the day and on hand overnight. Many people start with visits and move to live-in care later, keeping the same carers. Whilst we do not offer Live-in care, there is no limit to the amount of time we could cover at your home.

A waking night carer stays awake and alert all night. A sleep-in carer sleeps in the home and is woken if needed, up to twice for no more than 15 minutes each. Waking nights suit people who need help several times a night, or where waiting to be called would not be safe.

Yes. Carers are trained and then assessed as competent before they handle medication, and every dose is recorded on a medication chart. What we can do depends on what is prescribed and how, agreed with you and where relevant your GP or district nurse when the care plan is written.

Yes. TP Care at Homes is registered with the Care Quality Commission, the regulator that inspects and rates providers of care in England. Our registration details are published on the CQC website.

Tell us first, by phone, email or in writing — most things are fixed fastest that way, and we would rather hear it early. Our full complaints procedure, including timescales and how to escalate to the CQC or the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, is in Client Information.

We collect only what we need to provide your care, store it securely, and share it only with people involved in your care or where the law requires it. Our privacy policy sets out what we hold, why, how long we keep it, and how to ask for a copy.

Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch and wider Dorset. Coverage varies slightly by service: visiting care is limited by travel time between calls, while 24/7 care can reach further into rural Dorset. Tell us your postcode and we will confirm straight away.

Yes, particularly for longer stretches and night care, where a placement is not affected by travel time between visits. For shorter visiting calls further out, get in touch with your postcode and we will tell you honestly whether we can cover it reliably.