Here at Helping Hands we are a direct alternative to residential or nursing care, our live-in or visiting careers help many people to remain independent within the comfort of their own home. Helping Hands covers the full continuum of care, from 30 minutes to full live-in, respite, palliative and nurse-led clinical care in the home.

We can help with the following:

• General housework, including laundry and preparing meals
• Errands such as food shopping or prescriptions
• Help getting out and about: taking trips, visiting friends or going on excursions
• Offering companionship: simple tasks such as reading, chatting and listening
• A sitting service providing brief relief for an existing caregiver
• Personal care, including support with bathing, dressing, toileting and more complex continence care
• Help with getting up in the morning and going to bed at night
• Medication support, whether prompts or administering medication
• Overnight stays where necessary

Any combination of our services can be offered to fit in with the needs and routines of the individual. Whether for half an hour a week or 24 hours a day, we offer a fully managed and regulated CQC approved service with a flexible approach.

There are many key benefits to our service, but in short:

• Helping Hands has 30 years’ experience in home care: we are dementia specialists and provide a fully managed service through our live-in care team
• We offer live-in care nationwide and have over 100 branches around the UK that provide domiciliary care
• Our phone lines are managed seven days a week and we can turn around emergency care in as little as 24 hours
• Our dedicated Local Care Managers and Clinical Nurse Led Team get to know an individual’s needs and provide safe care that enables independence
• We cover the full continuum of care, from 30 minutes to full live-in, respite, palliative and nurse-led clinical care in the home
• Guaranteed cover for our customers: which means that we will never let them down - if our carer should be unwell or unable to cover, we will ALWAYS find a replacement!
• Only 2% of the people who apply to be a carer get through our strict procedures, background checks and assessment centres so individuals will receive the very best of care.
• We employ all of our carers directly – we never use agency staff, they are handpicked for their passion, enthusiasm and ‘can-do’ attitude
• We closely match our customers’ specific requirements to a carer's relevant skills to ensure compatibility and offer a carer profile in advance to promote customer choice

Whether you need regular support throughout the week via our visiting care service or someone on hand whenever you need them with our live-in care service, our Reading team will work closely with you to find the right solution for you. We specialise in home care that fits entirely around you and your routine, enabling you to live independently.

Understanding your home care funding options can be daunting, that’s why we try to keep it simple.

We understand how stressful it can be organising care for yourself or a loved one. That’s why we’ll aim to keep things as simple and straight-forward as possible when it comes to costs. We are:

• Upfront and transparent about our home care costs. There are no hidden fees or lengthy notice periods.
• Not a care agency, so you don’t have to worry about agency fees or retainers.
• Able to accept direct payments. If you’re receiving funding through social services and have opted for direct payments, we’re able to accept top-ups to these payments.

Depending on your needs, home care costs will vary. Visiting care is charged at an hourly rate with live-in care, or “24 hour care“, quoted on either a daily rate for short-term respite or weekly rate for ongoing care. We can discuss the level of care that is right for you and whether the cost of home care is financially sustainable for you and your family.

Although the majority of our families are paying for their care privately, there may be the opportunity for you to access home care funding from either your Local Authority or Clinical Commissioning Group. In these cases, we work with the funding body to get the support you need in place and give you a better quality of life at home.

If you’d like to speak to the team about the care packages we can provide for you or your loved one, we’d love to hear from you. Please call us – we’re here to take your call seven days a week.

If you’d prefer to meet face-to-face, simply advise us of a time and a place that suits you best and we’ll be there.