Personal Care at Home

Timing, tasks and preferences are agreed at assessment, then adjusted over the first few weeks.

Depending on the care plan, visits can include:

• Washing, bathing or showering, including hair washing
• Getting dressed and undressed, including choosing what to wear
• Oral hygiene, shaving and personal grooming
• Getting up in the morning and going to bed at night
• Continence care and toileting support (more detail on our continence care page)
• Skin care, including application of prescribed creams where part of the care plan
• Preparing or warming meals and encouraging regular eating and drinking
• Medication prompting at agreed times (see our medication support page)
• Mobility assistance and transfers, where the care plan allows

Personal care doesn’t include nursing procedures, clinical wound care, or catheter management. Where those are needed, the district nurse or GP team is the right contact. Our complex care service covers situations where the line between personal and clinical care is less clear.

• Are living with dementia and benefit from a familiar carer who knows their routine
• Have recently come home from hospital and are rebuilding their daily routine
• Are a family carer who needs reliable cover to rest, work, or have time away

The pace, the conversation and what is asked first matter as much as the task.

In practice:

• Carers knock and wait before entering a room
• They ask what the person prefers before acting, and follow that preference
• They cover the person appropriately throughout
• They work at the person’s pace, not the schedule’s
• They respect choices about clothing, grooming and routine, even when those differ from family preferences
• Care details stay confidential unless the person has given consent

“She always asks Mum what she wants to wear and never rushes her. That matters enormously to us as a family.”

Daughter of a client in Southwell

We aim to give each client a core team of up to four carers. We introduce them before care starts wherever possible. Cover comes from our own directly employed team, never agency staff. Read more about how we keep care familiar and consistent.

Some people prefer a bath at night. Others need breakfast before getting dressed. Some have skin routines they’ve kept for decades.

Before care starts, we learn the person’s preferences and the order they find comfortable. We also note anything carers should know about mobility, communication or memory. That goes into the care plan and is shared with every carer involved.

When preferences shift or needs increase, we update the plan and brief carers. Families can follow carer notes and visit records in real time through the Birdie app. More about how family updates work.

Personal care doesn’t have to begin with a full morning routine. Many people start with one or two visits a week, help with a shower, say, and build from there.

A regular carer at a regular time tends to be accepted sooner than most families expect. See our full costs and funding page for prices and funding.

For people living with dementia, an unfamiliar face or a break in routine can make personal care harder. What looks like resistance is often communication. Our carers are trained in dementia-informed care. Read more about dementia care at home.

We provide personal care in Newark, Grantham, Bingham, Retford, Ollerton, Southwell, Collingham and North Hykeham, and the surrounding villages.