If you need care and support at home, you may be weighing up the pros and cons of a type of home care known as live-in care. Here is everything you need to know about the benefits as well as the disadvantages of this type of adult social care.
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At a glance
- Live-in care provides 24/7 personalised support at home, allowing people to stay in familiar surroundings with greater independence and companionship. It offers flexible, one-to-one care that can adapt to changing needs and may help reduce hospital admissions.
- However, it can be expensive. The average cost of live-in care is £1,302 a week in the UK,
- It may involve legal and administrative responsibilities if hiring privately.
- It can also reduce privacy and require home adaptations.
What is live-in care?
An increasingly popular form of adult social care is live-in care. This involves a professionally-trained care worker moving into your home full-time to give you 24/7 care to meet your specific needs. They can offer personal care, companionship and assistance with daily tasks, depending on what you require.Â
What are the pros of live-in care?
1. Remaining in familiar surroundings
- A big advantage of live-in care is your ability to remain in your own home. There is no need for you to move out of your home and sell it.
- This continuity of environment helps maintain a sense of independence, comfort and security. This is particularly crucial if you have dementia or another cognitive condition which can make you forget.
- When it comes to live-in care advantages, your ability to remain close geographically to your neighbours and any friends and family who are living nearby.
- Live-in care enables you to maintain your hobbies and interests in local groups, clubs and venues.
2. One-to-one, personalised support
- Rather being responsible for multiple people (e.g. making multiple home care visits to different people, or supporting many people in a care home) a live-in care worker is responsible for giving you with one-to-one care and attention.
3. Flexible support 24/7
- The care provided by a live-in carer can be very flexible and respond your needs at any time of the day or night.
- A live-in carer can also deliver a wide range of needs from basic household tasks to complex medical conditions requiring specialist training.
- This also makes a live-in care service flexible and adaptable as your care needs change over time.
4. Companionship and emotional support
- A live-in carer can offer you practical help, be a listening ear, provide companionship and help reduce any feelings you may have of isolation.
- As a result, a live-in carer can improve your mental well-being.
5. Reduced risk of hospital admissions and infections
- Another advantage of live-in home care is the home environment reduces your exposure to hospital-acquired infections.
- Infections can be life-threatening particularly if you have a weakened immune system.
- Another benefit of live-in care is having a trained care worker monitor your health and well-being every day. Issues are often identified and addressed earlier, than for other types of care.
- This reduces the likelihood of falls and other issues that might otherwise lead to hospital stays.
What are the cons of live-in care?
1. Cost
- One disadvantage of live-in care is that it can be expensive. The average cost of live-in care is £1,302 a week in the UK, according to fee data from homecare.co.uk.
- The cost can be similar to the cost of a residential care home, depending on the level of support required. In the UK, the average cost of a care home if you are a self-funder is £1,298 a week.
- While funding is sometimes available via the NHS or local authorities, many families pay privately.
- Unlike live-in care fees, you only pay for the time you are being cared for during home care visits. The cost of home care visits in the UK (excluding live-in care) is between £26-£38 per hour.
- If you are hiring a care worker privately and not from a care agency, you or your family will face another disadvantage of legal responsibilities and administrative burdens linked to becoming the legal employer of a privately-hired live-in carer.
This means you (or your family) will have responsibility for drawing up a contract, paying tax and paying for the live-in carer’s National Insurance and holiday entitlement. This can be an administrative and legal cost burden, which you may not want to take on.
2. Privacy and space constraints
- Having someone living in your home full-time can feel intrusive.
- It can be an issue if you value your personal space or have lived independently for most of your life.
- You should also have enough space in your home to accommodate a live-in care worker comfortably, before you can consider this type of home care. You are expected to provide a safe, welcoming and private room for your carer to live in.
- Ideally, the live-in care worker’s room should have nice furnishings e.g. a comfortable bed, a chest of drawers, access to WiFi and possibly a TV.
- Their bedroom should be lockable, so they can safely leave their personal belongings/valuables.
3. Finding the right live-in carer
- A successful live-in care arrangement relies on a good match between you and your live-in care worker.
- Compatibility in personality, language, cultural background and possibly religion, may be important. For example, having a similar hobby such as watching football can bring you and your live-in carer closer.
- However, finding a good match can take time and may require several trials to get right.
4. Limited social interaction
- While a live-in carer provides companionship, there is a risk you may become socially isolated from the wider community beyond your front door. However, if you regularly leave your home to maintain your external relationships and activities, this will not be an issue.
5. Limited medical resources and a need for home care adaptations
- Unlike care and support in a residential care home or hospital, choosing live-in care can limit the medical resources, such as equipment that you may have access to.
- You may also need to make adaptations to your home. For example, you may need to install a stairlift to help you get up and down the stairs, your corridors may need to be widened for wheelchair access and ramps may need to be fitted.
- Your local authority may be able to help you by paying towards the cost of your care and any home adaptations you may need.
Types of care: Live-in care Vs other care
Any decision about whether or not to have live-in care should take into account your individual care and support needs, your financial resources, your housing suitability and availability of staff.
You can explore funding options, such as NHS Continuing Healthcare or local authority-funded support before searching for live-in care on Live in Care UK | 66540 Reviews
If you haven’t already done so, you will need to contact them to apply for a care needs assessment, which will help them assess your individual needs. They will also carry out a financial assessment to determine if they can help fund the cost of this care.
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