PuffinCare works with customers and their families who require care in their own homes. We offer a unique service of personalized care options from check-in visits to full live-in care and support. Our care and support services include:
Live-in Care
Live-in care is the care that enables people who require full-time support to continue to live independently in their own
Domiciliary Care
Domiciliary care is type of care which allows you, or a loved one, to receive care in comfort of your
Respite Care
Respite care means the regular carer taking a break from caring, while the person you care for is looked after
Promoting independence Care
At the basic level, this involves promoting and encouraging full autonomy over one’s own life. In other words, providing a
Companion Care
The goal and objective of companion care is primarily emotional support and socialization. As we get older, life starts to
Night Care
Night care at home is an essential part of our offering at ImpalaCare. Our dedicated staff work through the night,
Physical Fitness Care
Staying fit and healthy is an important part of maintaining good mental and physical fitness at any age. If a
Pet Friendly Care
If you have a pet, as part of our domiciliary care service we will try and match you to a
What is live-in care?
Live-in care enables people who require full-time support to continue to live independently in their own home. A professional carer comes to live with you, providing personal care and support for a range of conditions, so you can live life as you wish. Choosing live-in care services for yourself or a loved one means you can avoid the distress and upheaval of moving into a care home and away from everything you and your family are familiar with. Therefore, live-in care is widely considered to be the best type of care with
better outcomes for health, happiness, and independence.
Our tailored care packages are designed to suit anyone with assisted or advanced care needs who wishes to retain their independence, living in their own home. Our carers are fully trained in a range of specialist conditions, including end-of-life care, so should you get worse, our carers can continue to look after you in your own home and you will not have to move into a care home.
How does live-in care work?
Live-in care is planned with you, not around you.
We understand the difficulties people face when the need for care becomes apparent, whether it is a sudden change in circumstances or a gradual need for more help. At ImpalaCare, we pride ourselves on a shared vision to provide care and support in partnership with you and your loved ones so you can live life as you choose. We continually monitor the safety and efficiency of our service and consult with you frequently on the ongoing development of your care package. At the outset, our Local Area consultant will visit to discuss your needs, provide information about ImpalaCare, and take steps to set up your care plan at your pace. This vital stage of the live-in care journey takes every aspect of your situation into account. Your health requirements, mobility, your home set up, support network, social needs, and interests.
Choose the type of live-in care
a. Full Management Service
This service provides complete peace of mind. Clients and families need not worry about a thing. Our experienced team will oversee every aspect of care, both long-term and day-today, to ensure that your care needs are completely taken care of. This type of care is fully regulated by CQC, and includes personalized care plans, carer management and regular client reviews. Carers can manage and administer medication and controlled drugs, and all care notes and medication administration are recorded on line so that clients and family members can access at their convenience.
Fully Managed live-in care is the ideal option for those who do not want to worry about coordinating GP appointments and other everyday tasks and families juggling lots of other demands.
b. Introductory Service:
Our Introductory service provides you with a rota of client matched carers who will work directly for you on a self-employed basis. You will therefore manage and pay your carer, who will not be regulated by CQC.
It is up to you how and if you would like care records kept and medication recorded. The Introductory service is more suitable for clients who do not have complex needs as carers can only prompt a client to take medication but cannot administer medication or controlled drugs. They also cannot help with personal care or manual handing equipment such as hoists.
The carer fee will be negotiated between the client and carer, and you will pay the carer directly for their services. ImpalaCare will charge an agency fee for the recruitment, vetting, training, registration, and introduction of your chosen carers. The Introductory service is most suited for families who want to be more involved in the care of their loved one, or those who need a live-in carer on a tighter budget.
Care comparison:
Fully Managed Care Service
| We take responsibility for managing the carer | |
|---|---|
| Fully regulated, inspected, and monitored by CQC | |
| We set the fee, so complete clarity of expectation | |
| All care is recorded online and meets CQC standards | |
| Regular face to face visits to review progress | |
| All medication is recorded online | |
| Carer can manage and administer medication | |
| Carer can administer controlled drugs, e.g., morphine-related pain relief | |
| Client can see care record notes, medication record, | |
| Carer can help with manual handling e.g., hoists | |
| If client gets worse, our managed carers are trained in end-of-life care. |
| Care is not regulated by CQC | Yes |
|---|---|
| You pay the carers directly, carer must sort out tax, NI etc. | Yes |
| We suggest fee, it is up to client or carer to negotiate whether this is really the fee they want | Yes |
| Up to carer or client if care records are kept | Yes |
| Face to face visits only if a major review of entire care is needed | Yes |
| Up to carer or client if medication records are kept | Yes |
| Carer can prompt client to take medicine – but not actually administer | Yes |
| Carer cannot be involved with helping with controlled drugs | Yes |
| Up to carer and client if they want/ can set up online records | Yes |
| Carer cannot help with personal care or major manual handling equipment, e.g. hoists | Yes |
| If client gets worse, if self-employed carers no longer work, we have the managed option to offer. | Yes |
No matter which option you choose, you can be assured of ImpalaCare providing you with excellent carers and a professional service from our experienced team to meet your wants and needs.
The benefits of live-in care services:
One to One
Live in care services offer one to one care support when you need it Our flexible home care services offer you safety, dignity, and independence to live in your own home where you are happiest, surrounded by the memories you have made throughout your life.
Comfort and convenience
With ImpalaCare, your trusted carer lives in your home and adapts to your way of life. Having a carer to assist your daily life at home in familiar surroundings means you do not have to suffer the disruption of moving into a care home, leaving your garden, your pets, your neighbors, and many of your possessions behind.
Safety
Having the one-to-one support of our live-in care services with a carer who looks after you at home, reduces the dangers caused by frailty as people get older. With just one person to look after, your carer can focus on your needs alone. They will encourage your independence and mobility wherever possible. This includes getting mobile, for walks or in the local community as much as you would like and helping with daily exercises.
Value for money
Live-in care services offer a much more affordable option than many people think, and oneto-one care offers significantly higher value for money and inestimable peace of mind than a care home. Live-in care offers substantially better comfort, quality of life, happiness and freedom and the ability to live independently than a care home.
Peace of mind
Our highly trained live-in carers are kind, compassionate, friendly, and respectful. They offer an elevated level of care as well as companionship, to give you comfort and peace of mind at home.
Private home care offers full-time support or flexible visiting care in your own home to enable you to continue to live independently for as long as you choose.
The cost of care in your own home will vary depending on your needs and how much support you require
The cost of live-in care varies, depending on your needs and preferences. The total cost is usually between £1425-£1725 a week but give us a call with your requirements and we will be happy to give you an estimate.
It can be a complex matter and, in many circumstances, people require care which they have not planned in advance and often this means they haven’t fully considered the matter of how to fund it either. As a result, many people do not get the right advice or receive the best care suited to their needs. Read on for a straightforward guide to the costs and considerations you should make when
deciding on care for yourself or someone you love.
Whether you are paying for care in your own home, or paying for residential care, there are five ways to help fund the cost:
1. State help, either local authority or NHS
2. Cash or investments
3. Annuity
4. Your house
5. Family help
Whatever your circumstances, we recommend that you follow our basic rules of preparing for care:
a. Make sure you are getting the sort of care you really want and need for now and in the future.
b. Get financial advice from a financial advisor before you start.
c. Sort out your legal position; get a power of attorney, sort out your will
Care Funding Guidance
1. State help
If you or a loved one is beginning to struggle with everyday tasks at home or if your health or mobility is restricting you from being able to access the local community, this is a suitable time to consider your care needs, both now and in the future.
Unlike the NHS, social care is not free. Most often it is means assessed which means you are likely to need to pay some of it however, there are quite a few allowances that you can get,
some of which are not means-tested.
Follow the Age UK benefits calculator as a starting point to find out more https://benefitscheck.ageuk.org.uk/Home/Start/
2. The local authority
The first thing you can do is get a referral from your GP, carer, or district nurse to have a local authority care assessment to establish what level of care you need and what help is available to you.
The assessment itself is free and everybody is entitled to it, whether you are eligible for financial help or not.
The care assessment will be followed up by details of a care plan and a means test which will take into consideration your income, savings and property.
If the local authority does contribute, remember that you do not have to move out of your house. And if you, or your dependents live in your house, the value of your house is not part of the financial eligibility assessment.
If one spouse is more dependent than the other, it might pay that the dependent spouse pay for most domestic and care costs – if there is the possibility of becoming eligible for
local authority help.
For more information on how to arrange an assessment and advice on what questions you might be asked visit https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/social-care-and-support-guide/helpfrom-social-services-and-charities/getting-a-needs-assessment/
3. NHS Continuing Health Care
This is a complete package of care services arranged and funded by the NHS which can be provided in various settings including your own home. The service is free and is not meanstested.
Not everyone who has ongoing health needs will qualify for CHC but there are times when a person’s eligibility should be considered:
✓ If you have a rapidly deteriorating condition which may be terminal.
✓ When you are about to be discharged from hospital, particularly if you need permanent full-time care at home.
✓ When your personal care needs are reviewed.
✓ If your physical or mental health decreases rapidly and your current care package becomes inadequate.
Those who live at home and are eligible can have both their health care and their personal care, such as help with dressing and bathing, paid for in full by the NHS. This includes live-in care. ImpalaCare has an increasing number of clients whose care is at least partly and often fully funded by the NHS.
For more information about the NHS Continuing Health Care download their National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded Nursing Care document https://www.england.nhs.uk/healthcare/ as detailed in Annex D Paragraph 11 of the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS funded Nursing Care.
Cash or investments
If you are able to pay for care with cash or investments, this gives you a lot more freedom. However, we strongly recommend going to a financial advisor early, to help you make the best decisions so that your money lasts for as long as possible.
Annuities
An impaired annuity paid directly to a care provider, is not subject to tax in the hands of the client, and can pay a generous amount, depending on the health of the client. If a client has an impaired annuity and becomes eligible for NHS continuing health care (free of any means test), it is important to have terms so that the annuity can be paid to the client instead of the care provider (it will then be subject to tax but you will at least get that income).
Using your house
For many people, their house is the largest amount of capital they own. There are three main ways of using your house to pay for care:
a. Sell the house,
b. Downsize and use the surplus money to pay for care.
c. Retirement Interest-Only mortgage (RIO). You can get an interest-only mortgage on your house if you are sixty (60) or over. Borrow the amount you think you might need (say six months’ worth of care fees at a time) plus a little more to cover interest. Interest rates now are below 5%. At the end of your life, your family still owns the rest of the house. BUT you do need enough of an income to cover the interest payments. That is why RIO lenders always ask for the size of your pension and usually make an offer of around four times of your pension.
d. Equity release. You get a lump sum in exchange for your house.
Family help
There are two ways that family can help pay for care:
a. They make a direct financial contribution. In this case, it is highly recommended to have a properly documented loan agreement, to be a debt against the estate on death, and
to ensure agreement between siblings.
b. Family helps from time to time with the care. If family takes over, say one week in four, the total amount paid for care drops by a quarter. Of course, this does not work for care homes, who will charge for even unoccupied rooms.
If you are unsure about live-in care speak to one of our existing clients for an honest account of how PuffinCare can help to improve the standards of your everyday life too.
FAQ
A-Yes. In fact, ours is the most intensive training course in the country and all carers who pass receive a CPD-accredited qualification. ImpalaCare carers undergo rigorous blended training and come to our training center for a residential training course with our awardwinning training team. This is followed by distance learning and annual updates which provide continuous learning. Our live-in carers also receive condition-specific training. We will make sure we find the carers for you who can give you the help you want, whenever
you want it.
A-Most of our carers have English as their first language. Those who do not are competent English speakers. Our carers come from across the UK, South Africa, New Zealand, Spain, and other EU countries
A-We can usually start when you want to, the same day if needed! We will always do everything we can to put arrangements in place according to your needs as quickly as possible.
Our team can discuss your requirements and draw up a quote the same day to help you make your decision. While doing this, our Local Area Consultant will also be in touch to arrange an assessment either in person, or over the phone or if time is of the essence.
Quick Start Emergency Care can be arranged on the same day as someone being discharged from hospital in which case, we can also liaise with the Discharge team and Occupational Therapist to work with their timescales and any follow up care requirements.
A-Yes. They all have a Disclosure and Barring Service check. In addition, we do robust background checks of carers work history as part of the compliance process, and those carers who come from overseas will have a local police clearance certificate. All carers have two intensive interviews with us to check that they would be suitable carers; their conduct is constantly monitored during their training course. In fact, 96% of applicants are rejected. As well as this, we do regular feedback calls to check that they are suitable.
A-Yes. successful live-in care partnership depends upon some crucial factors – rapport with your carer, clear communication so that your carer knows your needs and preferences, adequate living conditions for your carer as well as our commitment to reliability and administration to provide a smooth care journey for you.
The choice of carer – we listen to clients, and we know our carers well. Throughout the interview and training process, we learn their strengths and weaknesses, which helps us to maintain a good team of carers who we get to know very well. We also visit our clients, and get to know your needs and preferences so that we place carers that are most likely to
build a good relationship. Consideration is given to personality and outlook as well as training and expertise.
We regularly compile feedback on individual carers and aim to build a rota of regular carers you like and get on with. If you do not like a carer, that carer will not return. Ninety-one percent of first carers introduced are positively asked back by our clients.
Effective communication – Understanding your wishes, needs and preferences is a crucial part of ensuring the success of your live-in care. It allows us to give the carers a realistic expectation of the workload and to familiarize them with your day-to-day preferences.
Our commitment to reliability and administration – Our specialist expertise and experience means we will not let you down. Our dedicated team works hard to ensure that you are never left without a carer. As a specialized, person-centered care agency, we focus
meticulously on ensuring that our records, administration and support and emergency systems are up to date to help provide you with a smooth care journey.
Living conditions – The better the living conditions are, the happier the carer will be and the more likely it is that they will want to come back regularly. As a basic requirement, a live-in carer would need:
✓ Their own bedroom with a comfortable bed.
✓ Some furniture to unpack and store their clothes and belongings.
✓ Access to unlimited Wi-Fi.
✓ A minimum of 14 hours’ time off per week, ideally 2 hours during the daytime.
✓ Essential food items will need to be provided. If a main meal cannot be provided, we charge an additional £40 per week for the carer to purchase their own main meal.
A-In some circumstances the live-in care partnership may not work. In this situation, we work flexibly to resolve any issues as quickly as possible. Our office is open Mon – Fri, 9am to 5pm, or if there is an emergency our out of hours line is staffed 24/7.
A-If your condition gets worse, we will make sure that the carer we introduce is still suitable and that any changes do not put them or you at risk. If for example, you are calling the carer many times in the night and she/he is also expected to work during the day, sleep deprivation would have an impact on her effectiveness. Because of this you may want a
second carer, for a brief time or permanently.
A-We have a network of Local Area Consultants, who are scattered around the country. More than 90% of problems or questions can be resolved over the telephone or via email; geography does not matter. The main thing is that carers are living-in. They are in your house, working hard for you all the time.
A-Sometimes our client will want to meet their carer before they start, especially the first one. We will send you a carer profile for each carer which outlines their experience, their own hobbies and interests and includes feedback on the carer from other clients. We are confident that we will provide you with a carer that is compatible and meets your needs, but should you want that extra peace of mind, we can try to arrange for you to video call the carer. Please speak to our friendly Care Consultants to arrange this.
A-This will be agreed between you and your carer. It varies from two weeks to eight or more. We want you to have a team of live-in carers who will be with you for as long as you like.
A-Please do. We welcome existing and potential clients. Please call us on 01234567 for more information or to arrange a visit.
A-Yes, we very much like to. Before we start, we want to get a full picture of your wishes and needs and to check the living conditions that your carer will enjoy. We don’t charge anything for this assessment visit, and this also gives you the opportunity to question, faceto-face, our Local Area Consultant about how live-in care works. We can complete assessments over the phone if preferred. If conditions change, and with your agreement, we would like to visit to re-assess your wishes and needs.
Most of our carers can drive, however, very few carers have their own car, so usually our carers drive their client’s car. It is important that you make sure that your car has the right insurance for the carer, but we are happy to give some advice about this if needed.
