Homecare and Personal Care | Providence Centered Care

What it is

Help with the parts of the day that have got harder

Homecare means a carer coming to your home for an agreed length of time to help with whatever has become difficult. For most people that is the beginning and the end of the day. Getting washed and dressed in the morning, a hot meal at lunchtime, help getting ready for bed at night. For others it is one visit a week to make sure the shopping is in and the tablets have been taken.

The point of it is that nothing else about your life has to change. You stay in your own bed, in your own street, with your own front door key. Your neighbours are still your neighbours. If you have a cat, the cat stays. That sounds obvious until you compare it with the alternative, which for a lot of families is a move into residential care that nobody actually wanted.

Personal care is the regulated activity Providence Centered Care Ltd is registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide. That means the way we recruit, train, supervise and record is subject to inspection, and the way we handle medication and personal care is governed by national standards rather than by our own opinion of ourselves.

We were registered with the CQC on 17 March 2025 and have not yet had our first inspection. When we do, whatever the report says will be published on our website next to our registration details.

This is likely right if

Daily living has got harder but home is still where you want to be
You need help at set times rather than someone there all the time
A family carer needs the pressure taking off certain parts of the day
You are managing after a hospital stay and need support while you recover
Someone needs prompting or support with medication

Something else may fit better if

The difficulty is loneliness rather than physical tasks, in which case ask us about wellbeing visits
Support is needed unpredictably through the night as well as the day, where live in care usually works better
Living independently is not currently safe even with visits, where supported living may be the answer

In practice

What a visit actually involves

No two care plans are the same, but these are the things carers most often do. Yours will name exactly which of them apply and at what time.

Getting up and getting dressed

Help with washing, showering or bathing, dressing, hair and shaving. Continence support where it is needed, handled without fuss and without commentary.

Medication

Prompting, or handing medication over, or administering it, depending on what the assessment says. Every dose is recorded at the time rather than remembered later.

Meals and drinks

Preparing breakfast, lunch or an evening meal, and making sure there is a drink within reach. Where eating and drinking is itself difficult, that goes in the plan with the detail it needs.

Keeping the house going

Washing up, laundry, changing a bed, running the hoover round, putting the bins out. Enough to keep the place liveable rather than a full clean.

Getting out and about

Support to a shop, a club, an appointment or a friend. Where transport is needed we have our own vehicles and our own staff.

Noticing things

A carer who sees the same person three times a day notices a chest infection days before anybody else does. Concerns go to the office the same day, not at the next review.

The detail

What is included, and what is not

Set out plainly so there is nothing to discover later. Anything not listed here can still be discussed, and often arranged.

Included as standard

A written care plan you have seen and agreed before the first visit
Carers who are DBS checked, inducted and trained before they work alone
The same small group of carers wherever the rota allows it
Medication support recorded electronically at the point it happens
Written notes after every visit that family with access can read
An office you can reach during working hours and an on call number outside them
A review after the first six weeks and at least annually after that

Arranged separately

Nursing tasks that require a registered nurse, which we will help you arrange
Deep cleaning, gardening, window cleaning and household repairs
Overnight or sleep in cover, which is priced and rostered separately
Transport, which is available as an add on rather than inside the visit

Getting started

From first call to first visit

From the first phone call to the first carer arriving is usually a matter of days. Where it is urgent, it can be the same day.

01

Tell us what is happening

A phone call or the enquiry form. You do not need paperwork, a diagnosis or a social worker. Just what the difficulty is and roughly when help is needed.

02

We come and see you

A free visit at home with no obligation. We look at the practical things, the risks around the house, and what you actually want out of this.

03

You see the plan first

We write it up, you read it, you change what is wrong. Nobody starts work against a plan the person has not agreed.

04

Care starts, then we check

Your carers are introduced rather than sent. We come back after six weeks to ask what is working, and change what is not.

Cost

How this is paid for

Some people pay for homecare privately. Others have it paid for by their local authority after a care needs assessment, or through a Direct Payment that lets them choose the provider themselves. A smaller number qualify for NHS Continuing Healthcare, which covers the full cost where the need is primarily a health need.

If you have not had a care needs assessment yet, you are entitled to ask your local council for one regardless of income or savings. It is free and it is the door to everything else. We can tell you who to ring in Bexley, Barking and Dagenham and the other boroughs we work in.

Read the full guide to funding

Questions

What families ask us about this

What is the shortest visit you will do?

Thirty minutes. We do not offer fifteen minute calls. A quarter of an hour is not enough time to help somebody wash, dress and take medication without rushing them, and rushing is how people get hurt and how dignity gets lost.

Will it be the same carer every time?

The same small group wherever the rota allows. One named carer for every visit is not something any honest provider can promise, because people take leave and get ill. What we can do is keep the group small and make sure everybody in it knows you.

Can you help with medication?

Yes. What we do depends on the assessment: prompting, handing it over, or administering it directly. Every dose is recorded electronically at the moment it happens, so a missed one is visible immediately rather than at the end of the week.

Do I need a social worker to arrange this?

No. We take referrals from local authorities, NHS teams and social workers, and we also take them directly from families and from people arranging their own care. You can ring us yourself.

What happens if my needs change?

Tell us and we will reassess. Care packages here are meant to move. Increasing the support for a few weeks after a hospital stay and then dropping it back down again is a normal thing to ask for, not an inconvenience.

What if we are not happy with a carer?

Ring the office and say so. You will not be asked to justify it and nobody will be difficult about it. Somebody coming into your home has to be somebody you are comfortable with, and if that is not working then the match is wrong and we change it.

Which areas do you cover?

Our registered base is in Erith in the London Borough of Bexley, and we have a day services centre in Dagenham in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. We also work across Lewisham, Greenwich, Southwark, wider Essex and Kent. Ring us if you are not sure whether we reach you.

Also worth reading

Services that often go together

Live In Care

A trained carer moves into the home and is there day and night, so that moving out of it never has to be the answer.

Tell us what has got difficult

A conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. If homecare is not the right answer we will say so and point you at what is.

Make a referral Talk to someone first

Emergency placements are answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week.