Accommodation in private homes for people leaving hospitals

Helping people leave hospital quickly and safely to return home is an important for people themselves, and for the NHS and local councils. Home-based care and support is a service which can already be commissioned from homecare providers to deliver the appropriate level of support to meet people’s individual needs, up to and including 24-hour support in people’s own homes.

Pilot schemes which offer a ‘step-down’ facility for patients who are medically fit to be discharged from hospital to a private home are an innovative idea. UKHCA’s view is that such schemes are unlikely to be able to operate effectively without delivering personal care, and should therefore be subject to statutory regulation. The operators of such proposed schemes should be in contact with the care service regulator for their UK administration before they start trading, to ascertain whether they are likely to undertake regulated activities. In the case of services in England, the regulator is the Care Quality Commission.

As a professional association, UKHCA supports proportionate regulation of social care services, so that people can access services which are registered and assessed consistently by the independent regulator. Where such services fall outside statutory regulation (for example, because they do not provide personal care) it is vital that people using them receive sufficient information for them to make an informed decision about the potential benefits and risks involved, and the extent to which background checks have been undertaken on householders with whom they will come into contact.

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Notes for Editors

1. United Kingdom Homecare Association (UKHCA) is the professional association for more than 2,000 domiciliary care providers in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

2. United Kingdom Homecare Association Ltd (UKHCA) is the professional association of home care providers from the independent, voluntary, not-for-profit and statutory sectors. UKHCA helps organisations that provide social care (also known as domiciliary care or homecare), which may include nursing services, to people in their own homes, promoting high standards of care and providing representation with national and regional policy-makers and regulators. The Association represents over two-thousand members across the United Kingdom, in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

3. There are over 9,100 registered homecare providers across the UK, the majority of which (84%) are in the independent and voluntary sectors. We estimate that these organisations employ 527,000 homecare workers, who deliver over 6.29 million hours of care per week to around 536,000 service users, valued at £5.9 billion per annum.

4. Homecare encompasses provision of personal care, to people in their own homes. For many, homecare is the alternative of choice for people who would otherwise need to move into residential accommodation.

5. For further information please contact:

Michelle Gederon, Press Officer
United Kingdom Homecare Association Ltd
Sutton Business Centre, Restmor Way, Wallington, SM6 7AH

Telephone: 020 8661 8165
Mobile: 07393 012 113
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.ukhca.co.uk

Registered in England, No. 3083104.