The modern care sector has evolved substantially, and the conventional idea of bland meals, uninteresting entertainment, and limited visiting hours for loved ones is, fortunately, surpassed by family-feel, person-first, and tailored care support, often delivered in the care recipient’s own home, where people feel most relaxed, happy, and content.
Understanding what care assistance might look like now is incredibly worthwhile, particularly for people and families who recognise the value high-quality care might bring and need to know the right ways to implement care on their own terms.
The Background of Domiciliary and Specialist Home Care Support
Just as the perception of residential care homes has shifted enormously, home care was once seen as a luxury available only to the most affluent. Since the pandemic, demand for professional, Care Quality Commission-regulated home care has soared by over 10%, with continued growth in services.
From the 1990s onward, home care transitioned from primarily delivery-based services, or ‘meals on wheels,’ to a professional, flexible, and customised service. Age UK research shows that around 12% of all adults in the UK aged over 65 receive some help or care within their homes—increasing to 20% of people aged 80 or above.
Part of that trend may simply be better awareness, where more families acknowledge that:
- Residential and home care are both options and they have the autonomy to decide how best to meet their needs—without any foregone conclusions or lack of choices.
- Tailored home care can be an excellent alternative, especially where there are considerations around potentially selling a family home to finance care costs or where a loved one with a cognitive condition like dementia or Alzheimer’s would find the transition to a residential facility upsetting and distressing.
- Home care structures are diverse, and your care support might look very different from somebody else’s. Services range from general visiting care to provide companionship, cleaning, and help with meal preparation to longer-term overnight and live-in care services.
Access to information and guidance also makes it easier to make informed choices, with a wealth of knowledge available online at the click of a button.
For example, you might wish to compare CQC inspection ratings, understand the grants and benefit support you are entitled to or want to review care recipient reviews and testimonials to ensure your care provider meets the highest expectations.
Impacts of Accessible, Affordable Home Care on Social Care Provision
There is no doubt that in many areas, social care services provided by the local authorities are scarce, impacted by everything from dwindling budgets and rising costs to unprecedented demand and a simple lack of spaces in residential care homes, occupational therapists to provide care assessments, or qualified carers or nursing carers to offer home-based care.
That said, the impact of private, professional home care is widely seen as positive. Standards, requirements, regulations, and quality have all risen substantially, driven by organisations that focus on providing care recipients with genuinely empathetic, respectful, and dignified care.
Care recipients have the right to raise issues and concerns, file complaints, report problems, and make their needs and experiences known. Key safeguarding policies are part of the regular inspection system designed to identify poor practices and enforce standards—with punitive outcomes for care providers who fail to meet them.
Present-day care recipients expect and deserve patient-centred care, where care planning is bespoke to them. They are active participants in dictating the nature and scope of their care support, the types of tasks they want help with, and those they prefer to complete independently or in private.
Outsourcing and Referrals to Private Home Care Agencies
Another important aspect to touch on when examining the relationship between private home care support and the general social care sector is that, as verified by studies conducted by the Department of Social Policy and Intervention at Oxford University, the social care space is increasingly reliant on outsourcing.
This may be because private providers have a greater capacity to extend and launch new services or, following the Guardian Angel Carers model, open new territories and branches run by dedicated home care franchisees, serving communities in areas that are otherwise underserved.
Researchers uncovered that the long-standing care crisis has meant that public sector services have depended on their private counterparts to help plug gaps and deal with challenges, especially those related to issues around the quality of care.
According to the study, 96% of all adult residential care services are outsourced, mainly to private providers, an increase of 20% since 2001.
For home care, that has varied impacts, from greater independent decision-making where families can choose between services and compare them on aspects such as cost, quality and standing, to choosing a local home care team with a fantastic reputation in the community, or that has been used by family and friends.
The Role of Personalised Home Care in Improving Care Flexibility and Standards
Finally, the family-centred approach adopted by us and most well-established and highly regarded home care providers means that there is far greater demand for customised and flexible care support, where some of the services we offer, such as specialist live-in care or assistance with specific conditions like dementia, stroke recovery and Parkinson’s simply didn’t exist before.
Families looking for help managing a life-limiting, chronic, or progressive condition or sourcing help with rehabilitation and recovery have a wider breadth of choice.
They can arrange for a visiting carer to provide gentle and respectful care in the person’s own home—with no need to consider relocation, a long-term transition into residential care, or an unnecessarily high level of intervention.
The Guardian Angel Carer’s team prides itself on offering the best possible care, adapted to every individual and family, and strive to represent the highest home care standards, bringing care in the community to your door, wherever home happens to be – and we value the opportunity to continue contributing to the improving standards, accessibility and versatility of home care across the UK.