Domiciliary versus care homes
publication date: Nov 3, 2010
Somerset county council has come up for the first time in England with a figure for the number of hours of domiciliary care it will give an individual before they have to move into a home. The answer is 23 hours or just over three hours a day. Beyond that the individual will be asked to pay for any extra homecare.
Anything beyond that and, at a maximum price of £15.50 an hour for domiciliary care, the care home beds in the UK, at an average of roughly £350 a week, becomes the cheaper option.
This is the problem with domiciliary care. Beyond a certain very limited service it rapidly becomes too expensive.
Authorities also shy away from domiciliary care because they see it as an open-ended commitment. How long will individuals need it? We know that length of stay in care homes across Europe is now circa two and a half years. But domiciliary care needs are elastic and it is very hard to assess how long the service will be needed.
All this makes domiciliary care ripe for innovation. Much greater use of electronic monitoring devices should help. But these are still at the early stage and remain expensive. It is how to couple new technology to the physical care at home which is the challenge.
One thing remains certain. Care homes are products that nobody wants. Care at home is a product that everyone wants.
