Once you have established for yourself or for a loved one that external help is needed to support one to remain independent at home, you should explore your own options and work out how to gain the necessary financial support to commission a package of care. Please navigate to our ‘Guides’ page to see the most commonly 4 types of funding options available that most people use and as always, please contact us should you require further support.

The average care home staff to resident ratio is 1:5, the reason behind this is because it is motivated to save costs and to increase profits. When you consider the nature of vulnerable seniors, who generally have poorer mobility and are physically frail, especially during the morning, it puts pressure on the care staff to ‘rush’ around to get everyone up and ready for breakfast and to have their morning washes on time - institutional culture, it is usually within these periods of rushing around, accidents happen - such as a fall. Live in care at home enables you to have 1:1 support, in a familiar setting drastically reducing such risks, where you feel safe and secure, especially for service users with cognitive impairments such as dementia. In short, it is roughly the same price, but you get better value for money and more freedom of choice because – after all, it is your home.

It is important to manage ones financial situation, as it stands if you have more than £23,250 in savings and any other assets under your name, you are unlikely to receive any funding or support from your local authority and expected to pay for the costs of care yourself. If there is any shortfall in meeting the costs, family members maybe approached to make up the difference. We suggest consulting with an independent financial advisor to explores ones options – failing to plan, is planning to fail.

Absolutely no implications at all, this is your home, and we respect that. We will ensure that the self-employed carer we introduce, and supply are happy and are aware in advance before accepting the placement of such animals being on site

The self-employed worker / carer we supply, work directly for the family and care recipient, should any issues arise it is always best communicated with them to see if things can be improved/resolved. First Light will appoint a designated officer to look after your relationships and make regular check ins to ensure you are happy with the staff provided, if not we will source you with another suitable self-employed replacement carer.

Yes, you or your elderly relative should still have some money to allow for them to pay for items such as weekly groceries, hairdressers, podiatrists and general expenses, the usual things one would normally expect to pay when living in their own homes such as council tax and utilities which are not included by us. You should discuss this with the self-employed carer to decide on the weekly budget/allowance and how it may be topped up on a regular basis.

No, each self-employed nurse delivering any service in any capacity for the service user will have an agreed fixed hourly rate, which will be made aware to you in advance, should you require and use this clinical service, it will then appear in your weekly invoice and charged separately to that of your weekly live in care cost(s). The same applies with any of the third-party services we refer and have supplied under your instruction through our network. The only exemption for this clause is when consultants and specialists collectively known as the medical doctors deliver their own services on a private basis, they will have their own private practices and will charge you separately from us.

No parties are authorised in any capacity to request for direct payments into private and individual accounts at any time. This will be a direct breach of our terms of engagements and agreed ways of working. First Light Independent Care serves to be the payroll party and will deal with payment(s) by invoicing the service user directly on a weekly basis.

Providing they have a valid full British driving licence and there is adequate insurance cover for such activities for third parties, this arrangement is solely between you – the service user and the self-employed carer. We as First Light have no further day to day management of any activities, we are here to supply the provision of staff and offer payroll related services.

We are sorry you feel you cannot engage with your self-employed carer through communication, your allocated officer who looks after your relationship in this instance should be the first point of contact should this occasion arise to see if things can be resolved, if not we will source you with another suitable alternative and replacement.