Coming home from hospital can be the hardest part
Helping at Home provides fast-track home care for people coming home from Newark Hospital, Grantham and District Hospital, King’s Mill, Queen’s Medical Centre or Lincoln County. We can start visits the same week where we have capacity. Care includes personal care, meals, medication support, mobility support and welfare checks. Call 01636 646915 or use the fast-track form below. We respond within a few hours for discharge enquiries.
Speak to us before discharge day
The first 72 hours at home are usually the hardest. Medication routines change. Mobility is reduced. The fridge is empty. Sleep is broken. We can have a familiar carer at the door on day one if we hear from you in time.
If your Mum, Dad, husband or wife is on a ward and being discharged this week, call us now.
What we help with after hospital
Most discharge support packages cover some or all of the following:
- Personal care: washing, dressing, toileting and continence care
- Medication prompts or administration, in line with the discharge prescription
- Mobility support and falls reduction, working alongside any physio referrals
- Meals and hydration, particularly important after surgery, infection or weight loss in hospital
- Welfare checks for people living alone
- Overnight care where night-time risk is high
- Family updates through the Birdie app, so siblings and partners know what is happening
What support is right depends on the discharge plan and on what changed during the hospital stay. We talk this through with you and, with consent, with the ward team and any community professionals involved.
How quickly can care start?
Honestly, it depends. We do not promise care within 24 hours because that would mean we sometimes fail people who needed it. What we do promise:
- A same-day call back if you contact us during office hours
- A clear answer on capacity within hours, not days
- A first visit within the same week in most discharge cases we accept
- An honest “not yet” if we cannot cover the package reliably, and a referral on to another regulated local provider if helpful
We are a CQC-rated Good provider with a directly employed team. We never bring in agency carers to plug gaps. That sometimes means our answer is “not yet”. It never means a stranger turning up at your Mum or Dad’s door.
Reablement, NHS Continuing Healthcare and private home care
This is the part hospitals often explain quickly. Families then phone us confused. Here is what each thing means in plain English.
Reablement is a free, short-term NHS or council service after discharge. It usually lasts up to six weeks and focuses on getting someone back to independence after illness or injury. Not everyone qualifies, and it can end before independence is fully restored.
NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) is a fully NHS-funded package for people with a primary health need rather than a social care need. It pays for the entire agreed package.
Local authority funded home care through Nottinghamshire or Lincolnshire County Council involves a needs assessment and a financial assessment. Eligible families receive a contribution. The council contribution rate is often lower than the private rate, so some families top up the difference themselves.
Private home care is what most families use, either from day one or after reablement ends. You pay the headline hourly rate. There is no waiting list for a council assessment. We can start within the same week subject to capacity.
We can run alongside reablement, fill the gap when reablement ends, or take over from day one. Whatever the discharge plan looks like, there is usually a way through.
What it costs
Our hospital discharge home care uses our standard pricing:
| Visit type | Price |
|---|---|
| Hourly visit | £31 |
| 30-minute visit | £17 |
| Travel per visit | £2.50 |
| Bank holiday and Christmas Day | Premium rates apply, confirmed at quote |
Home care services are exempt from VAT under welfare services rules (Group 7, Schedule 9, VAT Act 1994). What you see is what you pay.
For Direct Payments, NHS Continuing Healthcare and self-funded routes, see Costs and funding.
Local hospitals we work with families from
Most of our discharge enquiries come from one of the following:
- Newark Hospital (Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust). Outpatient, diagnostic, day-case, inpatient rehab and Urgent Treatment Centre.
- King’s Mill Hospital, Sutton-in-Ashfield (same trust). Acute and specialist services for our Newark and Ollerton areas.
- Grantham and District Hospital (United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust). Inpatient, day case and 24-hour Urgent Treatment Centre.
- Lincoln County Hospital (same trust). Acute services for families on the Grantham, Long Bennington and Bottesford side of our coverage.
- Queen’s Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital (NUH). Acute and tertiary services for families travelling in.
We are not formally affiliated with these trusts. With consent, we share practical information with ward staff, discharge co-ordinators and community professionals where it helps your family get home safely.
Continuity from day one
We aim to keep each client’s care team to a maximum of four familiar carers. Introductions are done before care starts wherever possible. When regular carers are off, cover comes from our wider directly employed team, never from agency staff.
Read more about how we keep care consistent.
Frequently asked questions
Can you collect someone from the hospital ward on discharge day?
We do not provide patient transport. We can be at the house when the ambulance or family car arrives, so the first hours at home are not done alone.
Will we see the same carers each visit?
We aim to keep each client’s care team to a maximum of four familiar carers. Introductions are done before care starts wherever possible. When regular carers are off, cover comes from our wider directly employed team, never from agency staff.
Can private home care run alongside reablement?
Yes. Reablement is short-term and goal-focused. Private home care can fill gaps reablement does not cover, take over once reablement ends, or sit alongside as a parallel package.
What if my family member refuses care once they are home?
That is more common than families expect, especially after a hospital stay where independence has felt taken away. Our carers are experienced at building trust over the first few visits. If consent or capacity is a concern, we talk through this carefully with your family before care starts, and we refer to community professionals where appropriate.
Can carers help with medication after discharge?
Yes. We provide medication prompting and medication administration depending on the discharge prescription and what your family member can manage themselves. Both are documented in the care plan and logged in the Birdie app.
Is there an out-of-hours line for urgent discharge enquiries?
Our office is open 8am to 6pm Monday to Saturday. The fast-track form on this page routes to our out-of-hours duty phone between 7am and 10pm seven days a week, and we respond within a few hours.
Talk to us about coming home
Tell us what you need and we'll come back to you quickly.
We respond within a few hours — including evenings and weekends. You do not need to have everything figured out before you contact us.
Forms received outside our office hours are reviewed when we open at 8am Monday to Saturday. For urgent matters relating to hospital discharge, use the fast-track form above and we will respond within a few hours.
