Our award winning services

Five Towns Home Assistance will expect you to be treated equally and fairly. Our Staff are not permitted to actively discriminate on the grounds of ethnic origin, gender, religion, culture, age, sexual orientation, disability, financial status or political opinion.

We will always take your individual cultural needs into consideration when developing your individual plan. If you have any concerns regarding discrimination, please contact us immediately and follow our complaints procedure.

Five Towns Home Assistance has a commitment to keeping in confidence information we hold about you or any information that you choose to tell us. We have a Confidentiality Policy which all members of staff must always follow. All workers must not tell anyone outside the service any information about anything they have seen, heard or read in connection with the services that are providing to you.

However, there may be occasions when a support worker or other Five Towns Home Assistance worker believes that to withhold information about you may affect your safety or well-being.

On occasions you may wish to express your gratitude by making a gift, Five Towns Home Assistance feels it is extremely important to maintain a professional service and limits what might be acceptable for our support workers to receive. We recognise however, that in some circumstances to refuse a gift may be seen as being offensive; for example, at Christmas or a Birthday.

In such circumstances receipt of the gift should be documented in the home file and we ask staff to report to the office and fill out a gift form for Five Towns Home Assistance records.

We provide services to people in a variety of settings, which include:

• Your own home
• Sheltered Housing Unit

Locations Covered:

• Castleford, Pontefract, Garforth, Allerton Bywater, Kippax, Scholes,
• Barwick in Elmet, Great Preston and Swillington.

We provide services for:

• Older people with a variety of needs
• Adults with physical disabilities
• Persons with sensory impairments
• Adults aged 18+
• Persons attributed dementia or memory impairment
• Persons attributed mental health issues

Your support worker may also be able to offer advice about what other services are available to you in your local area.

Five Towns Home Assistance has:

• A Manager who is responsible for the day-to-day management of service.
• Senior Support worker(s) who are responsible for maintaining services to be provided to all clients and liaising with the Manager.
• Key Worker(s) are responsible for the monitoring of service provision and the supervision of support workers and liaising with Seniors/Manager.
• Support workers who deliver the service to you - the Service User.

Five Towns Home Assistance has Public Liability and Employer’s Liability Insurance in accordance with the statutory requirements. Full details can be obtained from the office.

Please note that we cannot be responsible for any loss, damage and breakages of your property. We recommend that you have your own insurance for your property and contents.

At the completion of each visit, your support worker will ask you to sign a timesheet (unless your local authority has alternative arrangements). Please check that the start and finish times are correct.

If you are not able to sign yourself - UTS (Unable to Sign) we may agree in advance for a representative to sign on your behalf or record as UTS on the timesheets with your awareness and approval. If you do not have a representative to sign for you, we will make alternative arrangements with you or the person paying for your support services.

No financial transactions will be carried out by a support worker on your behalf, unless it is an agreed part of your support package.

Even in these circumstances, we limit financial transactions to small amounts for shopping and only within agreed financial limits for paying: Utility bills, Deposits/withdrawal of money from Bank, Post office, cash machines or purchasing any household Items.

The overall responsibility for your medication will be with your General Practitioner / District Nurse or Health Professional.

All Travel Expenses due to support workers for providing personal support to you are incorporated in the charges levied to you. However, where it is necessary for a support worker to use their car to shop, collect goods or monies, escort you to any appointments or incur any parking fees on behalf of you there will be a travel allowance at the rate of 0.45p per mile, which will be added to the amount payable on the four (4) weekly invoices.

Support Workers may not support you with the following:

• Cutting toenails/Fingernails
• Personal care, Bathing/showering/Dressing
• Prompt or assist Eating/drinking
• Administer/Prompt or assist controlled medication
• Giving injections

If there is something that we cannot help you with, we will endeavour to advise you of someone who can.

Home Assistance Support Workers may support you with the following:

• Meal preparation / General cooking
• Social support and companionship (Befriender Service)
• Escorting to appointments
• Collection of prescriptions
• Collection of pensions/Banking
• Shopping
• Light domestic duties
• Ironing
• Laundry
• Making or the changing of beds
• Supervising Home Maintenance

If there is something that we cannot help you with, we will endeavour to advise you of someone who can.

If your support worker does not arrive at your home at the time expected please allow at least 15 minutes and then call the office or the “out of hours” telephone number. You can find these numbers at the front of your guide.

If your regular support worker is not able to attend for any reason, we will let you know as soon as we can and let you know who will be visiting instead. We make every effort to ensure that your services are not disrupted and also to keep the number of support workers known to you to a minimum. If your support worker leaves our employment we will discuss with you the provision of an alternative support worker.

Sometimes, we may need to introduce a new support worker, because your regular support worker may be on holiday or off sick. We maintain a register of fully trained support workers who are qualified to cover for your support worker at these times.

If your support is determined by Social Services, they will calculate any contributions towards the cost of your support and will explain to you how the charges will be collected.

If you are paying for your own support, we will provide you with the scale of charges, at your initial visit, before your support package commences. Terms and Conditions of service are included in your Service User Guide that you will be required to sign.

Our pricing of services for service users starts at a minimum of £20.00 per hour Monday – Friday.

This charge increases on Public Holidays / Bank Holidays to £30.00 per hour.

The hourly rate for the service delivered will be calculated and vary due to the following:

• Type of service
• Time, frequency and location of service
• Day(s) of the week the service is required
• Bank Holiday periods will be charged at a minimum of £30.00
• Number of support workers required to deliver the service
• The higher rate will also apply where Christmas and New Year holidays fall immediately after a weekend.

We will, if requested, give a detailed breakdown of our pricing for delivery of services.

The Service User Guide is a document that details our policies and procedures and collects relevant information relating to you, your emergency contacts and the services to be provided.

This document includes Terms of Business that are the principal provisions governing the services provided by individual support workers, appointed by Five Towns Home Assistance to its Service Users.

When we receive a referral or a request to provide services from either an individual or an organisation, we record all details and arrange a visit. The first visit is to meet with you and find out what help you may need and or what your support requirements are and how we can assist to support you.

Then, if you are happy for us to support you, we will assess your needs which will involve asking you questions about the kind of support you may need. These details will then be written into your support plan. We will give you a copy of your support plan as well as your needs assessment and risk management plan.

We will then match you with a support worker who will have the skills, training and experience to meet your needs.

A senior member of staff will introduce your support worker(s) to you and we will start to support you at your chosen commencement date.

Five Towns Home Assistance service is available:

OPEN: Monday - Friday 8am - 6pm.

CLOSED:  Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day