Live-in care and home care in Didcot

How we arrange care in Didcot

In Didcot and the villages around it, Day and Nightcare provides home care visits from one hour, waking nights, sleep-ins, 24-hour care and fully managed live-in care from £1,550 a week. Care starts with a free assessment, a written quote and a written care plan. A relief carer covers a live-in carer’s holidays and time off, and a manager is on call.

Care can be paid for privately, by Oxfordshire County Council (including direct payments) or by NHS Continuing Healthcare. We have provided Discharge to Assess (D2A) care since 2014. If someone is coming home from hospital, tell us the expected discharge date. Our care team is on 01865 715780.

Arranging care and funding in Didcot

Whichever side of the district boundary you live on, adult social care is run by Oxfordshire County Council. To ask for a care needs assessment, call the Social and Health Care team on 01865 519800 (Monday to Thursday 8.30am to 5pm, Friday 8.30am to 4pm) or use the council’s online form; someone else can ask on your behalf. For urgent emergencies out of hours, the Emergency Duty Team is on 0800 833 408.

Read more: arranging care and funding in Didcot

A free financial assessment follows if you are eligible: with more than £23,250 in savings and investments you would usually pay the full cost, though your home is not counted for care at home. See council funding for care. Family carers can ask Carers Oxfordshire’s CarersLine (01235 424715, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm) for a carer’s assessment; there is no charge.

Didcot town is in South Oxfordshire, but parts of Harwell and Milton parishes adjoining the town are in the Vale of White Horse, so check which council’s name is on your council tax bill. Both councils disregard someone who is severely mentally impaired and a carer looking after a disabled person who is not their spouse, partner or child under 18; South Oxfordshire calls this the live-in carer discount. Both also bill a home one band lower if it has a room, extra bathroom or kitchen, or wheelchair space needed by a disabled resident. See council tax discounts for care.

Urgent care and leaving hospital in Didcot

• Minor injuries: Didcot has no minor injuries unit. The nearest is at Abingdon Community Hospital, Marcham Road, open every day from 10am to 10.30pm, with no referral needed, for injuries from the last seven days. It is not an A&E.
• A&E: the Emergency Department at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Headington, Oxford, is open 24 hours.

Oxford University Hospitals starts planning discharge when someone is admitted, and families arrange transport home unless the patient meets strict medical criteria for hospital transport. A community hospital bed, if needed, is the first one available, and it may be close by: Didcot Community Hospital on Wantage Road provides inpatient rehabilitation and palliative care for people who no longer need an acute hospital, and Wallingford Community Hospital on Reading Road has an inpatient ward for rehabilitation and palliative care. Neither has a minor injuries unit or an A&E.

Back home, Home First Oxfordshire’s reablement is free short-term help to regain independence, arranged by a professional. If needs are mainly health needs, ask about NHS Continuing Healthcare: NHS Thames Valley ICB’s Oxfordshire adults team is on 0118 982 2900.

Local help in Didcot

Carers' services, dementia support, transport, befriending and other local help, with phone numbers.

Read more: local help in Didcot

• Memory worries. The GP can refer to Oxford Health’s memory service, whose nearest clinics are at the Abingdon and Wallingford mental health centres. After a diagnosis, Dementia Oxfordshire (01865 410 210, weekdays 9am to 5pm) matches people living at home with a local dementia adviser.
• Carers. Carers Oxfordshire’s group meets at Didcot Library, 197 Broadway, on the third Tuesday of the month, 9.30am to 11am; carers can bring the person they look after.
• Day opportunities. The county council’s nearest community support services are in Wallingford (High Street) and Abingdon, open weekdays with accessible transport; places are mostly arranged through Adult Social Care.
• Foot care. Age UK Oxfordshire’s footcare clinic at Valerian Court, The Broadway, on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, is for over-50s who cannot cut their own toenails: £26, self-referral, book on 01865 717615.
• Getting about. Didcot Volunteer Drivers (01235 816709) is the main scheme for people without transport who cannot use the bus; you pay drivers’ expenses at 45p a mile. Oxfordshire Comet (01865 323201) is the county’s bookable door-to-door service.
• Anything else: the Live Well Oxfordshire helpline, 01235 849410.

What may change soon

On 29 October 2026 the Government said it is minded to replace Oxfordshire’s councils with three unitary councils from 1 April 2029, with most of South Oxfordshire and the Vale joining West Berkshire in a new Ridgeway Council. This is proposed, not confirmed. Until then, the county council arranges adult social care and the district councils collect council tax.