Live-in care in Frome

How we arrange live-in care in Frome

Day and Nightcare provides fully managed live-in care in Frome and the villages around it, from £1,550 a week. One main carer lives in the home; a relief carer covers their holidays and time off, and a manager is on call. Care starts with a free assessment, a written quote and a written care plan.

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

Arranging care and funding in Frome

Somerset Council runs adult social care in Frome. To ask for a care needs assessment, call 0300 123 2224 (Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5pm), or use the council’s online Public Referral to Adult Social Care form, for yourself or someone else. The needs assessment is free, and anyone can ask for one. To speak to a social worker out of hours, call 0300 123 23 27. You can also talk to someone from Adult Social Care at a Talking Café.

Read more: arranging care and funding in Frome

If the council may help to pay, a financial assessment follows. With more than £23,250 in savings your relative would usually pay in full, though the home is not counted for care at home. People paying their own way are asked to contact the council as soon as their savings drop to £30,000; if they ask the council to arrange care, it will normally charge an arrangement fee. See council funding for care.

A family carer can ask for a carer’s assessment on the same number, alone or jointly with the person they care for; a council social care worker carries it out. Somerset Council also collects council tax. Someone who is severely mentally impaired, and a carer living in the home, may not be counted, and there is a disabled band reduction for adapted homes. See council tax discounts for care.

Urgent care and leaving hospital in Frome

• Urgent treatment centre: Frome Community Hospital, Enos Way (01373 454770), open seven days a week 8am to 9pm (last patient 8pm), with X-ray on weekdays from 9am to 4pm. It is not an A&E. It sometimes closes at short notice, so check NHS 111 first.
• A&E: The Royal United Hospital (RUH) in Bath, which serves Mendip as well as Bath, open 24 hours as a walk-in service.

At the RUH, discharge planning starts as soon as someone is admitted, and patients are asked to plan from then too; the hospital asks patients to arrange to leave by 10am; hospital transport is only for clinical need. Anyone waiting for medicines, transport or care that starts later in the day waits in the Discharge Lounge in Building E6. Because Frome is in the Somerset Council area, ask the ward to involve Somerset Council if care at home is needed. Somerset’s Home First model offers reablement at home or a short stay in a reablement unit, free for no longer than six weeks. The community hospital also has an inpatient ward, Marshfield Ward.

If needs are mainly health needs, ask about NHS Continuing Healthcare: NHS Somerset’s team is on 01935 38 5233, option 1 (option 4 for Fast Track). For NHS transport to appointments, the Patient Transport Advice Centre is on 01278 727444 (weekdays 8.30am to 6.30pm).

Local help in Frome

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

Read more: local help in Frome

• Health Connections Mendip. Health Connections Mendip’s Health Connectors give one-to-one support to patients of the Mendip GP practices, including Frome Medical Practice (01373 468368). Its Talking Cafés meet at the Cheese and Grain on Mondays (10am to 11.30am) and at Coffee#1 in the Westway Centre on Thursdays (1pm to 2.30pm).
• Memory worries. The GP can refer to Somerset NHS Foundation Trust’s Dementia Assessment and Support Service (Mendip team 0300 124 5602, option 3). The free Memory Café, for anyone affected by dementia, meets on Wednesdays, 2pm to 3.30pm, at the InTouch Café at Frome Medical Practice. Dementia Support Somerset is on 01458 251541. See live-in care for dementia.
• Carers. Somerset Carers Service is free for unpaid carers aged 18 and over (Advice Line 0800 31 68 600).
• Getting about. Mendip Community Transport (01749 880613) runs a hospital car service for people who cannot use public transport, where the hospital is more than 12 miles away: register first; the cost is a mileage charge plus a £2.50 administration fee. The Mendip Slinky bookable bus is booked on 01749 880482 (weekdays 9am to 4pm), at least 24 hours ahead, once you have registered. Frome Community Drivers, a volunteer scheme, collects from any BA11 address for appointments; it asks for a £6 booking fee plus 80p a mile.
• Hospice care. St Margaret’s Hospice Care says patients in East Mendip are normally supported by Dorothy House, whose area reaches south to Shepton Mallet; its Clinical Coordination Centre takes referrals, including from patients and families, on 0345 0130 555.
• Advice. Age UK Somerset (01823 345610) offers free advice and a free benefits check for over-60s.