Support that lets someone stay put
Live-in care in East Grinstead is usually arranged at a difficult moment. A fall, a hospital discharge, or the slow realisation that a parent alone in a large family home is no longer safe on the stairs.
Cheriton Homecare places a fully managed carer in that home instead. We have run live-in care in Brighton and Hove and across Sussex for close to 30 years, CQC registered and rated Outstanding in Caring.
One named carer in the house, and a case manager you can call. Not a rota of faces nobody recognises.
Words from families who know our care firsthand
Live-in care services we provide in East Grinstead
Support is built around the person, not a fixed package, and it shifts as needs change. Everything below comes from one carer living in the home, with no travel time and no handover.
Personal care
Your live-in carer helps with bathing, dressing, grooming and shaving at the pace the day allows, not the pace a rota allows. Continence and catheter support is handled discreetly.
Companionship
The part families underestimate. A live-in carer who will sit down for a cup of tea, drive someone over to see friends in Crowborough, or keep them at the groups they have always gone to, does as much for wellbeing as anything clinical.
Medication reminders
Prompting the right medication at the right time, every day, because your carer is in the house rather than passing through. They work to what the GP surgery has already put in place.
Alzheimer's disease & dementia care
Continuity is the whole argument for live-in care here. One familiar carer in a familiar house avoids the disorientation a move so often triggers, and someone who has learned a person’s history can steady an afternoon that is unravelling.
Palliative care
Where the wish is to stay at home to the end, having a carer living in makes that realistic. They work alongside the community nursing team already involved, and support the family in the house too.
Household chores and assistance
Shopping, meals, light housework, laundry, gardening and pets, kept going as part of the day rather than booked as a separate job. Where the property is large, and plenty around East Grinstead are, we will suggest a cleaner so your carer can concentrate on care.
Is live-in care the same as 24-hour care in East Grinstead?
Mostly, yes. A live-in carer supports the day, takes scheduled breaks, and sleeps in their own room at night, on hand if needed. Only repeated overnight help calls for waking-night cover instead.
Visiting care is different: set calls, then the carer leaves. That works in the town centre or somewhere like Horley or Haywards Heath, less so out towards Forest Row or Turners Hill, where a short evening call costs more travel than time on site.
What live-in care gives back that a care home can't
Whether home is a flat in the town centre or a cottage out toward Lingfield, live-in care lets the place stay the place.
- The same four walls. Familiar surroundings count for most when memory or mobility starts to slip.
- One carer, not a rota of twenty. The same person daily, learning how your mum takes her tea.
- The day still belongs to them. Slow mornings stay slow, and bedtime is not lights out at nine.
- No visiting hours. Family drop in when it suits, and nobody signs a book on the way in.
- Everything else stays in place. The same GP surgery, the same pharmacy, the same faces in town.
- Often cheaper. Up to 30% less than residential, with couples seeing the widest gap. There are other advantages worth weighing too.
Why East Grinstead families choose Cheriton Homecare
We are not a national franchise routing enquiries to a call centre. Cheriton was founded after Richard spent years caring for one man with Alzheimer’s who wanted to go home from a nursing home, and the policies we run on today came out of that.
The question then is not whether to stay at home, but who you trust in the house.
You pick your carer. Clients choose from the carers we put forward rather than being allocated one. If the match is wrong, we change it.
A case manager stays involved. Senior management monitor the case managers running each care plan, so there is always someone accountable above your carer.
Cover is planned, not improvised. Every placement has a named holiday relief carer, so breaks and time off do not leave a gap in the house.
We work with the clinicians already involved. District nurses, GPs and chiropodists supporting someone in East Grinstead stay part of the picture, and we build the care plan around them.
Rated Outstanding in Caring by the CQC, with a 9.8 review score from verified family reviews on homecare.co.uk.
Carers who know the area. Our East Grinstead carers are recruited to live and work here, which matters when someone needs driving to an appointment at Queen Victoria Hospital rather than an unfamiliar route across the county.
What live-in care costs in East Grinstead
One weekly rate, covering a dedicated carer living in the home. No hourly add-ons, no hidden fees.
- From £1,190 a week for one person
- From £1,476 a week for couples sharing a home
Your rate turns on the level of care and how nights work. Waking nights cost more than sleeping cover.
Set that against selling up, which around East Grinstead is neither quick nor cheap. If constant cover is more than the situation needs, visiting care in West Sussex is the lighter option.
How live-in care is funded
We support privately and publicly funded arrangements, and will help you work out which routes apply.
- NHS Continuing Healthcare. Can cover the full cost where clinical needs are significant. We are experienced in supporting CHC-funded packages.
- Attendance Allowance. Not means-tested, so savings and income do not count against you. Widely overlooked.
- Local authority funding. West Sussex County Council may contribute after a means-tested assessment, or pay you directly so you choose the provider.
Property values around East Grinstead put most families outside the means-tested threshold, so the first two usually matter more here. Our comprehensive guide to live-in care covers each in detail.
Request a brochure
Request a printed brochure to browse with your loved one at your leisure and find out more about live-in care.
Arranging care, step by step
Tell us what has changed and how urgent it is. Discharge from Queen Victoria Hospital or a sudden decline gets handled differently from care you are planning three months out.
We visit to look at the house as much as the person: where the carer will sleep, how the stairs work, what the daily routine already is. Care plans are built around the specialist input someone already receives, not on top of it.
We put forward carers suited to the needs and the personality, and you decide. Families in the surrounding villages go through the same process, and the same carers often cover several of them.
Your carer moves in and your case manager reviews how the placement is going as needs change. In many cases care can begin within a few days of the assessment.
Not sure yet whether it is time? That is usually the right moment to call
Most families ring us before they have decided anything. A conversation costs nothing and often clarifies whether live-in care, visiting support, or simply waiting is the sensible next step.
Where our carers are, across East Grinstead and beyond
What East Grinstead families ask us first
Are your live-in carers based near East Grinstead?
Yes. Our office is in Brighton, but live-in carers are recruited to the area they work in. Carers covering East Grinstead also work across the surrounding villages and towns such as Crawley, so cover and relief come from the same local pool.
Can you support someone discharged from Queen Victoria Hospital?
Yes, and it is one of the most common reasons families call us. A live-in carer covers mobility, medication and recovery through the first weeks at home, and care can usually start within days of an assessment.
Does a live-in carer need their own bedroom?
Yes. A live-in carer needs a spare room and somewhere to keep their things. Most family homes around East Grinstead manage this comfortably, though smaller flats sometimes cannot, and we will say so honestly at the assessment.
What happens when our live-in carer takes time off?
A named relief carer steps in, arranged in advance rather than at short notice. You meet them before they are needed, so nobody arrives at the door as a stranger and the routine stays recognisable.
How do we stay involved if we live away from East Grinstead?
Every family gets a case manager as a single point of contact, and your carer reports back on how the week has gone. Supporting a parent from a distance is the situation many of our families here are in.
