Live in care · Clinique Alpa
How Live in Care Is Arranged from the Call
Written by Dr Mitesh Parmar, MBBS MRCGP. Published 29 August 2026.
The first call is usually made by someone who has already delayed it. A daughter in a work car park. A son with a discharge letter on the passenger seat. They want a sequence, not a brochure. How live in care is arranged is the thing they are actually asking, even when the words they use are can you start on Monday.
The question they ask is what happens next. The question they mean is whether they will be left to run this themselves at midnight, once the nice conversation is over.
First a conversation with a manager, no obligation, about the person and the home. Then the person is assessed, and a care plan is written with you. Then you meet the carer before anyone moves in. Cover for days off is arranged by the office, not by you at midnight. That is the sequence. If a provider cannot describe it in that order, you are not looking at a plan. You are looking at a hope.
How live in care is arranged, step by step
The first conversation is 15 to 20 minutes with a manager, by telephone, about the person, the home, and what has become difficult. We will tell you whether live in care is likely to suit, roughly what it costs, and whether we can provide it. There is no obligation. If the address is one we cannot serve well, we say so at this point, not after you have moved furniture out of the spare room.
If you want to go ahead, a doctor from our team assesses the person at home and we write the care plan with you. Most domiciliary providers have no clinician anywhere near the care plan. The carer who then moves in is not a doctor and not a nurse. Personal care, meals, prompting and giving medicines as set out in the plan, company, the ordinary running of the house. Nursing stays with the district nurse, the GP, and the specialist teams. We work alongside them. We do not replace them.
The assessment is charged separately. If you then start a long term live in care package, the fee is credited against the first month. The result is a written plan, and a clear view of what kind of carer this household needs. It is not a substitute for the person's own GP.
We then match a carer to the house, on need and experience first, then on language, routines, pets, quiet or chat, the way the household actually runs. You are introduced before the start date. If it is wrong, it should be changed. We do not promise one named person for ever. Carers work in planned blocks and take time away. A second carer covers those periods, and the office arranges it. You should not be left to find someone yourself.
What we actually look at when a family calls
What families tell us they wish they had asked on that first call is not the weekly figure alone. It is who they will ring at 9 at night. What happens if the carer is ill. Whether the person they meet is the person who arrives. Whether the plan names the Sunday phone call, the garden, tea in their own mug, or only the tasks. A process that quietly costs the person those things has failed, however complete the paperwork looks.
When we come to the house we walk it. Stairs, bathroom, the chair they actually sit in, whether a carer would have a private bedroom. Nights. Medicines as they are really taken. Mobility, memory, mood, appetite, continence. The family rota, and how close it is to breaking. What a good afternoon still looks like. The home has to provide a private bedroom, access to a bathroom, meals as part of the household, and a way for the carer to take a daily break.
Every carer has an enhanced DBS check, references, and the right to work in the UK. They complete training and competency checks before they start, and they are supervised once care is under way, with visits to the home. A manager remains available to the family. That is the ordinary machinery. It is not a slogan about quality, and it is not a rating.
Read the full sequence, including matching, checks and cover, before you agree a start date you cannot picture.
When this sequence cannot hold the house
Some calls are really a request to skip to the last step. Send someone tomorrow. The signals that the sequence still has to be walked, or that live in care is the wrong product, are practical.
- Nights need frequent help, so one carer cannot also do the day.
- The work being asked for is nursing, not personal care.
- There is no private bedroom, or the person has said they do not want a stranger in the house.
- The family wants a named carer for ever, which nobody can honestly give.
- The address is one we cannot serve well.
- Discharge is this afternoon, and the house, the fridge, and the nights have not been tried.
When to call us sooner is when you already know the sequence is what you want, and you are delaying the first conversation because the second one feels large. The first one is 15 to 20 minutes. It is allowed to end with a no, including our no.
How care is arranged here
Clinique Alpa is a CQC regulated domiciliary care provider. We work across Enfield, Edmonton and the surrounding boroughs. Live in care starts at £1,650 a week for one person, subject to assessment and the level of need. The fee rises with heavier support, broken nights, care for a couple, and more complex needs. You get a written quote after the assessment, not a number invented on the first call to win the enquiry.
The care plan is reviewed once the carer has settled in, and then regularly, or sooner if the person's health changes. Daily notes stay in the house. Concerns come back to the office. Family get updates in the way they prefer. If needs go up, we say so, and we put the change in writing.
What a carer does through the day and at night sits on the live in care page. The numbers sit on the costs page.
You are allowed to want a sequence you can repeat to a sibling without crossing your fingers.
If that sequence is what you want, start with a conversation with a manager. Read our how it works page, or call 020 8882 8088 or 07777 594448. Live in care from £1,650 a week, published in full. If the person has fallen, cannot be woken, or is severely breathless, call 999. Subject to availability.
Written by Dr Mitesh Parmar, MBBS MRCGP, registered manager of Alpa Care Ltd, a CQC regulated domiciliary care provider working across Enfield and Edmonton. This article is general information, not personal care advice. In an emergency call 999. For NHS advice call 111 or visit nhs.uk.
If you would like to talk something through, call 020 8882 8088 or see how it works.
Live in care from Clinique Alpa is provided by Alpa Care Ltd, registered with the Care Quality Commission for personal care, provider ID 1-9691685023.