Home Instead UK Reviews 178

If I could rate the carers and the office separately, this would be a five-star review stapled to a one-star bin fire.
Let’s start with the good: the frontline carers were wonderful. Compassionate, skilled, patient - the kind of people who make you believe in humanity again. If I could hire them directly, I would in a heartbeat.
Now for the office. Oh, the office.
Imagine paying £40 an hour for administrative chaos. Of that, the carers (I asked them directly) were earning £12.50. The care manager looked me in the eye and told me they were paid £20 - which was, shall we say, a creative interpretation of the truth. So we were effectively handing over £27.50 per hour to fund spelling mistakes, delays, and a customer service style best described as “Kafka meets Carry On.”
We asked - repeatedly - for carers not to wear PPE while preparing Mum’s food, since it’s both unhygienic (same gloves/aprons used for personal care!) and environmentally wasteful. We sent evidence. We explained that the rustling aprons distressed her and that the blue gloves frightened her.
We were ignored.
We also requested that staff speak to Mum in a normal voice. She’s not deaf, and she’s certainly not five years old. Yet Hannah from the office persisted in addressing her in what I can only describe as a “sing-song nursery voice,” like she was auditioning for CBeebies: The Dementia Edition. It was patronising, demeaning, and infuriating.
Staff turnover? Astronomical. Every week seemed to bring a new face - which is exactly what you don’t want when you’re paying a premium for “continuity of care.”
Communication from the office was appalling: curt, error-riddled emails that read like someone had fed an instruction manual through Google Translate twice. Invoices arrived late. Payments were taken late. When they wanted something, they expected instant compliance. When we needed answers, it was like shouting into a void lined with clipboards.
In short: fantastic carers trapped under an incompetent management structure.
If you want to pay through the nose for stress, misinformation, and amateur-hour admin, this is the company for you. If you want real value, honesty, or even basic respect for your loved one - look elsewhere.

They went to visit my mother who has Alzheimer’s to talk to about some care. The care plan they came up during the 2-hour meeting was a daily visit of one hour. To get my mother out of bed, make sure she shower, and then make her breakfast, the price for this would cost a total of £282.50 per week, which equate to the sum of £14690.00. In my opinion this is daylight robbery for 7 hours work of only one carer per week. My mother who has Alzheimer’s was then asked to sign the ‘Service Agreement’. After speaking to my mother around 1 hour after the end of the visit she had absolutely no recollection of the visit from Home Instead, let alone of her signing any ‘Service Agreement’. Later that afternoon Home Instead emailed me the ‘Service Agreement’ and a ‘Direct Debit’ form, after I read it in detail it was clear that my mother did not have the finances to pay for such care. I them emailed Latitia Fadey at Home Instead who had emailed me the ‘Service Agreement’ and also, who was the person who went to visit my mother to say we would not be going ahead with the care because my mother just simply cannot afford the care on offer from Home Instead. Within two hours I received a reply from Latitia saying that it was absolutely fine but my mother needs to pay £150 for an ‘Admin’ charge.

In my opinion this company ply on sick, elderly and vulnerable people, and put profits before anything else, shameful behaviour.

In the end after a fight I managed to get Home Instead to wave the £150 ‘Admin’ charge.

Home Instead 'appears' to be a great company to work for, UNTIL you receive the small print. That's when you find that you are actually out of pocket for time AND fuel. Hours are what THEY choose, not convenient at all.

I had a recent loss 2024 & felt extremely low.
Universal credit became my support & I had mandatory meetings to attend to.
On my last meeting we were introduced to Chelsea (Recruitment), I asked how do I apply for work, she said after meeting we'll chat.
I had my interview, got the job, then training.
My team Manager Katey, Team members Will, Sam & Chelsea.
I started with this Incredible Company end of June, I was taken under their wing to be fully trained and gently eased into the Care Professional roll.
I've met lovely clients & enjoy helping them around their homes with homemaking chores & prompting them with the daily tasks.
If I have any problems my office manager & her team Telford South are there to guide me.
If your had some experience & have a good heart ❤️ 💙 please don't hesitate, come and enjoy your work with Home Instead 😊

this is a sincere warning to every husband of a wife, who is from the UK or from overseas, irrespectively, to never in life allow your female partner to go into employment there. This is especially in regard of Ilkley and Yorkshire in general, but no doubt is that it would be the same anywhere else across their branches. I am sharing this post as a precaution and warning. As I've made the mistake and let my fiance go to work over there. It was the biggest mistake of my lifetime. In the following part I will shed some light on why was it that so gruesome. But before, I want to make clear that I am doing this to spare other guys the pain and demolition of their lives, so that no one had to suffer a total collapse of everything they had built like myself. My life is ruined due to that swamp, which proudly calls themselves Home Instead. But maybe thanks to reading this post, somebody else's will be saved. To the point - my fiance, 30 y.o. serious woman, so far faithful, commited, loyal, and unwavering in reassuring me of her love, which was the genuine love and not feigned for 10 years, without intermittence. We had received a mortgage promise from the bank, spoke about the wedding, we trusted each other and I truly loved her, and also deep inside I respected her for who she was, and for who she was to me. I was grateful to every single day spent together, although indeed, I may haven't been showing that effusively to her. But that is what I felt. We had been by then long time together, and we've had by then typical storms behind us, such as my side-outs, her lies and partying, jousting over trivia, etc. But I wanted to believe that our bond and time spent together meant something and worked to solidify our relationship to last. We were both educated people. She was the. BA, I was MSc. Everything finished and ended up tragically since she started her work with Home Instead She was a carer. She took care of an old upstart millionaire, who thought the world was his. Until his death when he probably changed his mind as death sees no classes or tints of the blood colour, whether more blue or just red. But it was in Ilkley, a notorious hub of snobbery, showboating, upstartmanship, and a general vanity fair in the nutshell. When she was leaving towards there, she was a humble, appreciating, grateful woman. Ilkley changed her though. Due to the specifics of her work, so-called live-in care, she needed to move in at the address of the guy she was meant to take care of. The, rest is a dark abyss, a ghoulish mystery, black hole. But the bottom line is that after one year of working there, literally nothing was left from the candid girl I was seeing when she was moving to there. Forgive me my language, but what she has transformed into could be referred as to as a common, ordinary wh....re, a harlot, a narcissist, a gold-digger, a squabbler, a disrespectful skunk, and a liar. Our life was turned into debris. No mortgage. No marriage. Instead, a living hell since then.. It turned out that during her night shifts she had regular sex with co workers. She didn't even react when I finally called her back , practically ordering her to return home immediately. I was shocked and heart broken. I couldn't recognize my own woman anymore. The transformation was so explicit, deep and indelible that it was just appalling. She got to the level where Home Instead culture of work, which translates to rapacity, debauchery, and promiscuity, engulfed her at such depths, that she forgot about who I was to her. The only what she brought back home from there was contempt. Disdain and dark secrets of sexual endeavours. The home we were building together ceased to exist in her thoughts totally. Marriage likewise. Me, a thin air. When I tried to ask any questions, I faced a frenzied aggression, defensiveness, gaslighting. It was damaging, traumatising, devastating. Nothing left from us. One year in that swamp. The so called employer who keeps a short eye to extramarital affairs at work, knowingly ruining the marriages and families thus. Shame on you Home Instead. I'd say Hell instead. The level of care is a shame as well. I know it. They charge fortunes, but do nothing for that money. Sham and appearances. And women coming there to work - no problem they will become mistresses in a sexually unsolicited exploitation, and advantage will be taken of them, but Home Instead won't intervene. Absolutely, as long as they can make money on that, may it be at the cost of divorce, dramas, reputation. What a sham. A gutter. Den hole. Finishing, this is just the tip of the iceberg for other husbands to have a view. The very piece of advice. Don't lose your wives. Keep them at home. In no circumstances do you want to allow them to go to Home I stead to work. Take it from me. I have lost mine

Thank you so much to Kishore, Sharmila, Carina and all of the lovely, friendly staff at Home Instead Folkestone Kent.
They provided care for our lovely Mum Joan Reddecliffe for more than seven years, they not only provided the personal care that she needed but also were like extended family, singing along with Mum to her old favourites and always going the extra mile with no rush even when the girls were over their scheduled time.
A special thank you to Michelle and Debbie who were with Mum from the start. ❤️
Also a special thank you to Sophie and Corrine who were with Mum in her final hours when family couldn't be. ❤️
There were problems with a member of our family who decided to interfere during the last 18 months of Mum's care, but Kishore, Sharmila, Carina and the team managed this situation very professionally and tactfully even though the family member was often making things difficult for the carers.

Thank you so much again for looking after our lovely Mum x
Kev and Carol ❤️ x

Home Instead Doncaster
We started to use Home Instead after Mum had been in hospital. She came home and they took over from the Steps team. Mum is now quite infirm, cannot move easily without using a frame and has a hospital bed downstairs. She is very vulnerable.
Someone came to Mum’s and talked with us to find out what we wanted. They only offered slots of one hour at a time so we had 2x 1 hour slots per day. It is expensive at £38.50 per hour, especially when the carers receive less than half of this.
Most of the carers have been very good. We asked them to write on the app what mum had to eat as we do her shopping and could then make sure that we only get what she liked. Most carers did this. I had numerous phone conversations and emails with the office about asking carers who didn’t do this, to please do it. They didn’t do it consistently.
We have also been incorrectly charged on more than one occasion (overcharged) and I have had to ask the office to amend the invoice.
There have been several serious safeguarding issues however. The back door has been left unlocked overnight on more than one occasion. We were not informed by the office about the first instance and the carer who discovered it was asked to not put it on the app (she has since left).
The second incident was when a carer returned to mum’s after the visit was complete and mum was asleep in bed, entering the property, not informing mum or us or the office beforehand and not switching on the lights as apparently she didn’t know where the light switches were. Mum woke to see a figure with a head torch in her room who hadn’t announced herself. Mum was very frightened. Nobody informed us of the incident until mum let us know the next day. As a result of this we put up a security camera outside Mum’s to monitor people entering and leaving. We never received a satisfactory explanation for what happened and had to request that the carer didn’t look after mum again.
The most recent incident was when Mum’s back door was left open overnight with the key safe open and the key in it. When a carer arrived the next morning they found it, took a photograph which they put on the app and informed the office. I wasn’t informed by Home Instead and read it on the app nearly 4 hours later. When I phoned the office, I was told that they were investigating what had happened and were going to phone me. I wasn’t informed of the outcome of any meeting until I asked, and they sent the carer who had put mum at risk back in that evening, which I felt was unfair to both mum and the carer. I requested that the carer did not go in again.
Home Instead gave me the impression that I was making a bit too much of a fuss. They followed their procedures which are clearly not robust enough in these circumstances. The only thing that I could do was to move to another care company which I have done. Home Instead refused to log my email address out on the Birdie care app saying I had to ask the new company to contact the Birdie support. Fine, if it’s true. It’s not as when my brother asked them to do it two days previously, after we had already left, they did it immediately. The new care company deal with Mums prescriptions, district nurses, personal care team all without me asking. This was never offered to me by Home Instead.
Unfortunately I do not recommend Home Instead at all. It appears that they are only interested in taking money. The individual carers are generally good although there seems to have been a lot of carers during the time she has been with them. I don’t know what I can do other than put this review on to ask other people to take care as when I have had to contact the office, I have been fobbed off, treated as though I don’t know what I am talking about and downright lied to. Disappointing. Home Instead seem to be interested in profit, not vulnerable people.

We tried to use home instead to care for a loved one during the very upsetting transition to the late stages of Dementia.

Having read of home instead dealt with Dementia care etc we had thought this would be a great fit.

The reality was far from it, the care plan was mostly ignored - often with No food or washing provided or attempted.
The care staff seemed to not understand dementia and the condition despite trying to explain this several times.

Often dont turn up and claim they have called when they have not.

When I raised my concerns they simply ignored us and said we are sorry you feel that way.

You and your loved ones deserve better care and better standards.
We have since found a great provider in the area and seen improvements in our loved one since.

We left home instead due to the shocking level of service.

This company is a disgrace. I signed up and paid the arrangement fee of over £350 plus a month in advance (£120) but my parent only had 2 visits of an hour (each of which was charged to the minute) (nearly £100) before they went into hospital and subsequently passed away. I am now being hounded by this load of pariahs for another months payment because they require 28 days cancellation. So because my parent had the audacity to die without informing them a month in advance they want ANOTHER £156. So £730 for 2hours 23 minutes work. Thieves

BRISTOL EAST - Superb! I’m truly grateful to Home Instead for the care and support they provided for my mum. From the very beginning, the whole team approached her care with kindness, patience, and dignity. It was never just about ticking boxes, they always put Mum first and treated her as an individual, taking the time to get to know her properly.

Both the carers who visited Mum and the office team, who are just as hands-on, showed a genuine commitment to her wellbeing. Their warmth, professionalism, and attention to detail gave our family real peace of mind. We always knew Mum was in safe, capable hands.

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Home Instead to anyone looking for thoughtful, person-centred care. Their support made a difficult time so much easier, and we’re incredibly thankful.

Home Instead Scarborough and Ryedale:

- My brother chose this company due to their glossy promises, the carers he had were kind but not especially well trained in managing a person with dementia, but the main issues were with the back office/management staff, as well as being overcharged by them twice in a 6 month period (Once by £90).

- in the 6 months my brother was helped by HI we experienced 4 different managers, 1 was kind, a skilled communicator verbally, appeared to know her job and did what she said she would do. The other 3 over promised and did not deliver simple things like communicating with us about concerns for my brother, promised a communication portal, but failed to get my brothers consent for this (this took 4 months to set up in the end - leading to endless anxiety for him about poor info sharing, as well as stress for us). The managers also made plans to visit him, and then cancelled at the last minute. Overall a sense of a company overeaching its capacity to deliver, and with issues of staff retention, and ensuring managers are trained, ethical, and understand person centred care and the role of carers.

- My brother went into hospital after appropriate intervention by a HI Carer - but over the following 5 weeks we experienced endless stress from the HI Manager who refused to accept our suggestion of a notice period (4 weeks) to end his home care, and then when my brother moved to a Care Home HI said that he wished them to continue to visit as he was "lonely and isolated". IMO they took advantage of my brothers suggestability and even got him to sign something saying he wishes the visits to continue. We were treated like money grabbing relatives in our desire to end the £350 a week visits - even though my brother was also paying more than 1K a week for a Care Home.

- This was a very difficult time for us, made worse by the way we were spoken to by management at HI, They showed no empathy, skills in negotiation and seemed mainly focused on maximising their income. In the end we refused to talk to the manager on the phone as doing so was so distressing. We decided to make a Safeguarding Referral in the end due to our concerns about HIs conduct. This led to them putting in one about us (predictable but so hurtful) - but in the end my brother told a SW that he did indeed wish the visits to end.

I am so concerned about the conduct of this company towards vulnerable and suggestible clients, and I would not recommend them at all. I am aware HI is a franchise , and can understand that in other places HI is excellent. I think it depends a lot on the manager and culture of the local office. Be warned.

I just found out my mother has been in hospital for 2 weeks. She is home now. This company failed to inform me despite me being her daughter and on her account as an emergency contact. God forbid the worst had happened. How is this possible. I would not recommend them at all. Disgusting treatment, do not use them

READ the 1* & 2* reviews first. A MORE accurate account of HomeInstead.

As a daughter, nothing is more important to me than knowing my mum is safe, happy, and well cared for—especially when I can’t always be there myself. Choosing Home Instead to support Mum at home was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made.

From the very first enquiry, the experience has been incredibly reassuring. Karen’s is knowledgeable, kind, and supportive—she took the time to really listen and guide us through every step. She made what could have been a daunting process feel so smooth and personal, and that really set the tone for everything that followed.

The carers are truly wonderful. Each one has shown genuine compassion and goes above and beyond to make sure Mum is comfortable, engaged, and well looked after. They’re not just carers—they’ve become part of Mum’s daily life and her wellbeing has flourished because of their presence. Knowing that she’s in such good hands gives me peace of mind that is honestly worth its weight in gold.

You often hear negative stories about care, but our experience with Home Instead has been completely refreshing. They’ve restored our faith in what great care should look like. We are so grateful for the difference they’ve made in our lives—and especially in Mum’s.

Thank you, Home Instead, from the bottom of our hearts.

From start to finish the team at home instead Altrincham have been fantastic and so responsive. They have helped support my nana back home after spending 2 weeks in hospital following a fall. With no clear direction of what to do or what our options were - Home Instead were there to guide us. The care staff helped nan feel comfortable, and back on her feet in no time- it was nice knowing that I had the office on hand any time I needed for any extra support or questions. the family and I would highly recommend!

We’ve been with Home Instead Altrincham, Sale and Wythenshawe for over two years. At first, my brother received support at home with breakfast and evening care. As his dementia progressed, we realised it was no longer safe to leave him alone during the day or night.

Monika introduced us to Live-In Care – something we hadn’t heard of before – and it’s been a truly life-changing option. It’s allowed Joe to remain in the village he loves, in the comfort of his own home.

We know he is safe, well cared for, and in his own world, he is content – and really, that’s all we could wish for.

Thank you to the whole team for everything you do.

Home Instead Portsmouth provide exceptional care. The support from the office staff and the compassionate empowerment from the carers is joyful

An exceptional team who have provided outstanding support of mum in her own home (and support for me as a carer). As many do, I engaged with Home Instead in crisis and they helped us move to a safe position with mum. Carers are compassionate and positive in helping mum live a more fulfilled life and connecting with this special team is something I am grateful for

I have worked for Home Instead Dartford team purple for 4 years. It was a great career move and I have learnt so much. I work with the most amazing people who have so much to give, they all show full commitment and are caring in every way. The training and support given to each care professional is outstanding.Full training is given and we are supported in being competent in all areas. I enjoy seeing my clients daily. The support team of management and office staff are very accommodating and can’t do enough to help out. This company had so many great ideas that are constantly being introduced. Every client has person centres care. This is an amazing company to work for and it comes highly recommended. This also goes for clients, if I had to recommend a care company to care for a loved one at home it would be Home Instead Dartford.

I was introduced to Home Instead when living in the Republic of Ireland, they cared for my in-laws in the most beautiful way.
Two years after relocating to the UK, I walked into Home Instead Folkestone, initially to enquire about a part time care role.
I had been a qualified massage and reflexologist of 20 years, I wasnt sure if I was able to become a carer at all and was aware I would require training and did I have the vocational aptitude for the role? it is a specialised profession in its own right.

The welcome I received as soon as I stepped in the door was outstanding, team members left their desks, took the time to talk about the business, training etc and that all important Matching principle for the clientele that had first drawn me to Home Instead in Ireland, suffice to say by the end of the day. I had decided to send in my CV.

A year and a half later in Home Instead Folkestone, in addition to working as a Pro Carer, I work as On Call Co-Ordinator and am part of the office team, I have the privilege of visiting our clients, journeying and supporting their families and partnering with our own care team and office family, because in a nutshell, that is what we are! I love my new pathway!