If You Used Age UK's Help at Home Service in Shropshire — Here Is What Comes Next

We want to be straightforward about something before anything else.

Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin is an organisation we have genuine respect for. They have been working in this community for over 75 years, with more than 50 staff and over 400 volunteers delivering services for older people across Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin. Their Help at Home service alone provided over 66,500 hours of support in a single twelve-month period — vacuuming, laundry, shopping, collecting prescriptions, and the companionship that comes alongside all of it.

That is not a footnote. That is an enormous amount of support for real people in real homes across North Shropshire. The people who received it were not statistics. They were your parents, your neighbours, the elderly gentleman down the lane who managed on his own because someone came on Wednesdays.

The loss of Shropshire Council funding has had a significant impact on Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin as a small local charity. The charity's CEO Clare Davis has confirmed the difficulty publicly, and local MP Julia Buckley described it as "another terribly sad example of a fine local charity being forced to re-think its future due to funding issues."

We are writing this post not to benefit from another organisation's difficulty. We are writing it because the people whose support is ending need to know there are options, and they need to know quickly — before a gap opens that becomes a problem.

What the Help at Home Service Provided

Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin's Help at Home service provided practical assistance to people over 60, carried out by trained, DBS-checked Home Support Workers. Tasks included vacuuming and dusting, bathroom and kitchen cleaning, shopping and collecting prescriptions, laundry and ironing, and cleaning inside windows. Wherever possible the same support worker visited each time to provide continuity, with visits usually undertaken in two-hour blocks.

If this is what you or a relative received, and that support is ending, what you need is not a like-for-like replacement from another charity — you need professional home care, properly arranged, with a care plan, consistent carers, and a provider who will still be there next year and the year after.

That is what we provide.

What North Shropshire Homecare Can Offer

We cover Whitchurch, Wem, Prees, Whixall, Higher Heath, Tilstock, Ash, and the surrounding villages — the exact area where Age UK's Help at Home service has been operating.

Every carer on our team lives locally. We have been operating since 2011. We are CQC rated Good. We are independently owned and not subject to the funding pressures that have affected charitable providers.

The services we provide that most directly replace what Help at Home offered:

Light Housework — vacuuming, dusting, kitchen and bathroom cleaning, changing beds, laundry and ironing. Carried out by carers who know your home and are consistent from visit to visit.

Shopping Assistance — accompanied trips to Whitchurch Friday Market or Wem, carer shopping on your behalf, prescription collection from Green End Pharmacy or Wem Pharmacy.

Meal Preparation — proper cooked food, adapted to dietary needs and preferences. Not a microwave meal handed over — actual cooking, at a standard that reflects the fact that food matters.

Companionship — genuine conversation, shared activities, and the kind of human presence that makes a difference to how a day feels. Age UK's own research found that 7% of people aged 65 and over are often lonely, and 270,000 older people in England go a week without speaking to a friend or family member. We take this seriously.

Personal Care — if needs have increased beyond what Help at Home provided, we can support with washing, dressing, grooming, and continence care.

Medication Support — if prescriptions were being collected by Age UK but the medication itself also needs managing, we can take this on properly with full eMAR documentation.

What It Costs and How It Compares

Age UK's Help at Home service was a subsidised charitable service. Professional home care from a CQC-registered provider is not subsidised — it is either self-funded or funded through Shropshire Council, NHS Continuing Healthcare, or benefits such as Attendance Allowance.

We want to be honest about this because people deserve accurate information rather than discovering a cost surprise after their existing support has ended. If cost is a concern, call us before the transition happens rather than after. We can walk you through the funding options — Attendance Allowance alone can be worth up to £108.55 per week and does not depend on whether you are currently receiving any care. Many people who used Age UK's Help at Home service will be eligible for it if they are not already claiming it.

Shropshire Council's Adult Social Care team can also carry out a needs assessment and financial assessment to determine whether the council will contribute: 0345 678 9044.

Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin still provides free benefits advice even as other services are affected: 01743 233123. We would always encourage anyone in this situation to call them first for advice on what they may be entitled to, before committing to any paid arrangement.

A Final Note

Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin's CEO has been clear that despite the funding cuts, the charity remains committed to supporting older people and will continue to provide key services including information and advice, dementia support, and activity groups. The loss of the Help at Home service does not mean the end of Age UK in Shropshire — it means a specific and important service is no longer available in the same form, and the people who relied on it need to know their options.

If you or someone you love was using Help at Home and is now wondering what to do, the answer is not to go without. Please call us — or call Age UK, or call Shropshire Council — and make sure the support continues, in whatever form is right for your situation.

Going without is not a solution. It is a risk.

📞 01948 411222 — 24 hours, 365 days ✉️ mail@nshomecare.co.uk

North Shropshire Homecare The Coach House, 15/17 Green End, Whitchurch, SY13 1AD CQC Rated Good | Independently Owned | Locally Staffed | Serving North Shropshire Since 2011