Home care in Newbury

Areas we cover in and around Newbury

Newbury town, Wash Common, Speenhamland, Speen, Shaw, Donnington, Greenham, Newtown, Clay Hill, East Fields, West Fields, and out to Stockcross, Cold Ash, Ashmore Green, Curridge, Enborne, Hamstead Marshall and Thatcham.

Which council you deal with

Adult social care is West Berkshire Council. The team is the Adult Social Care Contact Centre on 01635 503050, open Monday to Thursday until 5pm and Friday until 4.30pm. You can also start online through the council's "Ask about care and support for an adult" form, and the same form is used whether you are asking for yourself or for someone else.

The council offices are on Market Street in Newbury, so this is genuinely local.

One important catch. A Newbury postal address does not always mean West Berkshire Council. A good part of RG20 is in Hampshire, including villages like Kingsclere and Highclere, and those residents need Hampshire County Council, not West Berkshire. If you are in a village south of the town, check before you ring.

Out of hours it is the shared Berkshire Emergency Duty Service on 01344 351 999.

Coming home from hospital

For A and E it is the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading.

Closer to home, West Berkshire Community Hospital on London Road, between Newbury and Thatcham, is where a lot happens. It is a shared site. Royal Berkshire runs diagnostics, day surgery, outpatients, dialysis and chemotherapy there, while Berkshire Healthcare runs the inpatient wards, the intermediate care service, community nursing, palliative care and the older people's mental health service.

It also has the minor injuries unit, and this is worth knowing because it is the only one Berkshire Healthcare runs. You cannot simply turn up. You ring NHS 111 and they book you an appointment.

If a memory assessment has been mentioned, the service covering Newbury is based at Hillcroft House in Thatcham and needs a GP referral.

Local support in the area

The Fair Close Centre on Newtown Road has been going since 1967 and is the heart of it for older people in Newbury. A weekday lunch club, Sunday roasts, meals on wheels, and the Camellia Club, a dementia day club running a couple of days a week. It also hosts the Rosemary Cafe, a monthly dementia cafe, and a singing cafe run with Age UK Berkshire and Berkshire Maestros.

If you only remember one name in Newbury, make it Fair Close.

A note on names, because it catches people out. Age Concern Newbury and District, which runs Fair Close, and Age UK Berkshire are two different organisations. Both operate in Newbury and both are good. They are simply not the same charity.

Dementia Friendly West Berkshire is the umbrella network listing local dementia services, and the West Berkshire Directory on the council website is unusually good because each listing carries the date it was last checked.

There is a monthly Newbury Carers Group run by Age UK Berkshire as part of the West Berkshire Carers Partnership, meeting at the Riverside Community Centre.

For transport, Volunteer Centre West Berkshire runs the Handybus and a community car scheme covering Newbury and the villages around it. West Berkshire Community Connect is an on demand bus you book by app or phone, and the Northwest Downlands route links the rural villages to the town centre and to West Berkshire Community Hospital. Concessionary passes are accepted after half past nine. There is also a cancer care trust running transport to treatment.

Care services in Newbury

Whatever support your family needs, we provide it across the area, built around outcomes, not the clock.

A note to you, if you're receiving care in Newbury

This is your home in Newbury, and it stays your home. Our team are here to support you in the way you want, with respect for your routine, your privacy and your choices. We do our best to send the same friendly faces, and we tell you straight if we ever cannot. You can always tell us if something isn't right. We work for you.

Let's talk about care for your loved one

Speak with our team today. There is someone on call outside office hours, so if something happens in the evening or at the weekend you are not left waiting until Monday.