Before looking at room photographs, establish what the person needs help with and whether that help could be provided at home. Someone whose difficulty is daytime supervision may need a different service from someone who requires care throughout the night. If the move follows a hospital stay, ask the discharge team for a written handover of the care needed.
1. Make a one-page care brief
List mobility and transfers, eating and drinking, personal care, medicines, night-time needs, communication and medical follow-up. Include the person’s preferences: language, food, routines, religion, privacy and which family members they want involved. Ask the relevant professionals to clarify any clinical requirement you cannot describe accurately. Send the same brief to each home.
For subsidised long-term care, use the SWD assessment and referral route. For a private admission, still ask the home to assess whether its staffing and facilities can carry out the care plan; a vacant bed alone is not enough.
2. Set a budget and a visiting radius
Decide what the family can pay each month after ordinary household expenses, plus the deposit and first-month costs. Then identify places family can visit on an ordinary workday, not only on a weekend tour. Obtain quotes for the same funding route and care needs. Do not compare a subsidised resident fee with a private single-room offer.
3. Check the exact home’s records
Find the home in the SWD licensing records. Match the name, address and licensed premises, then open recent warning and conviction records. Ask the manager what happened and what changed. A brand can have several homes with different records; a clean published list is not a guarantee of care quality.
4. Visit the unit the person would live in
- Ask who is on duty during the day, overnight and at weekends, and how nursing support is arranged.
- Ask staff to describe how they would help your relative get out of bed, use the bathroom and attend an appointment. Concrete answers reveal more than a list of services.
- Look at the actual bed, bathroom route, dining space, call bell and storage for personal belongings. Ask whether the bed can later be changed without agreement.
- Observe whether staff speak to residents respectfully and explain what they are about to do. Ask about complaints, family contact and resident choice.
5. Leave with a written offer
The offer should name the room or bed, monthly fee, included care, extras, deposit, notice period, refund rules and what happens if needs increase or the person is hospitalised. Read it away from the sales meeting with the resident and other decision-makers. If an important answer is still “we will sort it out later”, resolve it before paying.
Before moving day, agree who hands over medicines and documents, who receives the resident, when family will be contacted and when the first care-plan review takes place. Keep one contact sheet that both the family and home can use.