Live-in Care in Portsmouth

Portsmouth • Hampshire

Round-the-clock live-in care at home in Portsmouth

Live-in care lets your loved one stay in the Portsmouth home they know and love, with a dedicated Care Professional living alongside them to provide support day and night. For many families across Portsea Island it is the natural alternative to moving into a care home: one-to-one attention instead of shared staff, familiar surroundings instead of an unfamiliar room, and a day built entirely around one person. Protocol Healthcare Services has spent more than a decade arranging exactly this kind of care, and we bring the same standards to Portsmouth that we apply everywhere we work.

We will be straight with you about how we operate. Our offices are in the South of England, so we do not run a high-street branch in Portsmouth itself. What we do run is a genuinely national service, coordinating vetted, background-checked Care Professionals wherever they are needed. Every person we place has completed enhanced DBS and right-to-work checks, references and training before they ever start, and a consultant is on hand around the clock, so a family in Southsea, Cosham or Copnor gets the same reassurance as one on our doorstep.

What live-in care in Portsmouth includes

• ✓ A dedicated live-in Care Professional in the home
• ✓ Round-the-clock support and overnight reassurance
• ✓ Personal care, washing, dressing and continence support
• ✓ Medication management and prompting
• ✓ Meal planning, cooking and nutrition
• ✓ Mobility support and help avoiding falls
• ✓ Dementia, Parkinson's and complex care
• ✓ Companionship, seafront walks and days out

Why choose live-in care over a care home in Portsmouth

Leaving a long-time home in Eastney, Milton or Drayton is one of the hardest decisions a family can face, and it is often not the only option. With live-in care your relative keeps their own bedroom, their view of the harbour or the Common, their neighbours, their GP surgery and the community they have built over decades. Pets stay put. Familiar routines carry on, whether that is a morning paper in Fratton or a walk along Southsea seafront. And because the support is one-to-one, it flexes around the person rather than around a rota. For couples the case is stronger still: two people can be supported under a single live-in arrangement, which often compares well with the cost of two care-home places.

Overnight support and settling in

A live-in Care Professional is there through the night as well as the day, which matters most when a family has been worrying about falls, wandering or a partner who no longer sleeps soundly. Because Portsmouth is the most densely built city in the country outside London, many homes here are terraces and flats with steep stairs, and the reassurance of someone in the house overnight can be the single thing that makes staying at home possible. We take time to match the right Care Professional to the household, thinking about personality and interests as much as clinical need, so the arrangement feels like a trusted companion rather than a stranger in the spare room.

Local knowledge across Portsmouth

Portsmouth is the only island city in the United Kingdom, with most of its neighbourhoods packed onto Portsea Island, and care needs vary just as much from one street to the next. We arrange live-in care across the seafront terraces of Southsea and Eastney, the busier streets of Fratton, Landport and Portsea, and out to Cosham, Hilsea, Copnor and Baffins towards the top of the island, as well as Paulsgrove, Drayton and Milton. Whether a client lives in a Victorian terrace near Gunwharf Quays or a bungalow up towards Cosham, we tailor the support to the person and the property rather than offering one fixed package. Knowing the ground matters on an island where getting across town is not always quick.

We also support people coming home after a hospital stay. Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham, the main hospital serving the city and part of Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, handles a large share of local emergency and planned care, and the first few weeks back at home after a discharge are critical. A live-in Care Professional can be in place quickly to manage medication, support mobility and rehabilitation, and keep families and community teams in the loop, reducing the risk of a readmission.

Funding and the cost of live-in care in Portsmouth

Live-in care is always priced on an individual assessment, because the right package depends on the level of support, whether it is for one person or a couple, and any specialist needs such as dementia or nurse-led care. We give you a clear, all-inclusive weekly figure before anything begins, with no hidden extras. Many Portsmouth families self-fund, but you may also be entitled to help: Portsmouth City Council can carry out a free care needs assessment followed by a financial assessment, and where needs are primarily health-related, NHS Continuing Healthcare funding may apply. Our team is always happy to explain how the routes fit together, and you can read more on our paying for care guide.

More than home care: staffing for Portsmouth providers

Alongside care for families, we are also an REC-affiliated healthcare staffing agency with national reach. Care homes, supported living services and NHS teams across Portsmouth rely on us for dependable cover, from NMC-registered nurses and support workers to mental health and learning disability specialists. If you run a service in south Hampshire, see our staffing services overview.

Areas of Portsmouth we cover for live-in care

We arrange live-in care at home across the island city and its surrounding communities, including:

• Southsea
• Cosham
• Fratton
• Portsea
• Landport
• Copnor
• Baffins
• Hilsea
• Milton
• Eastney
• Paulsgrove
• Drayton