Home & Visiting Care in Edinburgh

Edinburgh • Scotland

Flexible hourly visiting care at home in Edinburgh

Not everyone needs someone in the house around the clock. For many people in Edinburgh, the right support is a Care Professional who calls in when it matters, helps with the things that have become harder, and leaves them to enjoy the rest of their day independently. Our home and visiting care is built exactly around that idea. Visits can run from a short 30-minute call to several longer visits across the day, morning, lunchtime, teatime and bedtime, so the level of help matches real life rather than a fixed contract. Protocol Healthcare Services has arranged this kind of flexible care for more than a decade, and we bring the same standards to Edinburgh that we apply everywhere.

We will be honest about how we work. Our offices are in the South of England, so we do not run a branch on an Edinburgh high street. What we do run is a genuinely national service that coordinates vetted, background-checked Care Professionals wherever they are needed. Everyone we place completes enhanced disclosure and right-to-work checks, references and training before they start, and a consultant is contactable around the clock, so a family arranging visits in Corstorphine or Newington gets the same reassurance as one on our doorstep.

What visiting care in Edinburgh can include

• ✓ Short check-in calls from around 30 minutes
• ✓ Help getting up, washed and dressed in the morning
• ✓ Medication prompts and support
• ✓ Meal preparation, snacks and hydration
• ✓ Light housework, laundry and keeping things tidy
• ✓ Shopping, errands and getting to appointments
• ✓ Companionship and a friendly, familiar face
• ✓ Evening and bedtime calls to settle for the night

Staying independent at home across Edinburgh

The whole point of visiting care is to keep people in charge of their own day. A morning call in Gorgie to help someone wash, dress and get their medication started can be all it takes for the rest of the day to run smoothly. A lunchtime visit in Liberton makes sure a hot meal is eaten and fluids are kept up. A drop-in and companionship visit in Morningside might be more about conversation, a walk to the local shops, or help getting to a club than about personal care at all. Edinburgh is a city of tenement stairs, terraces and suburban bungalows, and we plan visits around the home and the person, from the New Town to Cramond and out towards the Pentland Hills.

Local knowledge across Edinburgh

We arrange visiting care right across the city, from the coastal streets of Leith and Portobello by the Firth of Forth, through Stockbridge and the New Town, out to Corstorphine, Sighthill and Wester Hailes in the west, and south through Newington, Liberton and Colinton. Different areas bring different rhythms, a flat above a busy Leith street is a world away from a quiet home in Cramond, and we take that into account when we plan a schedule and match a Care Professional. Keeping the same familiar faces visiting week to week matters, and we work hard to make that happen.

Visiting care is also a gentle way to support someone home after a hospital stay. Following a discharge from the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh at Little France or the Western General Hospital in the north of the city, both run by NHS Lothian, a few calls a day can cover medication, mobility and personal care during those important first weeks, without the person needing someone in the house overnight. We stay in close contact with families and community teams so nothing slips through the gaps.

Funding your visiting care in Edinburgh

Many families in Edinburgh self-fund their visiting care, paying by the hour or by an agreed weekly schedule, and we set out clear costs before anything begins. Others may qualify for help. Adult social care in the city is arranged through the City of Edinburgh Council social work department together with the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership, organised under self-directed support, which lets people choose how their care is delivered. You can ask Social Care Direct for a free care needs assessment followed by a financial assessment. Our team is happy to explain how the options fit together, and you can read more on our paying for care guide.

More than home care: staffing for Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh 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 the city, see our staffing services overview.

Areas of Edinburgh we cover for visiting care

We arrange hourly visiting care across the city and its surrounding communities, including:

• Leith
• Morningside
• Portobello
• Stockbridge
• Corstorphine
• Newington
• Gorgie
• Cramond
• Colinton
• Liberton
• Sighthill
• Wester Hailes