Crossroads (South Ayrshire) Care Attendant Scheme

About Crossroads (South Ayrshire) Care Attendant Scheme

Crossroads a registered charity, has been operating in South Ayrshire for almost 40 years now and, yes, the name does come from the old soap now long gone from our television screens – long story !! The service was begun to fill a large and widening gap in the care space in that we deliberately and directly target our service at the Care provider at home. There is often a lot of help for the Cared For person but the Carer often goes ignored, without recognition and more, importantly, without help or support.

We offer to those at home Carers looking after a family member or other loved one, respite. We know that Carers without support themselves suffer from social isolation and loss of social networks, sometimes financial hardship and often, eventually, their own physical or mental ailments. Crossroads provides a skilled, experienced and qualified Care Attendant to allow the Carer time out – to do with what they will. Visit friends, do the shopping or just simply rest. Because our Care Attendants have to be experienced and qualified they are paid members of staff so the service has to be paid for. This can be one of three ways. You can seek the support of South Ayrshire social work department who, if you meet their criteria, pay for the service. If this isn’t an option, you can purchase the service directly yourself. WE charge a rate that simply covers our costs – as a charity we’re not doing this to make a profit. Any surpluses we may end up with go back out to support Carers. Which leads to the 3rd option which is that Crossroads pays for the service out of our own funds. This of course is entirely dependent on our success at fund raising which is a key part of what we do. We accept people’s word about funding – there’s no means test involved.