24-hour & intensive support
When occasional visits are no longer enough.
Some situations require more than a few hours of support each day. Care Horizons provides intensive support — from sleep-ins and waking nights through to live-in, 2:1 and fully staffed twenty-four-hour support — for adults with complex needs. Our focus stays the same whatever the intensity: stability, continuity, and support that holds over time.
When support has to be there around the clock
Some needs cannot be met in half-hour visits.
Perhaps someone is unsafe alone overnight. Perhaps distress, risk or complex health needs mean support has to be constant. Perhaps a placement has broken down, a hospital discharge needs staffing quickly, or an emergency means cover is needed at short notice.
These are the situations we are built to hold — not by sending more strangers, but by building a small, dedicated team around the person and keeping it in place for the long term.
Why standard support often breaks down
When needs are constant, the ordinary home-care model quietly works against the person. Round-the-clock support fails for predictable reasons:
Intensive support only works when it is organised to remove these failure points — not simply to add more hours.
The levels of intensive support
From overnight cover to fully staffed 24/7
Intensity can step up or down as needs change — without the person ever starting again with new faces.
Sleep-in support
A support worker stays overnight and is on hand if needed, but is not awake throughout — right where someone needs reassurance and occasional help during the night.
Waking nights
A support worker is awake and present all night — for people who need active support, supervision or safety through the hours when most services stop.
Live-in support
A support worker lives in the person’s home, providing continuous daytime support and overnight reassurance within one consistent relationship.
2:1 and intensive one-to-one
Where risk or complexity requires it, two support workers support one person, or one support worker provides dedicated one-to-one support throughout.
Fully staffed 24-hour services
Round-the-clock cover by a small rota of support workers who know the person — so support genuinely never lapses, day or night.
How we do it well
Intensity, without the revolving door
The same small team — even at 24/7
Round-the-clock does not mean a stranger every shift. A small, settled rota covers each home, so the person is always supported by people who know them.
No agency workers
We do not plug gaps with agency staff. Consistency is the whole point of intensive support, and agencies are the opposite of it.
Crisis stabilisation & hospital avoidance
Constant, knowledgeable support catches difficulty early — preventing many of the crises and admissions that intermittent care cannot.
Step-up at short notice
When a placement breaks down or a hospital discharge needs staffing quickly, we can mobilise intensive support around the person without sacrificing quality.
Planned, recorded and overseen
We work alongside families, commissioners, clinical and hospital teams, with written support and risk plans, daily recording on Nourish and Director-level oversight of every case — so a 24-hour package is governed and sustainable, not improvised.
Flexible as needs change
Support steps up in difficult periods and back down as things stabilise — the person never has to start over.
Who intensive support is for
We provide intensive and round-the-clock support for adults whose needs cannot be safely met by occasional visits — often where autism, mental health, learning disabilities or complex health needs combine.
We are not a short-visit call provider, and we do not run on agency staff. We are a long-term, relationship-based service for people whose needs are too complex and too constant for standard home care.
We don’t take every case. When we do, it is because we believe we can build and keep a stable team around the person and stay for the long term.
What this looks like
Round-the-clock support, sustained for over two decades
Cerebral palsy · 23 years with us · 24/7 · shared with permission
Before
Daniel, in his mid-thirties, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth and needs round-the-clock support to live well at home.
What we did
For twenty-three years we have provided continuous at-home care, with a rotating team of support workers who know him well covering the day and night so support never lapses.
What changed
Consistency sustained over many years has given Daniel stability, dignity and real joy in everyday life.
Today
Twenty-three years on, Daniel is still supported by a team who know him well — one of the longest relationships in our service.
Shared with Daniel’s and his family’s permission. More on our Real stories page.
Why it is worth organising properly
What becomes possible when support is constant and known
Done well, intensive support is not just more hours of care. It changes what daily life is able to look like.
Stability instead of crisis
When someone is supported by people who know them, difficulty is caught early — and the cycle of incidents, 999 calls and emergency admissions begins to settle.
The person keeps their own home
Round-the-clock support at home is, for many people, the alternative to a hospital ward, an out-of-area placement or residential care far from family.
Families come off permanent standby
When cover is genuinely constant and reliable, relatives can step back from being the overnight safety net and return to being family again.
Routines, skills and dignity hold
Consistency lets good days become normal days — routines stick, confidence grows, and the person is supported to live well rather than simply be kept safe.
What happens if you contact us
An honest, unhurried first step
Even where support is needed quickly, the first step is the same — and we will be honest about whether we are the right fit.
A conversation about what’s needed now
Tell us the situation, the risks, and the timescale — including if cover is needed at short notice.
We assess what good, safe support requires
We work out the right level — sleep-ins, waking nights, live-in or full 24-hour — and what it takes to staff it well and sustainably.
A plan, a team, and a commitment to stay
If we are the right fit, we build a dedicated team around the person and commit for the long term. If we are not, we say so plainly.
“Twenty-four-hour support only works if the person is surrounded by people who know them. Otherwise it is just shifts.”
Vierka Hiscock, Director & Registered ManagerNeed intensive or round-the-clock support?
Whether you are a family member, a commissioner or a hospital team needing to staff a discharge, the first conversation is confidential and commits you to nothing.
0117 405 4320 [email protected] Send a confidential message There is no call centre. Enquiries are handled by our Service Manager Joe Sparrow and Deputy Manager Jessica White, with Director Vierka Hiscock overseeing every case. We normally respond within one working day.Specialist support