Respite care in Ilford and Newbury Park: short stays at Abbey Care Complex for carers in Redbridge

What respite at Abbey Care Complex is

Our 50 en-suite rooms, 33 of them with full wet rooms, are used for short stays as well as long-term care, subject to availability. A respite guest has what any resident has: nurses on duty around the clock, meals, the lounges, the activities programme, the retro-themed corridor and the wheelchair-accessible garden. Families agree the length of the stay with us beforehand.

A carer in Ilford may need surgery, a holiday or simply some unbroken sleep. Someone discharged from King George Hospital may want a few weeks of nursing before managing alone. And a family unsure about long-term care may want to see how a parent gets on here first, for an agreed trial period.

When a home carer is not enough

Sitting services and live-in carers do valuable work, but many cannot give insulin injections, manage a catheter or stoma, dress wounds or respond to a person with dementia walking about at night. A nursing home can, within what the pre-stay assessment shows. For the family at home that can be the reason a break is possible at all.

What a stay includes

• An en-suite room, 33 of them with full wet rooms. Bring photographs, a radio and anything else that helps it feel like theirs.
• Round-the-clock cover from registered nurses, working with the care team.
• Meals through the day. Tell us at the assessment about medical diets, religious requirements and foods the person will or will not eat.
• Regular movie nights and cookery classes, plus time in the wheelchair-accessible garden.
• Prescribed medication handled by the nurses. Check with us how the person's GP will be involved during the stay.
• Time with relatives and friends, who can come in to see them. We will explain visiting times when you book.

Booking a stay

To book, phone 020 8554 3743 or use the tour request form and give us the dates. An assessment comes first, and it goes faster with a medication list, GP details and recent hospital letters. Before the stay starts, get the fee and the dates confirmed. Then pack medication, named clothing, glasses and hearing aids.

Holiday dates are easiest to plan early, particularly in summer and at Christmas. For an emergency, phone anyway and explain what has happened. What we can do depends on which rooms are free and on the assessment.

Help from Redbridge with the cost

Many people pay privately, but it is worth asking the London Borough of Redbridge about two routes. First, a needs assessment for the person being cared for: where needs are eligible, the council can arrange respite and will carry out a financial assessment using the 2026/27 capital limits. Second, a carer's assessment for you, which is about your own wellbeing and does not depend on the other person's finances, although replacement care that results from it may still be charged for. Carers whose relative lives in Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Waltham Forest or Newham should contact that council.

NHS-funded nursing care can reduce the bill. If a person is assessed as needing a registered nurse, the NHS pays a weekly contribution to the home, worked out pro rata for part weeks, and that sum comes off the fee. See our Redbridge funding guide for the rest.

Day care for shorter breaks

If a full stay feels too big a step, day care offers a smaller one: a day at Abbey Care Complex with lunch and company, then home in the evening. No overnight stay is involved, and the carer gets those hours back.

After the stay

When the stay ends the person goes home, and that is the plan unless the family decides otherwise. Ask the nurses before you leave how things went: appetite, sleep, mobility, any changes worth passing on to the GP. Any thought of a permanent place is a separate conversation for another day.

Where we are

Abbey Care Complex is at 23 to 29 Abbey Road, Newbury Park, Ilford IG2 7NE, in a quiet residential neighbourhood. The nearest station is Newbury Park on the Central line. Carers from Ilford, Gants Hill, Barkingside, Seven Kings, Goodmayes and Chadwell Heath can reach us easily.