Home care agency · Cambridge
Helping Hands Cambridge
Illustrative photo, not of Helping Hands Cambridge- Address
- 124 Wulfstan Way, Cambridge, CB1 8QJ
- Run by
- Midshires Care Limited (150 services)
- Type of provider
- Independent (private company)
- Service
- Home care agency
- Dementia
- Registered with CQC to support people living with dementia
- Registered with CQC
- December 2017 (8 years)
- Part of
- Midshires Care Ltd
- Registered manager
- Samantha Michelle Donnelly
- Company check
- Active, trading since 2000 (26 years), accounts up to date (Companies House 03959933)
- Last CQC check
- 2 Jun 2026
- Typical fees Estimated
- £28.50–£35 an hour for visiting care, weekdays; live-in £1,380–£1,680 a week. Estimated from prices published locally (Helping Hands publishes rates a little below the national median, plus a travel charge); not a quote. How we estimate
CQC regulated activities: Personal care · Treatment of disease, disorder or injury
More in Cambridge: Home care in Cambridge (42) · Best rated home care agencies in Cambridge · Dementia care at home in Cambridge · Elderly care at home in Cambridge · Physical disability care at home in Cambridge · Live-in care in Cambridge
Read the full CQC inspection report · CQC location ID 1-4632718410
The service in brief
Helping Hands Cambridge is a CQC-registered home care agency in Cambridge, run by Midshires Care Limited. Its CQC registration covers adults of all ages, including people living with dementia, physical disabilities and sight or hearing loss.
At its most recent rating, CQC judged it Good overall (June 2026). It is one of 42 CQC-registered home care agencies that have an office within 7 miles of Cambridge; 22 of those are rated Good or Outstanding.
Percentage scores by area
Behind each rating sit scores of 1 to 4 for individual quality statements, which CQC turns into a percentage for the area. Averaged across the five areas, Helping Hands Cambridge scores 75%.
Safe 75%
- Learning culture3 · Good
- Safe systems, pathways and transitions3 · Good
- Safeguarding3 · Good
- Involving people to manage risks3 · Good
- Safe environments3 · Good
- Safe and effective staffing3 · Good
- Infection prevention and control3 · Good
- Medicines optimisation3 · Good
Effective 75%
- Assessing needs3 · Good
- Delivering evidence-based care and treatment3 · Good
- How staff, teams and services work together3 · Good
- Supporting people to live healthier lives3 · Good
- Monitoring and improving outcomes3 · Good
- Consent to care and treatment3 · Good
Caring 75%
- Kindness, compassion and dignity3 · Good
- Treating people as individuals3 · Good
- Independence, choice and control3 · Good
- Responding to people’s immediate needs3 · Good
- Workforce wellbeing and enablement3 · Good
Responsive 75%
- Person-centred Care3 · Good
- Care provision, Integration and continuity3 · Good
- Providing Information3 · Good
- Listening to and involving people3 · Good
- Equity in access3 · Good
- Equity in experiences and outcomes3 · Good
- Planning for the future3 · Good
Well-led 75%
- Shared direction and culture3 · Good
- Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders3 · Good
- Freedom to speak up3 · Good
- Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion3 · Good
- Governance, management and sustainability3 · Good
- Partnerships and communities3 · Good
- Learning, improvement and innovation3 · Good
Scores: 4 exceptional, 3 good, 2 some shortfalls, 1 significant shortfalls. From CQC's assessment, assessed 5 April 2026, published 2 June 2026 (Open Government Licence). A statement with no score was not looked at in this assessment; its earlier result still counts.
Past CQC ratings
- Apr 2019
- Jun 2026
- Today Rated in the last 12 months
Every overall rating on record for this location, earliest first.
CQC documents
- CQC inspection report 17 April 2019
The neighbourhood
- Ward
- Queen Edith's
- Parliamentary constituency
- South Cambridgeshire
- NHS area (integrated care board)
- NHS Central East Integrated Care Board
- Urban or rural
- Urban · nearer to a major town or city
- Neighbourhood deprivation
- Among the 30% least deprived areas in England
Larger map · Route planner · OpenStreetMap (ODbL)
Geography: ONS and NHS lookups (postcodes.io), Open Government Licence. This is the agency's office; care is delivered in people's own homes around it.
Registered specialisms
From the CQC register; ask how each need is met in practice.
History with CQC
Helping Hands Cambridge has been registered with CQC since December 2017, about 8 years.
CQC has published 2 overall ratings for it (2019–2026), starting at Good and staying Good every time.
Budgeting for this agency
We estimate visits from Helping Hands Cambridge at £28.50–£35 an hour (visiting care, weekdays), based on published prices in the region (Helping Hands publishes rates a little below the national median, plus a travel charge). As an example, an hour each morning and a 30-minute evening call comes to about £330 a week.
Regional live-in prices sit at roughly £1,380–£1,680 per week.
Council help is possible below £23,250 in savings: ask Cambridgeshire Council for a free care needs assessment.
How CQC rated each area
- Safe75% score78 of 89 in Cambridgeshire
- Effective75% score85 of 89 in Cambridgeshire
- Caring75% score84 of 89 in Cambridgeshire
- Responsive75% score82 of 89 in Cambridgeshire
- Well-led75% score71 of 89 in Cambridgeshire
CQC key question ratings, published 2 June 2026. Under each rating: how many agencies in Cambridgeshire share it.
The inspection, summarised
- At the time of this assessment 63 people were receiving the regulated activity of personal care from this service.
- This was a planned inspection due to the service having an aged rating.
- People experienced safe, compassionate and personalised care.
- One relative told us, “They are quick responders and nothing but really helpful.” Staff were consistently referred to as “kind” and “caring” and it was evident they knew people well.
Inspected 15 March 2019; report published 17 April 2019. From the regulator's own summary (Open Government Licence). Read the full report.
How it fits locally
There are 16 other agencies within 3 miles, 7 of them rated Good or Outstanding; the nearest is Reed Specialist Recruitment Ltd - Reed Community Care - Cambridge, 0.8 miles away.
Its rating is more recent than any of the 13 nearest rated agencies.
It sits in Queen Edith's ward, classed by ONS as urban (nearer to a major town or city), among the 30% least deprived neighbourhoods in England. NHS services here are planned by NHS Central East ICB.
The registered provider
Helping Hands Cambridge is run by Midshires Care Limited (company 03959933), incorporated in 2000, 17 years before this service registered with CQC.
At Companies House, the company is listed as active, its accounts are filed on time, it has 6 active directors and there is no insolvency history.
Its registered business activity is social work without accommodation for older and disabled people (which includes home care).
Midshires Care Limited runs 150 CQC-registered services across 100 council areas; 130 of the 133 with a rating are Good or Outstanding (98%), against 88% for the same mix of services across England.
It trades under the Midshires Care Ltd brand, which covers 150 services run by 1 registered provider.
Reading Helping Hands Cambridge's CQC ratings
All five areas CQC looks at are rated Good for Helping Hands Cambridge: no single area stands out above or below the rest.
For leadership (Well-led), it shares its Good rating with 70 of the 88 other agencies in Cambridgeshire that CQC has rated.
Under CQC's newer scoring, its strongest area is Caring at 75% and its lowest is Well-led at 75%, averaging 75% overall.
Family reviews
No reviews yet. If you or a relative have used care from this agency, your review helps other families choose.
Reviews are from families and clients and are separate from CQC ratings. Each one is checked against a real email address; we publish good and bad reviews and providers cannot edit or remove them. How reviews work.
Frequently asked about Helping Hands Cambridge
- Does Helping Hands Cambridge support people with dementia?
- Its registration includes dementia. Useful questions: how many staff hold dementia training, and how is a bad day handled?
- When did CQC last rate Helping Hands Cambridge?
- The latest rating is dated 2 June 2026; ask whether there have been changes since.
- What is Helping Hands Cambridge's address?
- The agency's base is 124 Wulfstan Way, Cambridge, CB1 8QJ. Confirm that its carers travel to your area.
- Is Helping Hands Cambridge a registered provider?
- Registered, yes: location 1-4632718410 on the Care Quality Commission register, listed as a home care agency and was rated Good overall in June 2026.
- How much does care from Helping Hands Cambridge cost?
- Helping Hands Cambridge has not published its fees with us. Visiting care typically costs around £32–£34 an hour (typical 2026 prices across England). Request a written quote and check what is charged on top.
- How is Helping Hands Cambridge rated for safety and leadership?
- CQC rates five key questions. For Helping Hands Cambridge: Safe: Good; Effective: Good; Caring: Good; Responsive: Good; Well-led: Good. Safe and Well-led tend to say most about day-to-day reliability.
- What services is Helping Hands Cambridge registered for?
- CQC lists Helping Hands Cambridge under: homecare agencies. Check which of these it is actively providing now.
- Who runs Helping Hands Cambridge?
- Midshires Care Limited is the registered provider for Helping Hands Cambridge.
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In Cambridgeshire
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Source: the CQC register as of Oct 2026 (Open Government Licence v3.0), with our own analysis. Anything marked "in the provider's own words" comes from the provider. The Care Panel does not provide care.