We spoke with six people who received a service from the agency. They told us that care workers respected their privacy and helped them to remain or become as independent as possible. They said that staff assisted them with personal care in a sensitive manner. One person said about the care workers, 'I feel privileged to have such wonderful carers'. People told us that they were usually supported by the same group of staff and this helped to promote privacy and dignity. One person said that it was always preferable to receive a service from their 'regular' care workers rather than 'relief' care workers.
People said that they were satisfied with the service they received and when we asked if staff carried out the tasks that were recorded in their care plan, they all responded positively. One person said, 'They have never let me down yet' and another said, 'They do an excellent job'. One person told us that staff were observant and noticed if their spouse was unwell.
People told us that they were confident that, if they had to contact the office, they would be listened to and staff would help if they could. However, most people said that they had never had a reason to complain. One person said, 'I have been getting the service for four years and I have no complaints at all', another said, 'x from the office visits every now and again so I get the opportunity to have my say' and a third person said, 'the office staff are always helpful and listen to my concerns'. We were told that staff were helpfula nd appeared to have received appropriate training.
The staff that we spoke with told us that they would support people to contact the office to express concerns or make a complaint but that they would try to sort out problems themselves in the first instance if that was felt to be an appropriate course of action.
We also spoke with the local authority safeguarding and quality teams and they said that safeguarding alerts had been submitted appropriately by the agency and that they had always cooperated with investigations.