18 July 2012
During a themed inspection looking at Domiciliary Care Services
We used postal surveys, telephone interviews and home visits to people who use the service and to their main carers (a relative or friends) to gain views about the service.
Responses included a lack of consistent and regular care workers, irregular visit times and durations, lack of available staff over weekends and holiday periods and inconsistency in regard to the skills and quality of the care workers.
Some people felt the carers had not been given enough time by the agency to carry out the tasks they were assigned. Some people said that the agency did not provide them with same sex care workers. Two people with diabetes felt their visits came too late. This meant their breakfast was served late and they were starting to feel unwell as a result of this.
There were mixed comments about the attitude and friendliness of the care workers as follows:
'The care workers are kind, good at their job and have respect and carry out my wishes and leave me comfortable for the day and make sure I am comfortable in bed at night. '
'They give as much help as she needs when she asks for it. She finds the carers always ready to help, to do anything when she asks for it.'
'I am having too many different carers especially every evening and weekends. I prefer one or two regulars so that they get to know me and I them. It unsettles me, and I forget to tell them important things.'
'I have never felt a need to complain but have needed to call because the care worker was more than 30 minutes late more than once. The usual worker seems to be given extra jobs to do before coming to us and so is maybe 20-30 minutes late sometimes.'
The provider had some governance arrangements to ensure that the agency provides a quality service. For example they carried out telephone satisfaction surveys and carried visits to people's homes. We however found that the agency's complaints management system was not that effective to ensure that learning took place to improve the quality of the service provision.