Report on Home Care 2022

This project looked at the home care service provided in Salford, ie the provision of care workers providing care for people who receive support in their own home. There are a number of home care agencies commissioned to deliver this service across Salford. There were 1260 people using the service in October 2021, and the survey was sent to all people who receive support with 180 completing feedback. The feedback has shown that people who receive support are generally happy with their experience of the home care service. This is a credit to the service, particularly taking into account the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic, and the subsequent constraints within which the service was operating.

• Just over half of the people who took part in the survey were happy with their home care service, describing it as great or good. Of the 16 individual agencies who were named by respondents, significant feedback was given for five agencies, with two of these being above average, one average, and two below average.
• 'Being treated with dignity’ was identified by people who receive support as the most important aspect of the home care service. This was followed by people who receive support having a care worker they know and feeling that the care plan reflects their needs.
• When thinking about the planning of their care and support, many people reported that they knew what their care workers are supposed to do and they felt that the care plan reflected their needs.
• The topic of 15-minute visits from care workers is more contentious with half of people saying they are not long enough, particularly with people needing support with medication or meals. 
• Again, over half of the respondents reported that the care worker does not turn up at the expected time. There were many negative comments that illustrated the impact of this, both on people who receive support and their family members/friends.
• Higher rates of satisfaction on the home care service are reported from people who regularly see the same care worker, and unsurprisingly they also said they were happy with the relationship with their care worker.
• Just less than a third of respondents do not feel happy raising any concerns they might have with the office or care workers, and just less than half do not find office staff responsive and helpful.
• It is a credit to the service that two thirds of respondents said that the provision had not changed during the pandemic, although some of these answers can be attributed to the fact that they were new to the service as their previous informal support networks had broken down and because of this they therefore had no point of comparison.
• In terms of a night-time service, most people who took part in the survey felt this was not needed at the present time, but that they may need it in the future.

Notwithstanding the positive feedback, there were many comments which do give cause for concern highlighting some areas where improvements need to be made, and these are covered in the themes and recommendations within the report.