Domiciliary care services in Halton

This is a follow up report to Healthwatch Halton’s 2016 report on domiciliary care and was undertaken to see if the new provider of services had made changes.  The research was undertaken using a survey and follow up interviews with service users.

Findings

• 53% of survey respondents were from the people receiving the care.
• Two thirds of respondents had been receiving care for 2 years or more
• 79% had been involved or very involved in deciding what care they needed
• 45% had been offered independent advice or support when being assessed for services
• 46% had been offered direct payments
• 63% had had their home care needs reviewed in the last 12 months
• 71% had the same regular care workers
• 39% said that they were not told of any changes to their care, such as a change of care worker
• 92% said that they knew who to contact if their care worker was late or didn’t turn up.  64% said that they had had occasion to contact the agency about a late or missed call.
• 35% had a care visit once a day and a further 27% had two care visits a day
• 79% said that they were satisfied with the care given
• 82% said that they knew how to raise a compliment, concern or complaint about their care
• Overall whilst the majority of respondents were happy with the care they received, there were still areas for improvement, some of which had been identified in Healthwatch Halton’s previous report.

Recommendations

1. The local authority should adopt NICE guidance requiring the involvement of service users and their carers in all discussions about their care and support
2. The local authority should introduce a more continuous system for reviewing care plans
3. A review should be carried out to ensure that service users and their families are offered independent advice and support on care assessments
4. Information on direct payments and other forms of funding should be widely shared with service users
5. As the survey pointed to areas of unmet need, the local authority should consider how to mitigate these needs
6. Information on how to raise a compliment, concern, compliant or safeguarding issue should be included in all care plans
7. All service users and their families should be provided with information about who to contact if a carer is late or misses a call
8. Small teams of carers should support a service user
9. Task-based visits should be considered to ensure that carers carry out all tasks required are completed