Home Care Report
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This report summarises the findings from Healthwatch Hartlepool's research on home care.
In recent years there has been considerable coverage of the many challenges facing the social care sector. The focus is often on residential care, but it is clear that similar challenges are equally prevalent in the provision of home care.
The research aimed to:
1. Ensure that peoples experiences of receiving home care services is captured, and that this lived experience is made available to service providers and commissioners of home care services.
2. Identify and promote areas of good practice in home care service provision and highlight areas in which users of home care services feel change or improvement is required. Home Care Healthwatch Hartlepool.
3. Gain insight into the challenging climate in which home care services are commissioned and delivered, with the backdrop of increasing demand, workforce recruitment and retention issues and ever-present financial pressures.
Healthwatch Hartlepool recieved 32 survey responses. The feedback from care service users and their families was generally positive. Most people reported that they were treated with dignity and respect by their care providers. Most people receiving care and their family members said that they had been involved in developing the individual care plan and that it was reviewed, usually with social worker input on a regular basis.
However, some concerns do need to be addressed.
- Carers do not always arrive on time, which can lead to anxiety, distress, and care plans not being delivered on time.
- Communication processes between the care provider organisation and the cared for person are not always robust.
- Around one third of those who completed the survey said that their care worker frequently changes, and sometimes they haven’t previously met the carer who attends
- A quarter of those who completed the survey said that their care worker did not routinely wear a uniform or carry ID.
- Several people responded about the difficulties and trauma faced when finding out about and arranging a home care package for themselves of a family member