Home care survey

Healthwatch Wakefield is an independent organisation that gives local people a voice about their experiences of health and care services. We listen and bring this information together to recommend ways of improving services to the people who plan, buy and deliver them. The purpose of this home care survey was to find out what people’s views and experiences are of the care they receive in their own homes; and to engage with users of home care services and their carers, friends and family in order to strengthen their voice and enable them to play a more active part in how domiciliary services are delivered and designed in the future.

In January to March 2016 Healthwatch Wakefield with the help of Wakefield and District Housing (WDH) carried out a survey to find out about local people’s experiences of home care. The choice was made to work with WDH for two reasons, firstly because they were able to support us to locate people receiving domiciliary care services and facilitate survey distribution, and secondly because WDH had indicated an interest in looking into whether alternative, more flexible and responsive models of home care provision were possible.

Overall, the survey shows a relatively high level of satisfaction with home care provision. There are some key themes for improvement from the survey which have been incorporated into the recommendations. One of the simplest themes for care agencies to address is communication, with people feeling that care agencies could do better at keeping them informed of changes to care. Lack of time spent, late arrivals, lack of appropriate training, and consistency of care workers were also mentioned as having room for improvement. Although it is very difficult for agencies to provide consistent care workers, it was noted to be particularly vital for people suffering with dementia who can find it bewildering and frightening to have strangers arrive in their home to provide personal care. Most people had good things to say about their care workers and were pleased and grateful for the support they provide. Some key suggestions for improvement include that care workers should take enough time to read the care plans provided and talk to people both service users and relatives, especially if it is their first visit.