Carers not doing their hours

Lstevens412

Registered User
Jul 25, 2020
20
0
Hi
I can’t work out do you need to pick a category for each thread?? My query is MIL pays £700 a month for carers Provided by social services . 3 visits a day, two 30 mins and one 45 mins. My hubby has recently taken over as next of kin, Due to his brother dying of covid. We are quite a few miles away and are gradually finding our feet regarding care. On the occasions my husband has been at her house, they are blatantly not spending that amount of time there. Even MIL with her undiagnosed dementia says they are in and out! This is in London and they have a very flash website making all sorts of wonderful promises! Any thoughts?
 
Last edited:

PatAnn

Registered User
Mar 6, 2019
33
0
Hi
I can’t work out do you need to pick a category for each thread?? My query is MIL pays £700 a month for carers Provided by social services . 3 visits a day, two 30 mins and one 45 mins. My hubby has recently taken over as next of kin, Due to his brother dying of covid. We are quite a few miles away and are gradually finding our feet regarding care. On the occasions my husband has been at her house, they are blatantly not spending that amount of time there. Even MIL with her undiagnosed dementia says they are in and out! This is in London and they have a very flash website making all sorts or wonderful promises! Any thoughts?
Never dealt with this but I can think of two ways I would try to deal with it either set up a webcam I'm not very technical but I'm sure someone on this site can advise on the appropriate one or ask them to call you when they start and finish their shifts ?just a thought x
 

karaokePete

Registered User
Jul 23, 2017
6,534
0
N Ireland
The place to open new threads can be found with the following link - I hope that helps -

I don't have experiencer of home care providers but wonder if a chat with a Manager would help.
 

nae sporran

Registered User
Oct 29, 2014
9,213
0
Bristol
A belated welcome to the forum, Lstevens412.
While I was distracted Pete has answered the question, and definitely calling the manager would in my experience be the best first move. If Social Services are involved then speak to them afterwards if you don't get satisfaction. I have had to use that route a couple of times.
 

Bod

Registered User
Aug 30, 2013
1,958
0
Hi
I can’t work out do you need to pick a category for each thread?? My query is MIL pays £700 a month for carers Provided by social services . 3 visits a day, two 30 mins and one 45 mins. My hubby has recently taken over as next of kin, Due to his brother dying of covid. We are quite a few miles away and are gradually finding our feet regarding care. On the occasions my husband has been at her house, they are blatantly not spending that amount of time there. Even MIL with her undiagnosed dementia says they are in and out! This is in London and they have a very flash website making all sorts or wonderful promises! Any thoughts?

Sounds about right!
The agency will have scheduled the carer to be at the 1st client at 9 am for a 30 minute call, the 2nd client's call will be at 9.30am, maybe 2 miles away, the 3rd call will be 10am.....
No allowance will have been made for travelling time, or often, travel costs.
Hence a 30 minute call has maybe a 15 minute working time.
Complaints will result in claims of short staffing, scheduler not being aware of the distances, and the carer being "spoken to".
Find out who is the office manager, speak to them, and only them, as messages(complaints) often are not passed on.
Been there, got the tee shirt.

Bod.
 

Jale

Registered User
Jul 9, 2018
1,138
0
When Mum had carers going in 4 times a day for 45 minutes the carers would sometimes leave before the allotted time (Mum was not self funding) mainly because she would not let them help her. On other occasions they went over their time with her. I do know that when they left they had to log a call to their head office from Mum's landline, and I think they also had to log when they arrived but am not sure if that was done via a mobile or Mum's phone.
 

Lynmax

Registered User
Nov 1, 2016
1,045
0
Unfortunately I think Social Services are limited by finances with the agencies they can use. My mum was self funding and I arranged her carers to go in for two hours between 11 and 1 to cook lunch, sit with her while she ate and to provide companionship ( just for three days over the weekend to give us a break from daily visits) We paid considerably more than the SS would pay and had excellent service, we had the same carers every time, always on time and staying the full hours.

We did have cameras in the lounge and kitchen which obviously the carers were aware of so I don't know if that made a difference. The carers were paid more than the minimum wage by the agency so I thinks sometimes you pay more for a better level,of care.

But you have no choice so I would be logging the times of every visit and informing the agency and also the SW. Cameras are not very expensive nowadays so you might be able to use them.
 

Pete1

Registered User
Jul 16, 2019
899
0
Hi @Lstevens412, firstly I would focus on whether MIL's needs are being properly attended to in accordance with the Care Plan - the carers should leave a description of what they have done. If that isn't happening the first port of call should be the Care Provider Manager to explain what is happening and what isn't being delivered - if that continues then a complaint to Social Services. We self-funded Mum's home care and it wasn't without it's problems - my issue wasn't necessarily the duration of the visit but what wasn't being delivered in terms of care (although often the two went hand in glove).

Another option is to ask the Local Authority for a direct payment or personal budget and you will be able to use that £700 to commission care directly yourselves for MIL, and can therefore change providers if you are not satisfied. However, you will need Power of Attorney and you will have to administer the process yourselves. You may also find that the £700 won't get you the same amount of care as the Local Authority will have preferential contracted rates with providers e.g. they may pay a provider £17 per hour to commission that care privately you may have to pay £23 per hour. You can of course top up the budget with your own contributions.

All the best.