Carers Timesheets and the PASS system

Double Whammy

New member
Nov 8, 2018
6
0
Just emerging from a horrible 18 months and now feeling angry. The Local Government Social Care Ombudsman has just upheld a complaint about mum’s home care agency. This can be viewed online, case no. 18019213. Both parents were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and were spending £30k per year for care in their home. It transpired that mum’s 2 main carers, who we really liked, were abusing her. My frustration is that the care company use the PASS electronic system whereby we could login and see what time the carers visited and what activities they did. I live 3 hours away from mum so using PASS I could talk to mum about her day, only to find out later that a lot of it never happened and unwittingly I was reinforcing their lies; reassuring mum the carers had been, when the in fact they hadn’t. She was missing meals and medication. The PASS system does not verify the times recorded. Hence why her carers could put any time down.
My question is, do care agencies have to legally check timekeeping? I cannot find info on this. I believe the company had no idea where these carers where or if they had carried out any of their rota. Given the vulnerability of my mum and others surely this should be a legal requirement? I truly believe it would have been a lot harder for the abusers if they had been monitored.
 

nae sporran

Registered User
Oct 29, 2014
9,213
0
Bristol
What a horrible situation for you and your parents to have to go through @Double Whammy. I hope they have a new care agency who are reliable.
My partner is on her 4th care agency now as so many have been unreliable. I find that some do log in or out using our landline phone, but others just write a time in the book and when I complained about one writing a false time down the agency manager never even came out to check it against the time I complained. Have you asked the CQC about the agency who let you down so badly and about legal requirements. They were very helpful when we had a hassle changing agencies after moving to supported accommodation.
 

Rosettastone57

Registered User
Oct 27, 2016
1,839
0
Just emerging from a horrible 18 months and now feeling angry. The Local Government Social Care Ombudsman has just upheld a complaint about mum’s home care agency. This can be viewed online, case no. 18019213. Both parents were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and were spending £30k per year for care in their home. It transpired that mum’s 2 main carers, who we really liked, were abusing her. My frustration is that the care company use the PASS electronic system whereby we could login and see what time the carers visited and what activities they did. I live 3 hours away from mum so using PASS I could talk to mum about her day, only to find out later that a lot of it never happened and unwittingly I was reinforcing their lies; reassuring mum the carers had been, when the in fact they hadn’t. She was missing meals and medication. The PASS system does not verify the times recorded. Hence why her carers could put any time down.
My question is, do care agencies have to legally check timekeeping? I cannot find info on this. I believe the company had no idea where these carers where or if they had carried out any of their rota. Given the vulnerability of my mum and others surely this should be a legal requirement? I truly believe it would have been a lot harder for the abusers if they had been monitored.

@Double Whammy the care agency my mother-in-law had used this system. This was in 2017 and 2018. I never had such problems as you have encountered, but as I only lived 10 minutes drive away I could monitor things more closely. To be frank, I found that I had to be proactive with the agency to make sure in some carers' visits, standards were upheld. My mother-in-law had one particular carer who I suspected didn't do the full hour ,but it was very difficult to prove.

We had a problem with carers not putting in hearing aids properly. After many complaints , I made it clear to the manager by email, that I would be either visiting my mother-in-law unannounced, or telephoning her randomly to check the aids were put in. By this time, whenever I phoned the agency, I didn't need to say who I was calling about, they knew my name so well, I was put through to the manager.
On one occasion, my mother-in-law told me a carer had gone into the spare bedroom and changed out of her uniform to go to church after the visit. Much as my mother-in-law could be difficult, I decided to find out for myself.

So I drove round to the house when this carer was supposed to be there. I parked outside and waited. With 10 minutes to go before the end of the visit, there was the carer ,dressed in a smart outfit coming out of the house. No carer's uniform. I checked on open pass system and saw she apparently had completed all tasks. I complained to the manager, who to be fair was proactive herself and the carer never visited my mother-in-law again. On the whole, apart from the odd occasion, it worked quite well. As to the legality of keeping time records, probably not
 

RosettaT

Registered User
Sep 9, 2018
866
0
Mid Lincs
OH's care company now use a Q code or (I'm not sure what it's called) a disc like sticker that is attached to his care plan cover. They have to be here to scan it and they also have to log out. I know they do their job because I am here but if someone lived on their own there is nothing to say they do any work, they could sit on their butt for the length of the call then log out and go.
 

silkiest

Registered User
Feb 9, 2017
865
0
My MIL keps saying nobody had been, mainly this is her memory. Because of this I randomly check Cctv against the times in her care plan. One particular carer was only staying 9 minutes from parking her car to driving off (30 minutes paid for). She left MIL's medication at the side of her chair and wrote all medications given and taken. After my first complaint of short visits the company backed their workers fabricated times but after I persisted with proof the carer was sacked. We still get short changed time wise but my MIL's medication is now always given to her and they stay until she has taken it.
 

LadyA

Registered User
Oct 19, 2009
13,730
0
Ireland
@Double Whammy I work as a Home Help, for a charitable organisation. We still use paper time sheets. I have to carry a timesheet every time I visit. My timesheet must be signed by the client or a member of their family or a Support Worker (who would be my immediate boss), at every visit, and then, at the end of the month, signed by client/family member/Support Worker and emailed off to headquarters. It's cumbersome, and awkward at times, but it does mean that the times I was there are clearly recorded, which is good.
 

Double Whammy

New member
Nov 8, 2018
6
0
Thank you for all the responses. I have contacted CQC and they say it is not a legal requirement for home care agencies to check that carers are where they should be but they would expect spot checks to be carried out.Given that the scumbags (can’t refer to them as carers) forged 100 calls out of 106 there is something very wrong with this.