Home care visits to vulnerable are too short, Ombudsman discovers

Amongst major staff shortages and rising unmet care needs, one local authority is sending carers on short at home visits which are failing to meet patient’s needs.

Founded in 2002, the Local Government and Care Ombudsman, an organisation dedicated to providing independent dispute resolutions across a range of sectors, has found some care workers are spending as little as three minutes helping vulnerable people at home.

The institution unveiled one council was allocating short visits to hundreds of people in the area, despite families paying for full visits.

Warrington Council has accepted the findings of the investigation today, with the local authority found to have allocated 15-minute care calls to more than 300 people in the region, despite national guidance stressing these were ‘not usually appropriate’.

Originally reported by The Guardian, the case that triggered the investigation was one woman with dementia who was paying the full costs of her care under a plan devised by the local authority.

The care plan, set out by Warrington Council, states carers are to wake patients, prepare a meal and/or a drink, administer medication, tidy the kitchen, and administer any personal care. However, this was found to be impossible to complete successfully within a 15-minute visit. The council have agreed to pay the family £500 for the distress they have been caused.

Upon further investigation, Ombudsman found 313 other people in Warrington had also been receiving short calls.

Michael King, the Local Government and Social Care ombudsman, said: ‘At the heart of this investigation are people, often vulnerable, who rely on care visits to give them the dignity and quality of life they rightly deserve.

‘We are increasingly looking at complaints from human rights perspective – and councils need to consider the rights of service users to have a private life when commissioning or delivering care.

‘Councils also need to make sure that the care they arrange is sufficient to meet people’s needs. When looking at visits which may require care workers to dress, wash or feed a person, 15 minutes is rarely enough.’

In response to this, a Warrington Borough Council spokesperson has said: ‘We currently contract around 10,500 hours of home-care per week in the community to help people remain independent in their own homes.

‘Around 11% of all home-care packages delivered to people in Warrington are by 15 minute visits, which are usually for safe and well checks and activities that help people to regain and maintain their independence.

‘Nevertheless, we accept the view of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman in their public interest report and are complying with the recommendations they have set out.

‘We have already undertaken reviews of people in receipt of 15-minute calls to ensure they are appropriate, and we are planning further work in the next two months which will include independent assessment of our work.’

Photo by Huy Phan and Jeremy Wong