Responses to our Home Care Report
Earlier this year we published our Home Care Report. This report is the findings of our investigation into the experiences of users of home care and their family carers. We heard about the importance of people getting to know their care workers, and the disruption that can be caused by inappropriate visit times or missed visits.
It was especially clear to us that users of home care and their family carers would like communication to be improved, and that family carers want to be more involved in decisions about their relatives’ care which also affect them.
We based our recommendations around the things that people told us – asking local commissioners of home care services (Sheffield City Council and NHS Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group) to involve service providers, service users, and their families to make changes in the following areas:
1. Improve experiences of accessing & spending financial support
2. Improve experience and reduce risk in relation to the timing & length of care visits
3. Address a lack of continuity of care
4. Encourage care plans to be read & a responsive approach to reviews
5. Improve the experience of making a complaint & create conditions where feedback about services is valued and used
6. Enable a more consistent, joined up approach to workforce training & improve the credibility of care workers & how they are recruited
The commissioners have responded to our recommendations, outlining the work they are undertaking in this area and how they plan to address the areas for improvement listed above.
“We emphatically concur with the conclusions of the Report and recognise there is much to be done to ensure people receive support which enables them to live the life that matters to them…. We look forward to working closely with Healthwatch Sheffield as we continue to develop, implement and refine these changes.”
Interested in reading more?
You can find the full responses, plus our original report, on our website:
