A bad care in your own home service

Read our story about a care in your own home service that needs to improve.

When a care at home service does not meet professional standards, its customers can be made to feel as if they’re just a burden and a chore.

This is what happened to Sheila, a 78-year-old former nurse who lives in the Midlands.

“I’d always been pretty independent,” Sheila said. “But then I had a fall and broke my hip. I had the operation but, after that, I was never really right again. It’s difficult to walk and, as I now have brittle bones, I can’t afford to have another fall.”

At first, Sheila says, her daughter was her carer.

“Carol would come in the morning, to help me get myself ready for the day. Then she’d pop in several times during the day to give me my meals, and then later, help me get ready for bed.”

That arrangement worked very well – until Carol husband’s office was moved to Glasgow, and she and her family had to go with him.

So Carol arranged for the local council to organise Sheila’s care and her mother was put on the books of a local care agency.

Sheila says that at first, she felt quite positive and optimistic about being looked after by new carers.

“I’ve always enjoyed meeting people, and so I thought it would spice up my life a bit,” she said.

However, that optimism was short lived.

Sheila first began to be concerned when she realised that she was being looked after by different carers every day.

Sometimes, she says, they arrived so late that she wasn’t up and dressed much before 11 o’clock.

On other days, it would be still be light when she was put to bed.

Carers don’t speak English

“Some of them couldn’t even ask me what I wanted, as they didn’t speak English,” she said.

“But anyway, they were usually in so much of hurry that there was rarely any time to chat.”

Sheila soon began to feel quite lonely, and as if she was just a burden on society.

Eventually, Carol realised that her mother was becoming quite depressed - and that she would have to step in.

So she rang the agency to make a complaint, and it was then that she discovered that the care agency had no complaints procedure.

“Nobody there even seemed to take my complaint seriously,” said Carol. “They made me feel as if I was making a fuss.”

Luckily, though, a friend then told her about CSCI, and so she rang her the inspectors in the local CSCI office. 

The CSCI inspectors were happy to talk to the agency on her behalf.

CSCI found that the agency did not check any references or qualifications of its staff, or ask them to explain any gaps in their employment history.

The agency had a much higher than average staff turnover, and had no training in place for them or understanding about continuity of care.

The agency now has a clear and transparent complaints procedure that also informs the complainant that, at any stage of the complaint process, they can contact CSCI.