My mums social worker says the time allocated is timed to allow for the tasks set out in the care plan. I.e. it should take roughly an hour to shower and give breakfast which is how long it took me when I used to have to do it. Now these manage that in 20 mins, they clearly rushed her and leave her in horrible positions and pain because of that.
My mums calls are 1hr morning, 30min lunch, 40 min dinner, 15 min nights but what she actually gets is 20-30 in the morning, 5 at lunch, 15 at dinner and 2 at night. They donât follow the care plan, physios plan or anything.
The manger of the company has made it clear she doesnât give a toss as weve complained so many times about the same issues over and over yet she sits on her idle backside doing nothing. Weâve also had a load of Indians, which I donât mind, but the language barrier is horrendous. Today they were chatting away in a foreign language in front of my mum whilst completely neglecting to talk to her.
Her social workers changed 5 times in as many months and none of them have cared enough to do anything. The physios even asked the social to put her in a home so I can get a break because itâs all reached breaking point. To the point Iâm installing cameras and suing the hell out of the company and council.
The care companies are nothing more than scum in cases like these.
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Thatâs totally unacceptable, Jamie that she is left so uncomfortable.
Itâs probably the manager who is giving staff unrealistic time-scales for each visits. The lady who supports S on my work days, does some agency work too. Often her rota doesnât give her sufficient time with each client nor enough travel time before the next client. If she says anything she is told to work quicker!
Try the advice in this thread and keep us updated.
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Jamie, report them to CQC. They canât do those jobs properly in those time scales.
They sound unrealistic even for someone without special needs.
Do they clean the bath, leave the kitchen tidy? Put the rubbish out? Comb mumâs hair, plump her pillows, make her a hot drink in these times???
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They donât do any of those things except maybe make her a cup of tea but one day they left a scalding hot cup next to her which she dropped and suffered extensive burns on her legs, we didnât even know as she canât feel her legs. Theyâve also dropped her on her head out her hoist and itâs just horrendous. Iâve complained to everyone going more than once and no one cares enough to do anything. The company is an utter mess, they even sack people for negligence and have them back. One of them has been sacked from 2 other jobs due to her being an incompetent ****. They even send men despite her desperately not wanting them, and make he feel embarrassed. Itâs just evil for her.
Jamie - this horrendous. Itâs safeguarding and abuse. Have you reported it to CQC and the adult safeguarding team in your area?
I canât remember if the council fund her care or if she is self funding?
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The CQC are aware of the hoist incident and I know that at that time I had a meeting with with a lot of social workers, the manager and the cqc weâre supposed to attend but for some reason didnât. They also had another safeguarding complaint for another client at the same time, I donât know how they got away with it because if you read the cqcâs last inspection it was quite firm that the company was unsafe and not welll led and that was 3 years ago. Let me tell you itâs only gottten worse and worse in those 3 years. Yesterday she was barely spoken too by the carers as they muttered in another language.
The meeting was just a joke if Iâm honest, it was more of a show trial than actually resolving issues and making them improve. I am furious about the care at then moment so Iâve made another complaint to the cqc to see if anything can be done. Iâve even highlighted all the regulations theyâve broken including prosecutable ones along with the evidence.
These companies are robbing our elderly and disabled the lives they wish to have, and the dignity one should give to oneâs elders. I am prepared to take the matter to court if need be, if the authorities will not enforce her rights then I shall. If she was a child she would have taken away a long time ago and the parents imprisoned.
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Sheâs council funded but has to pay like &200 a month co payment.
Do the council use other agencies in addition to this one?
My advice is to be careful. Good luck.
I know for sure that this company isnât accredited to the council. Yet on our council website it says that they can only be used by direct payments which she does not get. The whole systems a minefield.
The council brokerage team are looking for alternatives but sheâs not a priority as she has a care package in place, the only reason we had this company in the first place is because the social worker lied and said theyâre one of the best in the area. Yeah right thatâs why theyâve got negative ratings from the cqc and everything theyâve got them as bad for we experience on a daily basis, they havenât been inspected in over 3 years and theyâve gotten much worse and they werenât good before. Some of the carers are such uncompasionate people it makes me wonder how they got the job and keep it. I know oneâs been sacked from two special education schools for the problem yet every time she gets sacked they let her back. Itâs bonkers the whole set up, even had a coordinator that quits for a week and comes back and just keeps coming and going. Itâs insane. And the people theyâve importeds language skills are so shocking my mum doesnât understand them nor they her, how can this go on?
Jamie, were the safeguarding concerns with her legs being scalded and her falling out of the hoist upheld?
In our area all the broker does is send out an email to the agencies on the councilâs books who then say which new clients they can take on. Is this happening?
I have sent an email to Carers Uk advice team to see if they can advise further.
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Mum has an absolute right under the Equality Act to have a female carer, not a male carer, for any care of a personal nature, dressing, bathing etc.
Her wishes should be respected by the agency. If they are not, tell CQC.
There used to be a âzero toleranceâ approach to care providers, sadly when CQC was formed, this was watered down. Now they only use complaints to âinformâ their next expection.
The more complaints they get the faster they should act!!
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From the legal point of view, with regard to hours provided, if they are claiming that they have provided X number of hours, but havenât, that is fraud.
For serious incidents like dropping someone from the hoist/sling this should be reported to HSE (Health and Safety Executive). There are cases mentioned on their website where they prosecuted one company where a carer dropped someone out of a sling whaen getting them out of the bath. The patient hit her head an died 3 days later. They fined the Care Company ÂŁ90,000. I believe the information is correct as I read it some time ago, but check their website. I am having problems with my wifes company at the moment. Care is a nightmare. Most of the carers are very good by the way but it is the companies that are the main problem. Good luck to all of you.
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Hi sorry this is late but I found the company my mum was with it was both staff and management, youâd even get staff bitching about the job whilst doing it. We since got a new company and the difference is night and day better, they stay the time, do everything for my mum and even have a tidy up occasionally (which is a massive help, the others would have never done anything like that).
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