Carers charging for 30 minutes but only working 15-20 minutes - is this normal for care?

With my neighbour it was 20 minutes = 20 min in the house and 10 min on the road.

It is really normal to change care companies. I like the idea of a kind of cooperative carer company but not if they’re going to reproduce all the worst aspects of private care provision. Presumably they’ve found it’s still hard to make a living providing care without ripping people off. I work with people just coming out of hospital so I see a lot of care companies in action and they do vary - some of them obviously do work harder in recruitment and training than others.

I think insisting on using the commode so that your poor dad is sleeping in the stench is simply unacceptable.

Just thinking about this £26 for two people for an hour diesnt even ci er minimum wage, NI and pension. I'd say i am happy to pay more but say I want the full time covered.

Do you have any sort of written contract with these people? What notice period do you need to given if/when you change to other carers? I wouldn't get rid of them until something else is sorted and in place.

I've commented on your other thread OP, thought I recognised your story.

Please call them out on it. I worked for a care company and we had to dial into a number off the clients phone to say we'd arrived and then dial out as we left. If we didn't stay at least 25 minutes we would be asked why. And it worked both ways - if we were regularly going over time on 2 carer visit, it was clear that not enough time was being allowed.

Private carers should be allowing travel time in between the visits. It sounds like your family is being taken advantage of, sadly.

You did the best you could do at the time. We are all just learning and adapting as we go. We were with social services which I found helpful especially as things progressed to no longer being suitable for home care. Good luck

Their pay is very low and I gather they don’t get paid for travelling between appointments so are likely just trying to keep on schedule.

You can ask them in a kind way, rather than in a not getting full value way, whether they have enough time to do everything they see could be done. Offer to pay for longer and see how they feel about that ?

you might still not get the last ten minutes but you will be loosing a smaller percentage of the overall time.

Yes it is dreadful.

We use a care company. They stay for the full hour we pay for - shower, dress, breakfast, make beds, put washing on and put clothes away if time. I tried to get self employed carers due to cost but they either didn't turn up or were unreliable. It's not easy!

How did you vet these people? Do you have DBS checks on them all? Is there a care plan? 😬

I'm glad she is having a social services review soon. I'd would be asking them, IF you stopped the private 'carers' what provisions would be made. I know you didn't like the previous NHS, but she might be entitled to a different package now. Your dad might even get some support. A relative is having 4 visits a day, 2 carers each time and I don't think paying near the fees you are. And yes, carers often do other things not just shower and dress people. If they have time over, they could make them a cup of tea, heat a meal, brush her hair, help with feeding etc etc.

I've worked in a similar medical role and understand the pressure to get from A to B, and house to house, BUT, these people are self employed and working their own rota system. The fees seem extremely high IMO! I'm not saying carers shouldn't be paid a decent wage, but in most areas, its lucky to be above minimum wage. I'd be asking about them cutting the time short because its fraud.

I was just about to suggest a Ring door bell,I expect the appearance of that alone might help without you having to say anything.

It was the norm with my experience,one of the reasons my mum went into a home.

It's not acceptable,if they're paid for half and hour then they should be there for that time,I don't care how rushed off their feet they are. If they're doing that all day then they're being paid for not a lot of work.

We had exactly the same issue so installed a ring doorbell with us having access. I monitored over a 3 day period, they had charged for 510 minutes, booked on their app as being present for 373 minutes and as per the ring doorbell were actually there for 247 minutes. A shortfall of nearly 4 hours care over just 3 days. I sent this as a formal complaint to the care company and they thanked me for getting the ring doorbell installed and out a qr code in the flat that the carers had to scan. Once they knew I was documenting this they then stuck to their times properly. I hated doing it but was infuriated the first night to see that she had been washed, fed, put to bed and tablets in 8 minutes.

DD1 used to have carers come to the house, for 8 hours a day Monday to Friday, which was what I wanted. IMO, part of their job was to get her meals, wash up, do her laundry, etc. Mostly, they had to keep her occupied in the mornings, by taking her for a bath, getting her dressed, reading with her, playing games with her, doing jigsaws, etc. Then the carer and I took her out every afternoon. They were funded first by SS and later the NHS. The carers didn’t have to rush off anywhere else.

The company expected them to ring in, on their arrival at our house, and ring in again, when they left, so overcharging was not possible. They also had fill in a form every day, about what they had been doing, which were collected from time to time.

Seems a stupid and inefficient way to work

Yes it’s frightening how many people are going to need care for 10+ years in the coming future. Life span is ever increasing but healthy lifespan is not. Much of the British public - I won’t speak on others as I don’t know - eat bad food, don’t exercise, are overweight, stressed, don’t sleep well, addicted to phones. A wave of unwell elderly is on its way.

I think the only way you’re going to resolve this is by having a conversation. It doesn’t have to be confrontational and you can use it as an opportunity to say how pleased you are with the kindness shown to your mum but that you are aware the carers are only staying for 15 -20 minutes so wondered if either her care needs have changed or perhaps a review of hours is needed .

Obviously £26 an hour for two people doing such an important role is a pittance but presumably that’s what they charged for an hour, so I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect you get an hour (Unless it’s like cleaners where you pay for an hours work and if you get two of them, they only stay for half an hour?)

Please raise it with the care company. My partially sighted father in law was supposed to be having half an hour of care every evening, to help put him to bed. Usually he had already put himself to bed by the time they came, so it was more of a welfare check - they were then supposed to do the washing up or whatever needed doing in the house. He told us a couple of times that the carer hadn’t turned up, we weren’t sure if he was getting a bit confused. He got more and more adamant about it so we contacted the care company. They investigated and it turned out the carer was sitting out in his car for the half hour, not even entering the house!

It’s very much depends if it’s a care visit or a support visit
yes they are 2 different things
this need to be made clear when you take on the carers
generally this is laid out on the initial visit before the company takes a client on