Help! Home Care Company stopping care -has anyone any experience of this?

[CareConumdrum]

My Mum's home care company has given. 28 days notice to end her care contract. She is self-funding (modest savings, modest property), but we pay the local council for the setting up and administration of the homecare contract with the company. We originally tried to go direct but couldn't get cover ourselves (tried 20+ companies). Partly because she is semi-rural and many companies don't cover her area.

It's not just affecting my Mum of course. The company is handing 200 homecare contracts back to the council and makimg all their care staff redundant. That's huge....the council were were struggling to get packages for people to start with.

Does anyone have experience of this. Mum has dementia, so continuity of care (4 visits per day) is really important. Perhaps other companies will take on the redundant staff and increase capacity, but is hard to believe all that can be achieved within 28 days?

Has this ever happened to anyone else? What happens if another care package can't be found?

Thanks for any suggestions/experiences.

contact the council asap.locally the council have taken over failing companies.

Oh happened regularly with my uncle. Start looking. Today. That’s all you can do

Thanks both, the council already brokers/runs the contact. We pay extra for them to do that. The monthly bill my Mum receives/pays by direct debit, is from the council. So it would be great news if they stepped in and took the private care company over/kept all the staff. If they don't, presumably care visits might start dropping off sooner than 28 days as staff look for new employers?

Care companies in the area reserve most capacity for councils, there's very little available via the private route, especially 4 visits per day.

The issue is staffing. No one wants to do the work. No staff = no package. It's been a ticking time bomb for years, but post Brexit and Covid is far worse.

The council will endeavour to find another care agency. In my local authority when this has happened, any packages that couldn't be covered within the time limit people were offered residential respite and could carry on paying what they paid for home care (residential contributions are usually higher) until another agency was found and they could come home. Or family stepped in sometimes if they preferred this to respite. They have a duty of care and so have to meet the need in whatever way they can. There may be other options if they can't find the full 4 calls per day in time, starting with 2 per day and family covering for example until it can be increased - obviously they can't make family do this, but some want to.

Thanks @OlderMum, that's interesting to hear. I've been wondering what will happen? Family have f/t work or aren't local enough to do daily care. S/W didn't mention residential respite but guess that is last resort as £££. Good to know might be there as safety net.

Hi, OP here (having corrected user name typo!)

Thanks to everyone who replied.

Just in case it helps anyone else in the future, we've had a new homecare package in place for a week now. All sorted quickly and efficiently by the council brokerage team. I was amazed as I know they had hundreds of clients to place. We were so worried about all this a couple of weeks ago and it has all worked very smoothly!

To anyone struggling to find homecare, I do recommend contacting your local council to see if they offer the same service. I think it costs my Mum about £400 a year on top of homecare fees but is well worth it. We absolutely could not secure a 4 x a day package to a rural area outselves. I think she pays a council discounted rate, so saves a little on the main payment too.

That must be such a relief. Great news.

great to hear that it got sorted!