who should deal with complaints about Mum's carers

[Lorrymum]

My Mum has a care company who visit her 4 times a day. The care was arranged by Social Services but part funded by Mum.
We have experienced various issues and the latest is damage to Mum's property. Her front door handle has been broken preventing access by the key on her key pad. The light pull in the toilet has also be snapped (no idea how, its been there forever) and other items damaged.
My sister contacted the care company 2 weeks ago and after many promises to sort the issue nothing has happened. Today she was told that a window company would come to fix the door in the morning. My sister took time off work and no one came.
My main question is who is responsible? Should Social Services be dealing with this or us? Once the care package was put in place social services disappeared and have left us (mainly my sister) to get on with it without contacting to see if things are working out. Is this common practise?

When my mum first had carers, they were put in place by social care but after that, mum paid and my assumption was that the contract was between mum and the care agency. It may be a bit different if Social Care is partly funding the carers but in any event, if the carers are breaking things I would assume that it's up to their employers to sort it out and I assume that the carers' employer is the agency?
(Some carers do seem to be like bulls in a China shop! So much of my poor old mum's stuff has just been destroyed 😢)

Social services are responsible. They are supposed to review but don't have time, so won't know there are problems unless you tell them. They are paying for the service and they have the contract with agency. Your mum is paying a contribution. In my local authority you can inform them of a problem and the commissioning team will take it up with the agency. They expect you to have tried to resolve it first. But in reality theyll speak to the agency then ask if you want to keep them or try with a different agency which may be hard to source.

I think that a light pull can break at any time tbh. The carer can't be blames for putting on the light and it breaking. Mine broke suddenly and I was simply pulling it in a normal way. Unless there is evidence that something was broken due to lack of care or on purpose it is just one of those things. Ultimately stuff does break and wear out through use.

Can you claim on her house insurance or does it not include accidental damage?

Thank you, Im not sure if her house insurance includes accidental damage but will look into this.
We have decided to have the door fixed and pay for out ourselves. At the moment she would be very vulnerable if she had an emergency because emergency services would not be able to gain access.

If SS set up the care then they are responsible. The fact that your mum is making a financial contribution is not relevant.

I was a SW and this was exactly the sort of scenario that we said would happen when the inhouse care services went to private agencies - no accountability, no quality control etc. It is all a mess.

You need to contact your mum's social worker or support worker.

Regardless of who you contact make sure everything is in email even if you have told them verbally so there is a written record of the issue.

Honestly, I think you have to suck this up. Things do break, especially in old people’s houses where maintenance is often not kept on top of.

This is so true. We don't have a named social worker. There is no accountability and the cheapest option is the one used. The care company even failed a CQC inspection (just found out) yet our council is quite happy to use them.