Satisfaction among older home care users declines

By Jeremy Dunning on October 1, 2009 in Adults, Domiciliary care

Satisfaction with home care services among pensioners has declined over the past three years, a government survey has found.

The poll of users in England aged 65 or over in 2008-9 found overall satisfaction and users’ views about key aspects of service quality had deteriorated slightly since a similar survey was conducted in 2005-6.

The NHS Information Centre-published survey, answered by a sample of users in each English council,

revealed that 58% of clients reported they were extremely or very satisfied with the service that they received, a fall of 1% since 2005-6.

It also found 84% of clients said that their care worker always or usually came at times that suited them, down from 86% in 2005-6, while perceived levels of communication by providers had also deteriorated.

A total of 30% of clients said they were always kept informed by their home care service provider about changes in the care they received while 12% said they were never kept informed of changes to their care, compared with 34% and 10% respectively in 2005-6.

Finally 61% of users reported that the care worker always did the things that they wanted done compared with 65% in 2005-6, while 1% said they never did the things they wanted done, which is unchanged from 2005-6.

Providers urged to back campaign to raise council care fees

English councils face judicial review over adult care fees