Care in crisis as visit times cut to just 15 minutes

ELDERLY people are receiving home care visits of only 15 minutes as councils try to save money.

Home helps are increasingly forced to rush sessions with vulnerable people in Scotland, according to the head of a social care organisation.

Ranald Mair, chief executive of private provider Scottish Care, said local authorities have slashed appointment slots for care workers visiting people at home.

This leaves staff with less time to build a relationship with older people, for some of whom a visiting care worker is the only person they will see all day.

A Scottish Care report released today, entitled Voices From the Front Line, gives the views of more than 100,000 care staff.

One said that some staff members came in on days off to spend longer with people, while another said they were ‘running in and out’ of appointments, adding: ‘That’s when you worry.’

The shortest care visit permitted in Scotland is 15 minutes. It is feared councils are increasingly giving care workers only the minimum time.

Guidance from NICE, the health watchdog covering England and Wales, has advised against visits shorter than half an hour to avoid harm to the quality of care staff work and the dignity of the client.

Scots councils commission care for older and vulnerable people at home and assess how much time should be allocated to each. Mr Mair said yesterday: ‘Local authorities, partly because of their own budgetary challenges, have started to reduce the amount of time people are given.’

He added: ‘I think the worry is that there is a danger of having to put the task before the person.’

A care worker quoted in the report said: ‘When I started there were ten staff to eight service users. Now there are seven staff to ten service users.’

The Scottish Government said it will invest £500million over three years to integrate health and social care and is seeking to improve wages for care workers.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said: ‘Care services must be designed and delivered to reflect a person’s needs and promote their rights.’

A spokesman for Scots councils body Cosla said cuts were putting pressure on the care system, saying the latest Holyrood budget would ‘hit the needy and the vulnerable’.