St Gregory's Homecare Limited is in crisis
We signed up St Gregory's to provide care for our father in the Kendal area of Eastern Cumbria 10 days ago at the start of June. His carers were to be on the company's Carnforth route (they pick up cars at the start of their shift from Carnforth and progressively visit clients). StG's stated that they had a pool of ~ 60 carers across the Lancaster and Morecambe area and could easily support dad with the male carers that we had asked for. The first week of visits created an unbelievably long list of problems. 5 different carers visited dad (which we were fine with, as we understood that it would take 2 weeks for their rotas to stabilise for a new client). However, the standard of care has been appalling. His care plan (the list of tasks we agreed with St G) is still incomplete and doesn't reflect what we agreed. We requested a series of 30 and 45 minute visits. The visits that have actually taken place have, in general, been much shorter than this, often by 30-60%. More importantly the service delivery has been woeful. Dad's front door has been left unlocked on multiple occasions, he has not been left with his fall alarm lanyard around his neck, his bed has not been checked to ensure it is dry, dirty underwear has been mixed with clean items, wet washing has been placed on near dry items on his clothes dryer. The list is longer than this, but these examples are sufficient to show the problems. Even more importantly still is that tasks that have not been carried out have been claimed as complete on StG's electronic care system (the carers claim tasks on a handheld tablet towards the end of the visit). We have cameras in dad's flat to help identify if he has fallen, so we can check and confirm unequivocally what has been completed. We had identified these problems with StG and were starting to work through them to help them improve their service. Today, out of the blue, St Gregory's have cancelled dad's care package at 7 days notice. They have stated that they no longer have the resource to support his visits. Apparently this is due to "unexpected levels of resignations" (quantified as 2 of ~60, which isn't a high number) and some staff changing working patterns. This is 10 calendar days after they started and despite Director level assurance that they had the male staff necessary to meet dad's needs and would be delighted to take him on as a new client. Unsurprisingly, his needs have not changed in this very short time period and he has interacted well with the individuals that have attended. Please think very carefully before you choose St Gregory's for any care needs that you may have. They certainly can't be relied upon and can't meet even basic duty of care standards. They appear to be a business in crisis. They either have recruited very poorly, or they are overloading and failing to lead and monitor their staff appropriately (or both).