Two thirds of councils are commissioning 15-minute care visits for disabled residents despite concerns about their appropriateness, a charity has warned.
The proportion of ‘flying’ care visits lasting 15 minutes or less has increased by 15% over the past five years, a Freedom of Information request made by Leonard Cheshire Disability has uncovered.
Leonard Cheshire Disability is calling for an end to 15-minute home care visits for disabled peopleIn its report – Ending 15-Minute Care – the UK’s largest voluntary sector provider of services for disabled people found some local authorities are commissioning three quarters of their home visits for periods of 15 minutes or less.
Responding to the findings, the Local Government Association (LGA) said rising demand and falling budgets had meant that it would not be possible to ‘substantially’ raise standards of care unless more funding was injected into the system.
Leonard Cheshire Disability is pushing for a ban on what it terms ‘disgraceful’ 15-minute care visits.
Chief executive of Leonard Cheshire Disability, Clare Pelham, said: ‘It is disgraceful to force disabled people to choose whether to go thirsty or to go to the toilet by providing care visits as short as 15 minutes long.
‘None of us would want our family and friends to receive “care” visits as short as 15 minutes. We should demand better from our councillors and remind them that disabled people are real people with real feelings and should be treated as they themselves would wish to be treated – with kindness, with care and with respect.’
Chair of the LGA's community wellbeing board, Cllr Katie Hall, said: ‘Unless local government finance is put on a sustainable footing social care will remain substantially underfunded and services will suffer as a result.
‘It is not possible to substantially raise the standard of care on a nationwide basis until more money is put into the system.’
