More than one in five councils are still commissioning 15-minute visits for personal care despite official warnings against the use of ‘flying’ visits, new research has unveiled.
A freedom of information request by charity Leonard Cheshire Disability found at least 33,305 people in England received 15 minute care visits in 2015/16, with 16,311 of these for help with eating, washing and dressing.
The research also found ten of the councils which admitted to using 15 minute visits for personal care, also said they commission more than 20% of all their homecare visits in 15-minutes or less.
‘We should not accept that disabled and older people are still having to endure the indignity and disrespect of receiving flying personal care visits’, said chief executive of Leonard Cheshire Disability, Neil Heslop.
‘Councils should be observing official guidance and putting an end to 15 minute personal care visits for good. None of us would want our family and friends to receive personal care visits as short as 15 minutes, so we should not accept this happening across the country to anyone else.’
The charity is calling for funding allocated under the Better Care Fund in 2019/20 to be urgently brought forward to help ease the social care crisis, and for a national commission to plan how care will be funded in the future.
