A survey of home care services for older people and day care for people with learning disability in Argyll and Bute has generated positive responses, with a majority of people who responded stating that they are satisfied or very satisfied with the services they receive from their provider.

The home care survey, which was conducted earlier this year, set out to measure levels of satisfaction and to identify any areas for improvement in services to people who receive help with personal care and needs, to support them to remain at home as independently as possible for as long as possible. 

The questions related both to the council’s own in-house home care service, and to the private companies which deliver home care to older people. Over 10,000 hours of care in total are provided each week.

On the whole, service-users expressed confidence in the quality of training and the levels of honesty of their home-carers, and described them as pleasant, reliable and supportive. By Care Inspectorate standards, grades achieved by the majority of external providers were equivalent to good, very good or excellent.

Some areas for improvement were identified, including time-tabling of visits and continuity of carers, but there was evidence of significant improvement, with 11% fewer comments since a similar survey was conducted in 2010 (from 18% to 7%).

In response to a survey about day centre services for people with learning disability, numbers who replied were lower than in 2011, but more than 90% of those who did respond agreed that day service staff understood and listened to them, and that they got help when they needed it. Almost 80% felt that they were involved in making choices about their service, and over 80% said that their service was good. There was a year-on-year increase in those who found information on services easy to find, although not everyone had found that straightforward.

Lead Councillor for Adult Care and the Learning Disabled, Anne Horn said

‘The council is always looking for ways to improve services, and we are very grateful to people who take the time to respond to surveys which help us to identify how we can do better.

‘It is encouraging that the overwhelming majority of those who require support are getting a service which meets their needs and helps them to stay in their own communities. We will continue working with clients to bring about the best service possible to suit their needs.’