The way that home care services are provided on behalf of the council is set to be improved, following a Cabinet decision yesterday (Thursday 24 June 2021).
There are currently around 750 people in Herefordshire receiving council commissioned home care services, which provide personal care to people in their own homes to enable them to remain independent. The new arrangements look to improve the experience of customers by ensuring the timely availability of quality care throughout the county.
Currently a number of agencies are providing care across dispersed areas of Herefordshire. The new arrangements would allow home care providers to concentrate their service in defined locality areas which will make planning easier and enhance links with health and social care services.
The new arrangements will apply to new customers only. Current customers will be able to continue with their current care provider if this is their wish and no changes will be made to any individual’s care without this being discussed with them first.
Councillor Pauline Crockett, Cabinet member adult health and wellbeing, said: “It is important that our residents receive the best possible home care services on behalf of the council, wherever they live in the county, so they can continue to live independently. We have worked closely with home care providers to identify how the new arrangements would work best. Concentrating services in defined areas will make it easier for providers to plan and to ensure they can easily reach all their customers in a timely way.
“We understand that news of changes to home care can be unsettling. We have written to everyone who currently receives council home care and want to reassure customers that no changes will be made to their care without this being discussed with them first.”
There will now be a tender process, with a view to the new arrangements being operational from 1 November 2021.