A report by the Auditors of Calderdale Council has highlighted
some major short comings which could be overcome by home care
monitoring.
The Council has been exploited by some providers of homecare
with one firm being asked to repay £118,000.
The rounding up of visit times to the next quarter hour means
that a 16 minute visit costs the Council 30 minutes of care -
something an effective monitoring system would immediately
eradicate.
A detailed investigation revealed that the actual time some
staff spent with Service Users was often significantly less than
contracted and paid for with some visits missed completely leading
to safeguarding concerns.
Although this case is extreme the underlying problems are faced
by many Councils. Devon County Council implemented CM2000's
CallConfirmLive! Monitoring system after an internal audit
identified the need to improve the monitoring of contracts and
ensure Service Users were receiving the care the Council were
paying for.
Alerts for missed or late visits has helped improved efficiency
as well as ensure complete transparency of care delivery.
Considerable savings have been made by only paying for actual
care rather than relying on a timesheet system where visits were
rounded up. In Devon the savings for the first full year of
operating the system have surpassed all expectations at 10% which
equates to a £1 million.
To find out more about the cashable savings and efficiencies
CallConfirmLive! can bring to your Council call us on 0121 308
3010.