Gateway Care Services Ltd

We have been in contact with you on several occasions and have never had a response of any outcomes. Mistakes have been made, thankfully no serious outcomes have occurred thankfully. Therefore we have come to an arrangement with family to take over from this company, so we no longer need your visits. Any care will be provided by family.

The degree of care and support given varies considerably on who the carer is. Some are there for half an hour and some do fifteenth minutes. Most do as little as possible and do not ask if my father needs or wants anything else doing for him. They leave the kitchen untidy, only have a plate or bowl or spoon and a cup of to wash up, but that's never done. Bin bags are also left overflowing when they could deposit them in the wheelie bin on their way out. No personal care given.

My mum fell in her care in the bathroom, but did not record it in the book. At the weekend a different carer came who was also professional and kind. I found it insensitive to send the previous carer back after several complaints. When the carer reported my mum was weaker and needed more support, agency did send someone within a week to reassess her care.

From my experience most of the carers make a cup of tea, record that they wash dishes, (how can they, they never made food so there was nothing to wash up!). In their record of events book, they recorded a half an hour visit, but in reality it was 5 or 10 minutes. Only one carer spent time with my father encouraging him to eat, preparing foods and using the half an hour effectively! He is a real credit to the company.

Mostly good, however broom cupboard door and hatch door do not match the cabinets and handles are needed for cupboard door, apart from that very pleased.

Carer seems to need to rush when washing, dressing etc, as I'm definitely slower now.

The current position is that whereas the main carers are totally trusted by my wife, the other replacement carers often are not fully acquainted with procedures and consequently do not have the trust of my wife and involve me - often where I have to assist or remind.

In the main pretty good. However I do find it disconcerting to find that I often don't know who is going to appear at my front door. I have my main carer who is very good and then the next day she'll be sent to another area for 2 or 3 days while I sometimes have a couple of different girls for that period but I am not told who they might be. Most are very friendly but one or two are somewhat taciturn, their work is OK. Communication between office and client should be improved e/g when a carer will be late. Most of the girls are charming.