Home care services project
Home care services in Northumberland – help people to share their experience
We are looking for someone to carry out a focused project which will gather the experiences of people who receive paid for home care services in the county. The document below sets out the rationale and application process for those interested in carrying out this work.
The project fee is £5,000 and the deadline for applications is 17 May 2021. The work is to be carried out from mid-June to September 2021.
For an informal pre application discussion please contact Derry Nugent, Project Coordinator Healthwatch Northumberland, email: derryn@healthwatchnorthumberland.co.uk or call: 07590 880016.
Contract purpose and focus
In 2018/19 Healthwatch Northumberland worked with Carers Northumberland to gather the experiences of people using home care services and that of their family carers. It was led by a group of family carers in the Coquet Valley where, at the time, there were major challenges in providing home care services. Northumberland County Council Adult Social Care managers welcomed the final report and they said they would be interested to hear from people in other areas of the county. This project will gather those experiences.
The pandemic has given further reason to revisit the study. A recent national report by the National Institute for Health Research highlighted that people receiving paid for care and people who were providing unpaid care (carers) were having to make decisions about continuing with paid for care and using other services during the pandemic based on the risks involved in different people entering their homes and
lack of PPE.
Respondents to the Carers Northumberland Annual Survey also reported a reduction in home care and enabling services during the pandemic. Overall we want to know what has worked well and people would like to see happen to services in the future.