New Healthwatch Warrington Report Highlights Strengths and Challenges in Home Care Services
Local residents identified home care as a key priority, leading Healthwatch Warrington to work alongside Warrington Borough Council's Adult Social Care Commissioning Team to gather feedback from care recipients, family members, and carers. The findings are based on survey responses, one-to-one conversations and analysis of local care data.
The report reveals that many people have positive experiences of home care. More than three-quarters of respondents described carers as friendly (79.4%) and respectful (77.1%), while 60.2% rated their overall care and support as good or very good. Many participants praised carers for their kindness, professionalism and willingness to provide emotional support alongside practical assistance.
However, the report also highlights significant concerns raised by service users and their families. Common themes included carers arriving late, visits ending early, inconsistent staffing, communication issues and a lack of continuity of care. Only 32.8% of respondents reported that carers always arrived on time, while just 38.2% said carers consistently stayed for the full length of their allocated visits. Additionally, 45% of respondents reported not being informed when carers were running late.
Particular concerns were raised regarding the impact of frequent changes in carers, especially for people living with dementia, sensory impairments or those requiring intimate personal care. Respondents said continuity of care was essential for building trust, dignity and confidence in services.
The report makes a series of recommendations aimed at improving home care services, including strengthening continuity of care, improving punctuality and visit duration monitoring, enhancing communication standards, increasing staff training and supervision, strengthening complaints processes, and improving quality assurance across providers.
CEO Statement
"At Healthwatch Warrington, our role is to ensure that the voices and experiences of local people are heard and used to drive improvement. This report highlights both positive experiences of home care and areas where people told us improvements are needed, particularly around communication, continuity of care, punctuality and visit duration. The survey report was open to all Care providers, including the Care providers who are on the Local Authority Framework.
We are grateful to everyone who took the time to share their experiences. Our aim is not to criticise services, but to provide an independent evidence base that supports better outcomes for people who rely on care at home. We welcome the response from Warrington Borough Council and look forward to working with partners across the system to ensure the findings lead to meaningful improvements for residents."
The report acknowledges the growing demand for domiciliary care in Warrington and recognises the positive impact high-quality care can have on helping people remain independent in their own homes. It also emphasises the importance of listening to lived experience and using feedback to drive continuous improvement across the care sector.
Warrington Borough Council has welcomed the findings and outlined actions already underway to improve punctuality, communication and continuity of care with commissioned providers. The council stated that the themes identified in the report align with its own improvement priorities and monitoring work.
The full report, Time, Trust & Care: Exploring Home Care Support in Warrington, is available on the Healthwatch Warrington website.
