Survey of Domiciliary Care Providers Northern Ireland 2008 published
Wednesday, 2 September 2009The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety today published Survey of Domiciliary Care Providers Northern Ireland 2008.
The publication presents findings from the Survey of Domiciliary Care Providers Survey Northern Ireland 2008. Results from the survey are based on responses received from 154 providers (75% of the eligible sample) of domiciliary care and included private, statutory and independent sector providers.
General Information about providers
Respondents to the survey indicated that they provided domiciliary care to around 23,028 clients of which about 18,142 were aged 65 and over.
Most service users were provided with domiciliary care on six or more occasions (64%) and nearly two thirds (65%) received more than 5 hours domiciliary care in the 7 days prior to the survey.
Client groups provided with care
Providers indicated that they had provided care to people with mental health problems, with learning difficulties, with sensory disabilities and with other physical disabilities in the 12 months prior to the survey.
Three of these four client groups were provided with domiciliary care by over three fifths of providers: people with mental health problems (66%), people with learning difficulties (65%) and people with other physical disabilities (62%).
Nearly two fifths (38%) of providers said they provided domiciliary care for people with sensory disabilities.
Almost all (99%) providers reported providing domiciliary care to at least one of these client groups.
Prospective Service Users
Nearly half (48%) of the providers said a member of staff had visited all new service users in their own homes in advance of service provision commencing in the 12 months prior to the survey. A further 31% said this had happened for some new service users. However, just over a fifth (21%) said this had not happened.
Seven in ten (70%) providers said they told service users the names of new domiciliary care workers before their first home visit in all cases. Less than one in ten (8%) said they did not do this.
Written Care Plans
Nearly four fifths (78%) of providers said all their service users had care plans, nearly a fifth (18%) said most of their service users had care plans, less than a twentieth (4%) said some of them had and 1% said none of them had.
The majority (89%) of providers with care plans said they specified what services would be provided for the service user in all their care plans. Approximately three in four said they specified when the care plans would be reviewed (72%)
Service Users’ Involvement
Almost all (95%) providers said they had, in the 12 months prior to the survey, sought the views of their service users or their representatives about the domiciliary care services they receive.
Nearly three quarters (72%) of providers who said they had gathered the views of their service users said they had made changes in response to these views, over a quarter (28%) said they had not.
Policies and Procedures
Approximately one in three providers with a formal complaints procedure said they included an outline of the role of the RQIA (31%) in the procedure and a similar number said their complaints procedure was available in an appropriate form for a person who is blind or whose vision is impaired (33%).
Staff, Training and Development
Just over a third (37%) of providers said they had their own occupational health services. A similar number (33%) said they arranged for staff to access external occupational health services and the other third (30%) said they did not provide their domiciliary care workers with any access to occupational health services.
Recording and Reporting
Nearly all providers (94%) said they had, in the 12 months prior to the survey, checked whether domiciliary care workers were providing the number of hours of domiciliary care they had been contracted to.
Notes toEditors:
1. All publications are available online
2. About the data
The data have been collected in the paper based survey, the Survey of Domiciliary Care Providers Northern Ireland, 2008, carried out by Community Information Branch, Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety.
3. This publication was produced by Community Information Branch, DHSSPS. Further information is available from:
Community Information Branch, Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Annexe 2, Castle Buildings, Stormont, BT4 3SQ Telephone: 02890 522804 E-mail: Internet:4. Media queries to DHSSPS Press Office on 02890 520571, or out of office hours contact the Duty Press Officer via pager number 076 9971 5440 and your call will be returned.
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