Extra Hands Home Care reviews

As someone who has previously only written positive reviews, I also see the importance of an honest review—one that I hope will lead to some much-needed change. Please note that I am writing this review as an employee of the Heacham office. I do not have any affiliation with the other office. Also, all the cons below were raised by many carers many times over. Cons: When you start as a carer with Extra Hands, you are told that you will receive your rota a week in advance and that you will not be sent more than five miles from the office (if you live locally). In reality, you may start locally, but you are gradually pushed further and further out for random calls placed in the middle of your rota. Because of the frequent changes, you find yourself constantly refreshing your rota after every call and worrying when you don’t have an internet connection. If you complain, then they might fix your rota for a day, but it will go back to the way that it was. If you complain some more, your rota will become worse - intentional sabotage. When sabotaging one person's rota, other people's rotas get affected as well. Sometimes you'd have a decent schedule, only for it to be completely destroyed a few calls in. You are required to work all your hours to obtain your legal entitlement to annual leave, yet the office will still call you during your week off to ask you to cover some calls (violating Working Time Regulations 1998, which protect rest time). If you refuse, one of the care coordinators will express her disappointment in you (through huffs and sighs). So, if you agree to cover the calls, you are waiving your right to legal annual leave. Also, if you want full-time pay, then be ready to work all of your available hours. You do not get paid for travel time or mileage to your first call or for the trip home from your last call. While this may be acceptable when working locally, it becomes an issue when your shift starts or ends far from home. When carers call to complain, they are told that the call “needs to be covered,” when, in reality, the company should not be taking on clients in areas with no available carers. Imagine working a double shift and your morning rota ends far from home… now you don’t even have time for a lunch break and are forced to wait around for the evening rota. Also, it is not okay to promise care to clients in areas with no available carers. Frequent rota changes negatively affect both carers and clients. Clients are rarely notified when their rota changes, which causes significant stress—especially when carers are running late, as clients often fear the worst. Carers are consistently stressed about the frequent changes, having no control or way to plan their day. Due to the lack of allocated travel time between calls, carers are often unable to spend the full paid-for duration in a client’s home because they need to rush to the next call. This is especially difficult when working split shifts, as carers may finish late and have a reduced lunch break. In some cases, carers do not go home during their two-hour break because their next shift starts too far away. When carers arrive late due to unrealistic scheduling, they are not allowed to tell clients the real reason and are expected to make up an excuse instead. You will find that you sometimes have zero to three minutes to get to homes that are 10 minutes away, or that all calls that are five minutes apart will have zero minutes of travel time between them. Note that they are consistently on the lookout for new clients, but have no interest in keeping the carers happy, so the turnover of staff is horrendous, and you will often have a lack of travel time so that the maximum number of clients can be put on your rota as possible. Although carers are offered “guaranteed hours,” these hours are significantly lower than the hours actually worked. This means that if there are gaps in the rota, your earnings can drop considerably compared to previous months. If you have a mortgage or pay, or have any other large financial requirements, then there is no salary security. For a company that has been operating for over ten years, rotas are created very inefficiently. Carers frequently pass one another on the road, each travelling to the area the other has just come from. When complaints were raised about this, carers were told not to discuss rotas with each other (another attempt at keeping us quiet). Also, once again, they will temporarily fix this, but it will go right back to normal within a few days. You may regularly attend a specific client, only for the office to suddenly send you elsewhere. When clients ask why you are no longer attending, the office may falsely state that you are off sick. The company claims that no client has ever gone without a call. This is untrue. If you require a welfare visit in which the carers may not have to do any “important” tasks, then you will have your call cancelled when there is a shortage of carers (unless you are vocal and able to stand up for yourself). Both carers and clients must be firm and assertive, or they are likely to be taken advantage of. Phone calls need to be monitored when complaints come through, as both carers and clients have been spoken to with full disrespect and disregard by the care coordinators and the director. Payslips should always be checked carefully, as there have been numerous errors with overtime and shadowing pay. Clients who request female-only carers must be extremely firm and persistent, or male carers will still be sent. It does not matter if you require personal care, as they will have you go without it, rather than to ensure there is a female carer available for you. When complaints are raised with the office, staff often become curt and impatient. If you are very ill, grieving the loss of a loved one (including a pet), or struggling emotionally, the office will repeatedly ask when you will return to work because they need to cover shifts. There is little regard for personal circumstances or well-being. If you are injured at work and request lighter duties, they may oblige for a few days, but you will be sent to the same physically demanding calls within a few days and without your consent. If you complain, they will remove the physically demanding jobs from your rota… and then add them right back on a few days later. Clients funded by social care should ensure that Extra Hands informs their social worker of any price increases, as this is not always done and can result in discrepancies with social services. Any complaint should always be made in writing. If it is not in writing, it is treated as though it never happened. Regardless of how long you have worked for the company, how many hours you have completed, or how well-regarded you are, once you hand in your four weeks’ notice, you will no longer be sent to your regular clients. Instead, you will be sent to unfamiliar clients, most likely far away for your first or last call (so that you don’t get the travel time or mileage to and from), and treated as if you meant nothing to the company. You will also have the least amount of hours that is possible on your rota. Many long-serving carers who have left can attest to this. Carers are “trained” to administer medication through a Zoom training session in which we are told to ensure that the dispensing label is read before administering medication (ensuring the correct person / dose/ etc). This should be more strict as it is in many other settings with vulnerable people, because some carers make medication errors, repeatedly. In other settings, new staff first need to observe a medically-trained staff administer medication, then the new staff member is to be observed administering medication twice to ensure that no steps are missed. This is obviously a serious matter. There are also stricter protocols for when a medication error takes place… not just an email to the wide staff network (instead of addressing the issue with the carer who is at fault) - thus allowing it to continue. Every single carer raises the same concerns and is given the same excuses in response. Are the owners aware of all of the above? The office staff seem so nice at first, but they find pleasure in sabotaging, showing no care (ironic), and insistently refusing to make any meaningful changes. The worst part is how the care coordinators are told that “the carers are just bodies”.