The Equality and Human Rights Commission said many old people have experienced poor treatment or neglect, including rushed visits, not being helped to eat or drink, left without food or water, in soiled clothes and sheets, and being put to bed in the afternoon.
The EHRC is calling for all contracts commissioning home care to include a requirement that care workers are paid at least the National Minimum Wage, including payment for travel time and costs.
Local authorities should be transparent and set out how the rates they pay cover the costs of safe and legal care, with cost models published on their websites.
Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director for
Age UK, said:
“This is more ominous news about a social care system that is in crisis. Cuts to adult social care make no moral or financial sense and pose a serious threat to the human rights of older people receiving care at home.
“Funding pressures which result in tight visits often have a devastating effect on both the older people relying on these services as well as the staff forced to choose between rushing visits, leaving early without finishing tasks or running late between clients.
“These sort of working conditions are unfair on the care workers themselves, increasing the risk of high staff turnover and little time off for training, resulting in an inexperienced and insufficiently skilled workforce.
“Care providers, inspectors, and local authorities who arrange services must ensure that people’s human rights are respected. Local authorities when purchasing care from independent providers must make sure that the actual care provided allows people to live with dignity.”
Age UK said people who receive care from local authorities are protected by the Human Rights Act, but lose this protection if the care is contracted out to an agency, with the result that two older people in adjacent rooms in neighbouring properties can currently be experiencing very different levels of protection.
Age UKare calling for the law to be changed to close this loophole.
EHRC Commissioner Sarah Veale said:
“The current system of commissioning and funding home care is increasingly unsustainable as the number of people requiring care grows every year.'
“Low status, low pay and poor working conditions are leading to high turnover of staff and putting older people's human rights at risk.
“Care workers perform a hugely valuable role in looking after some of the most vulnerable members of society and at the least should expect to be paid the legal minimum wage rather than being forced to fund transport costs and time spent between visits out of their own pockets.
“We recognise the extreme financial pressure local authorities are under. However, some authorities have taken innovative action in partnership with providers and older people to improve how they deliver care, without significant increases in expenditure.
“For example, closing the curtains when people are getting undressed or not talking over them does not cost anything and it makes a difference.
“The transparent use of carefully considered costing models that take account of all elements of the actual costs of care will make it clear to providers that local authorities expect care workers to be properly paid, trained and supported.”