Home Instead Senior Care Reviews

Do not use this company I wish I’d read the reviews before I engaged Home Instead. I too found them charming and cooperative until the contracts were signed, at which point service declined rapidly. The managers claimed to know their carers but in fact got them from a pool, chosen after one zoom interview. One of our live in carers was basically a teenager who’d had no experience of running a home and spent more time on her iPhone than engaging with my wife. Eventually she locked herself out after my wife had had a fall. Another one was rude and insubordinate, telling me she could pack her bags whenever I asked her to do anything she didn’t want to. I once came home and found her sitting several feet behind my wife who was partly dressed, in her wheelchair, not talking to her, because she’d got distressed by the way the carer had handled her that morning. Invoices were supposed to be monthly. Two weeks after I’d terminated our contract I hadn’t had a single invoice so I added up what I thought we owed and sent an email. This had to be followed up a week later and finally I got a response. Home Instead’s administration, like their level of care, is appalling.

Have worked for this company for a while. Terrible training, incompetent management, badly organised, under paid and erratic hours. Don’t care one bit about their staff and employ half wits who couldn’t look after a goldfish rather than a person. Can’t divide work up properly, move people around clients so they can’t develop a bond and tell lies when a client doesn’t want them anymore or asks for a new cared. I wouldn’t have them near a relative of mine.

Home instead are a shockingly negligent organisation and I do not recommend them. While they employ some lovely, attentive carers, they also employ carers who don't care. We pay for 4 visits a day to my disabled mother, including a nighttime visit, to ensure that she is helped into bed each night. Four nights ago, the carer didn't turn up and didn't tell us. My mother tried to get herself into bed and had a fall as a result. We didn't notice until the middle of the night, by which time she'd been on the floor for hours and we had to call an ambulance to help her up as I couldn't reach my sister who lives 10 minutes away. Luckily my sister eventually woke up and was able to go round and help my mother up. The camera in her room saved her life but - shockingly - Home Instead has reported the camera to social services and had it removed. What happened was that some of the carers were closing my mother's bedroom door - making it virtually impossible for her to get out of the room in the night with her walker. Other carers were not ensuring she went to the loo at night, meaning she would wake up in a few hours and try to get up to use the loo - she had a couple of falls as a result. Other carers were leaving the light on at night, even though we had asked them to switch it off - my mother would wake up in the night and think it was morning and try to get up - she had a fall as a result. We noticed all this because of the camera and asked the carers if they would leave the door open, switch off the light and ensure she used the loo before bed. One or more of the carers didn't like that someone was "telling them now to do their job", so they retaliated by complaining that we had a camera in her room and had it removed. The worst thing was that they did this without giving us any notice meaning we didn't have time to put other monitoring devices into place. This means that we can no longer see if she's had a fall in the night. So tonight we are not able to look after her properly since they only switched it off at 8pm. You can reach your own conclusions about this company based on our experiences.

*AVOID* - As other have said they charge for 4 weeks of non-care if you cancel despite hospital admission, death or sudden care-home requirements (all highly likely). This amounts to £10s of thousands for some. This criminal cash-grab on the vulnerable must be made illegal and limited to two weeks at most. Many other more legitimate companies offer 24 hour cancellation for more experienced care; and I strongly recommend you go with these others; don't fall for the flashy website and 'for us it's personal' frontage. There are all-round better and cheaper agencies out there.

Install cameras in you homes !!!! My mother DIED under the watch of a former Home Instead aide less than two days after she was in her home; we have her timesheet. I was never informed when my mother was transported away to die, and the Home Instead aide never called the Yost facility in Forest Hills to report the transport. The building’s security cameras caught the aide on video trespassing in her building from the time my mother was wheeled away, until two o’ clock the next morning.

I worked as a Caregiver with Home Instead Reigate and Tandridge for 2 years. Personal circumstances forced me to leave, very sadly. It's honestly the best care company I have worked with. Caregivers are matched with clients, which elevates the level of care experienced by our clients. Teams are formed for each client, ensuring consistency and seamless care. The training is great, there are always opportunities, and the support is unrivalled. Whether you are looking for a fulfilling role where you are truly valued as a Caregiver, or for a home care service with a difference, I would wholeheartedly recommend this team. I'm only sorry I had to leave this amazing team.

Ive now worked for homeinstead for nearly 4 years They are a great company to work with my training has been amazing ,they are very supportive. I have always been placed with clients that are suited to each other Me and them. They work with my hours that suit me. Caring and professional. I would be happy for them to care for my mother.

The staff looking after our 92 year old father have been great. We cannot recommend home instead, Northampton more highly. For us they have always gone the extra mile. Steve D

My 82 year old grandfather has dementia and several other health issues. His care giver Chivon took him to a care clinic to be seen by a physician, my grandfather had a episode with his dementia and it turned into a chaotic situation. Chivon handled that situation so well and showed a great amount of patience and kindness as well as care in that situation. He continued to stay with my grandfather after getting him home and out of the situation that he was in and even after dealing with all the madness and and chaos he still stayed and took care of my grandfather, he did his laundry and made him his favorite meal and stayed his whole shift and still showed so much patience and kindness towards my grandfather. I am very pleased to have seen how well Chivon handled my grandfather and the entire situation. Dealing with dementia patients is not a easy task and is not something many people can handle, chivon did a amazing job and deserves to be recognized for it!!! Thank you so much Chivon for the outstanding job that you did and I appreciate and recognize you for it and hope that your employees will do the same!

Please don’t it’s a bad company to work for 😞

So my mother had 7 visits (7 hours of care) and was charged £992. The catch is the contract. My mother had a fall and ended up in hospital. At that time we didn’t know whether she would return home of go to a care home. As it turned out she has ended up in a care home. Home instead want 4 weeks’ notice to cancel. I can understand that some notice period would be required, but ending up in hospital was not her fault and 4 weeks is ridiculously excessive. AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS unless you know exactly when you want to give them notice – which you won’t know of course until something happens. They have a very nice office by the way, no doubt funded by care that they are not providing

Good ethos , glossy brochure etc but don’t return calls so unable to progress a care package , if unreliable at this stage , that worries me

Home Instead order numerous unneeded products and bill the customer. While the caregivers are reasonable and helpful, the turnover in management indicates numerous internal problems.

Be aware that this company charge for 4 weeks care after it is stopped. A charge is reasonable because caregivers have been booked, but FOUR weeks seems very unreasonable. Care homes are only able to charge for 1 week in same circumstances. Given the high demand for carers, I am sure they were able to get other work within 4 weeks. It has been a recent change to their previous T&Cs. It is hard to pay after a death or unexpected move to full-time care.

Home instead is excellent. The staff go above and beyond to help and look after Freda, contacting the GP and the family if she is not well. Always on time and stay for the allocated period . Give Freda choice and treat her with respect . She loves them visiting it brightens up her day . I would certainly recommend, worth every penny . Thank you

We were prepared to pay their extortionate fees as we assumed the service would represent the overpriced £33/hr but I gradually realised agreed chores were continually not being done despite being assured this issue would be addressed. They also attempted to overcharge us so check your invoices! Another issue was the management not allowing enough time for carers to get from one job to another so I don’t necessarily blame the individual carers as most of them seemed pleasant and caring.

I did try to reach out to Home Instead prior to this review. They are supposed to be a people company. They are uncaring, inconsiderate and rude. The treatment of staff is awful. I feel very sorry for anyone being "cared" for.

We've used home instead for around 4 years and all in all its been an awful experience carers leaving their client in the incompetence pants and nothing else for 20mins plus. A carer has been showing up ill and spreading her germs all over my sick grandmother and my grandfather is now sick because of the 2 months she's been coughing her guts up in the faces. Had a carer even sit and watch TV while her client was crying and distressed and she did nothing. Just awful all around Now it's £32 ph it's a complete scam. Out of about 5 carers we see 2 of them do them job without being corrected after years of being here.

We have been mislead and badly treated by the manager assigned. A dreadful experience after less than 2 months we had to give them notice. We could not deal with people that don't keep their word and mess you around. Terrible

REIMBURSEMENT OF TRAINING COSTS AGREEMENT Clients InFocus Limited trading as Home Instead Senior Care, Aylesbury Vale and North East Oxfordshire This is a terrible company to work for. Loved working with the clients, but company wants to benefit from slave labour to deter staff from leaving. Wants to enslave people by insisting they work for it for a minimum of one year lest you are fined for leaving. What do you call it when you work for a company then they take all the money than an act of slavery? LOL- seeks reimbursement for things you have no choice to opt out of like 'introductions' to their own clients whom they allocate you to work with, training (compulsory), DBS, Digital licence etc. In the 21st century how legal is it for an employer make you a slave who can't leave their employment within 12 months? How 'proportionate' is this? Just because you have offered your services to them, what makes them think they have a right to want to own you for a whole year when you even haven't known if the job is right for you? This is what their bizarre contract says: "Description of Training Cost Venue Provider 1. Introductions and shadowing by a skilled team member to train to meet client’s specific needs: £20 per Introduction Various Home Instead 2. Follow-up support and training visits with a skilled team member: £20 per visit Various Home Instead 3. DBS check. £50 N/A Online DBS checker 4. E-learning licence (Care Certificate & amp; Mandatory Training): £99 Digital Platform My Learning Cloud. 5. Digital Inductions & Workshops (Module 1, Module 2, Module 3, Induction): £100 per session Digital Platform Home Instead. 6. Basic Life Support: £50 Franchise Office Home Instead 7. Moving & Handling £50 Franchise Office Home Instead The induction training costs amounts to the sum of between £369-£849 inclusive of a DBS check and will be paid for by the Company. I undertake that should I leave my employment with the Company; I will refund to the Company of the aforementioned training costs based on the following criteria: *You fail to give the company the required contractual notice period in the event you terminate your employment with the company. * You terminate your employment with the company within the first 12 months of your employment. *The company terminates your employment within your first 12 months of employment for any reason other than redundancy. *If changes in your availability have a detrimental impact on working hours being allocated to you, it will be assumed you are enforcing point 2 above as your contract is based on your availability at point of application." They don't tell you this during interviews, or 'training'. Contract or not, this is servitude, and no human being should be subjected to this kind of treatment. In the UK in the 21st century, No human being should be forced to work for a whole year, charged for training which you don't have a right to opt out of even when you already have the training- training that I cannot use anywhere, and for being 'introduced' to the company's own clients, otherwise they lose all their last month's pay, which is paid in the middle of the following month! AVOID BY ALL MEANS AND BEWARE of small print by this company OR BE THEIR NEXT VICTIM/forced donor!!!!!!