The use of private care companies is widespread, but we must ensure that when using these, the carers are provided with suitably stable employment contracts to ensure there is not the high turnover of carers which harms the continuity of care. Carers must also have a high level of professional training to be able to deliver respite services. This does not always happen, and families are being failed by a system which does not always work.
Families’ day or overnight respite provision which they have been planning around for weeks, if not months are frequently cancelled, because the department cannot find suitable carers, they cannot find resources such as adequate venues or because they need to frantically fit in emergency cases often at the detriment of services already earmarked for other families who need them.
