The clients and employees of this company deserve ...

The clients and employees of this company deserve better. I believe that once upon a time the company actually cared, they wanted to provide good and stable care for people who needed it more than they wanted to make money, but as it stands at the moment it feels as if they care more about making money and taking on new packages than they do about looking after vulnerable people.

Office staff are overworked, underpaid for the amount they do and take on, with hours of unpaid overtime in a desperate attempt to keep up. PAs aren't respected or treated fairly, with inconsistent pay and the expectation of doing more work and assignments than they can manage - not to mention the fact that there aren't enough of them. Care Coordination are told that they cannot be honest with clients, Care Service Managers and other staff about the lack of carers they currently have, and are encouraged to lie, manipulate and demand their way into confirming assignments for clients and PAs.

Newly trained PAs with no experience of working with clients who have complex needs are sent out as soon as they're through the HR process, to clients who are anxious and upset that they have no choice in who comes to them. Previously I believe that clients had more of a choice but, as the company insist on taking on new clients despite there not being enough carers for the clients they already have, they are forced to accept whatever the company can send them. This has included carers who aren't completely signed off with the DBS process.

Seven employees have left or resigned from Care Coordination in the three months that I worked there, including myself; this is either through being asked to leave after making mistakes (with the lack of proper training, gross amount of work expected to take on because of being understaffed and the generally stressful environment, I am not at all surprised that people have made mistakes) or because we are so incredibly stressed, unsupported and unhappy that we feel we have no other choice than to seek work elsewhere, lest our mental health decline any further.

In lieu of all of that, clients and PAs are not receiving the support that they deserve from the office.

It is... abhorrent. Clients are reporting back as increasingly unhappy, feeling unsafe with the care provided and with no idea as to why they're not being given what we promised them when taking them on as a new package. Myself and others who work(ed) in Care Coordination have been sworn at, yelled at and cried to over the phone by clients and PAs, with the hardest part being that they have every right to be upset. Yet, as we are limited to what we can say (and as we are expected to lie), we can't give them what they deserve: validation.

In short? I would advise clients, or potential clients, to seek their care elsewhere. Until the business realises their mistakes and makes big moves to fix them, Active is an organisation which is failing both themselves, their clients and their employees.

Despite only working in Care Coordination there for three months, it was enough time to learn all I needed to know about them as they are now.