Active Care Review

Working for them over then 1,5 Year and I'm still happy as I was on the 1st day when I started

URGENT UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It seems my initial review on this company was premature. It was posted not long after my training which in itself was quite good. This is where the praise ends and the problems begin.

Getting money that is owed to you out of this company is an excruciating exercise.
It can take MONTHS of being passed around from one department to another to resolve any monetary issues. You are then asked to fill in forms to claim money for training and fuel but these seem to get filed in the bin. I have been on their books now for 8 months. Still no holiday pay, still no reimbursement for training and fuel. I bombarded different departments with forms and telephone calls and still I wait. After being promised the money in my account at the end of the month, I went into berserk mode when I found out it had not been paid again. I made in excess of 10 telephone calls and was promised yet again that the money would show in my account after the weekend. That promise was made on Friday, today is Monday, still no funds.
So I need to up the anti. I will be seeking legal advice, I will be writing reviews, I will be making my voice heard anywhere possible.

Not this girl, I'm in it for the long haul.

Below is my initial post

I'm surprised at the comments about staff being inexperienced. The recruitment process was very lengthy and the training was the best I have received since my career in care began. In my opinion, the poor remarks on the here do not reflect the company as a whole. It's a shame that some people have had a bad experience with the company as I am sure they are a minority.

These jokers looked after my mother the care staff had no experience whatsoever if your thinking of using them think again the staff they sent to look after my mum had no skills in care,they lasted 6 days and we had to get rid.

After the training I was left on my own, taking up to days even weeks for me to even get a reply out of one of them, held me on for 3 to 4 months after I had passed the training just to say they won't be proceeding further with my application regarding a minor dbs warning, if I didn't have a part time job I would now be financially broke and be living on the streets. Its last company I would ever want my family and friends to join.

From my own experience, I can say that everyone with whom I had the pleasure to chat was nice and helpful in the recruitment process. A very nice interview with Kasia who is a very nice person. I also appreciate the short waiting time for emails from answering the questions I asked

"Inspiring place to work"

I have been working at Active Assistance Group full-time (More than 5 years)

Pros

Great learning experience. From being Personal Assistant I ve build up my career to Junior Care Service Manager and recently promoted to Care Service manager.

Supportive Team Leaders, Care Standard Officers, Care Service Managers and definitely Regional Clinical Managers that quite often work late evenings or early mornings to help the client and support their teams.

As a whole very professional and caring company, that I feel valued in. Anything we do is for the benefit of the client in a person-centered way.

Company invests a lot in their employees training and in my opinion, has one of the best or the best induction training for new Personal Assistants. If there's any relevant additional training needed in care package, PAs will be given appropriate training until they feel and are deemed to be competent.

Cons

For some might be driving. As a care service manager or trainer you might need to make 1500/2000 miles a month.

Some days might be long due to amount of work, and it's not ideal job for a person that isn't flexible and would like to work from 09:00 to 17:30.

Advice to Management

Keep on the good work ! You won't be able to always make 100% of people happy.

After having aweeks training with this company they never called me back ! They put me on the payroll then kept me on it for 2 years without my knowing I was changers double tax for having 2 jobs and I never worked for them also was never ever paid for my weeks training lost about 5-6 thousand in tax because of them and years of being told il be called back and still nothing should be ashamed of your selfs horrible company horrible staff and head office couldn t organise a piss up in a brewery bunch of incompetent idiots

Provide Exceptional Customer Service.
Nice groupe of people, especially Hayley robert , she was fantastic with me. She truly cares about what I need and went above and beyond yo make sure I have all the information I required for this job. She's very friendly , kind and professional.

Thank you to you 100/100

It's arnaud brice.

I used to work for active, they weren't good at finding suitable assignments. They have owed me money for over 7 months now. Clients were always unhappy with the service which wasn't a nice position to be in.

Unfortunately my first proper employer in the UK. After many fails trying it on my own on the private sector, I tried to get in with these folks. Obviously only recruiting from Eastern European countries to keep it on the cheap (not for the clients). Handovers were mainly a farce, I've never seen real proper documentation in a client's file and in emergencies the head quarter was incapable of getting help fast (eg relief a worker from an absolute dump of a place or a placement with a client I couldn't tend to his complex medical needs as his sole carer). And after i had some time off (my dad had passed) I was kind of dropped....no more placements meaning no money. In the end I was lucky to get a job with the NHS.... Sort of choosing the smaller evil

Some of the staff are so rude, appalling attitudes and think they know it all after their 3 days of training.

To put things simply? The training was good, the clients were lovely considering everything. The best way for me to sum up management is that I was not offered a single assignment between the months of September and November while being unable to reach Active due to a multitude of issues that seem to arise (for example about five minutes ago when I tried to call on a Friday at 2pm and got informed that it was out of hours, with them only working monday to friday 9:30-5:30). Due to this, I had to seek other employment and resigned from Active with them acknowledging my resignation back in November.



So, to sum things up? Training and recruitment solid, the clients were good. But the management is woefully inept and this has been a constant nightmare of mine for the past eight months that I am still having to try to sort out. There are plenty enough more examples out there, but other reviews about sum it up well enough in that regard.

Shocking experiences with some carers, CSMs, office staff and managers. The amount of issues are too numerous to mention all, but include getting clients details wrong, competencies not being signed off, days without being able to reach someone, office staff blatantly lying, carers unable to communicate in English, hand overs not given, etc etc etc
Official complaint made, and CQC informed. The CQC should be informed to allow the company to be evaluated accurately, and then clients and staff will know what to expect, before choosing them.

Hello pls do avoid this company as a client and more importantly as a PA.Worst ever they do not care .CQC should investigate them ASAP.

I never get paid on the time and the right amount, management is a joke right ? The clients belong into Institute mental health unit,as most of them suffering from deep depression, aggression and violence . This company is dealing with very mentally ill patients and what they do is business. This company should be inspected more deeply, or is it only for business purpose only ? Soon as patients get mentally better they get them back on the beginning - they make them Crasy! so they do not lose patients !!!!!! Please someone inspect this company more deeply !!!!! They have nothing from it if patients get better so why they would do it ??? People this is business
And that the get huge money from all the patients, but paying the minimum to (only carers without any experience or education )in this field is just unbelievable ! And as you everybody see below ! They only comment reviews that are from clients not from their employee ( because their employees are just trash to them )so that s should indicate something too isn t ?

Active care group are the worst company I have ever worked for and don t deserve the one star given to them! The office staff are total rubbish, they cannot respond to emails or phone calls, they refuse your pay slips when you need them, they get your pay wrong every month and have no knowledge on anything you request from them! They are lazy and do not cooperate with requests, absolute joke I would not recommend anyone work for them. They try to fob you off when you have a problem with pay or pay slips and just do not do anything to help! Work colleagues (other personal assistance) and client are amazing and are the only thing that makes that company worth working for).

Having worked with the Active Care Group now for almost 2 years, I feel like I have experienced most functions of the business and therefore in a position to pen a review.

You will struggle to find a care provider that gives more opportunity to its employees, whether that be further training or career enhancement. I've seen people with little experience in the sector join, take on board the training, prove themselves working with our clients and progress. As a large care provider there is unlimited scope for development whether you want to stay on the operational side of the business of move your career in a different direction.

I haven't experienced the issues that others have mentioned regarding pay whilst I've worked for the organisation, but do acknowledge that there may have been issues in the past.

I've worked for three large care provider during my career and Active Care Group stand head and shoulders above the others in all areas. Despite the largescale growth, it still very much has a family feel to it and there's lots of ways that colleagues are encouraged to stay in touch and get involved.

Positive review for my recent recruitment process with active assistance.

I have been dealing with Beth who has gone above and beyond to help me and make everything really clear to me.

I am beyond excited to start working for active assistance and this is due to the amazing standards Beth has set for me, she has been really friendly and informative, kept in great contact and helped me with anything I have asked her.

Can not fault the recruitment process and really hope everything else with this job follows suit :)

Majority of staff are poorly trained including office staff. If your using them full time i hear its great but dont use as half package or tailor made package. If you find a good carer through them KEEP HOLD OF THEM. Feedback from staff is bad. Dont bother complaining you wont get anywhere. Consider your options before signing up.

I work with this company for over 4 years, 3 different clients and no issues with any of them. Unfortunately the issue with this company lies with head office, management and the recruitment team.

1/2 year was excellent as I've never done support worker before ( so I didn't know any different). But eventually the cracks started showing and the care of the management team/office is unbelievable! You are literally a statistic to them, with my package they over hired and guaranteed new staff a certain amount of hours which meant current serving team had hours cut to suit new staff as they had been promised said amount of hours. Again this goes back to recruitment and manager.

In my case my manager was just a yes guy and said what was needed to make you happy but with no actually development in what was said.

Towards the last 4 months of my job my pay was consistently wrong and I was being paid for a different package ( was being paid live in when my job was live out) this was due to the many changes in their office staff over a short period. This wouldn't be a problem but you have to jump through so many hoops to find the correct team to sort out wrong pay ( which never got sorted, unfortunately for me)

Training was very confusing, they would send you on a mandatory all in one day training ( cover you for the year) but then with in literally a week you'll be doing online training, which over exactly what I had just done on my day training?!....just didn't make sense.

So after 4 years, 3 clients and taking one abroad 3 times with little hassle. ( They will also pay you basic rate to leave the country with a vulnerable/aggressive client, with no back up when you're out of the country) I decided to call it a day, now in most jobs I've left I normally get s thank you for your services etc, my manager didn't even say anything, no thank you, nothing. What made this worse is the lies he told my Clint and that I had just left without reason?? Outrageous as I wanted to stay on good terms with him.

The reason I left Is because I couldn't get shifts anymore and my pay was consistently wrong.

I also work for another care company that put the Clint and staff first and this really highlighted how bad this company was. I've been with my company for 3 years and it's been brilliant.

Use this company for training and DBS if you can and then look elsewhere.

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.

They care only about money not about workers or clients. Today they "informed us with pleasure" about "pay rise" - we have 3 grades which were paid differently, but from this tax year they will pay the same amount of money (minimum wage) for grade 1 and 2. Grade 3 (highly educated workers) will be paid only about 0,25 pennies per day more than the last year. It means 5 extra GBP per month, if you work every single day without break. How company is not ashamed about this??! On top of all, they are charging for the accommodation (8,2 GBP) per day. Do they understand that as PA we HAVE TO stay with the client? If we have a choice, we would rather sleep somewhere else where we don't have to be available for the client. Instead of being charged for the accommodation, where we are obligated to stay and work!! They are charging for the accommodation in the client's house, how this can be legal? Company is not the one providing us with the accommodation, it is the client. They are not giving accommodation money to the client or to workers, they keep it. They earn from it about 240 GBP per month for each PA. Many clients don't know that workers are charged for the accommodation is their houses. If they don't give it to workers, they should give money to the client which is paying for the utilities and care!!
Once they charge you accommodation fee, you get paid under the minimum!

Many times inexperienced PA is sent to very hard client. It is torture for both PA and client.

The only good thing about this agency is flexibility with work. If you don't need flexibility, run away from here and go to some better paid agency or private, it is not hard to find!

Great company to work for. Unfortunately, when working with people from all different walks of life there will be issues, sad to see so many poor reviews as this doesn't reflect what I have expereinced. I wasn't without my issues, however as long as you direct your issue to the right person, this will always be resolved.

Undertrained staff minimal supervision staff do as they please once in your home can't follow smple care plans or mars sheets properly call themselves specialists it's a joke the care my mother in law received was basic staff only in the jobs for the money don't care about the person and what they need or want to do

I saw Dean, Peter delivering some of the best support to 'Leftie' I have ever seen in several years as a support worker tonight at the Wheely Different Disco. Amazing work, and heartwarming to see such a relentless effort in support of a vulnerable adult.

I was given a job, completed my training and two shadow shifts which all went well however I never heard any more from this company!

Further more, I was told on interview I'd have a full time contact of 36hr per week but on my first shadow shift, I was told I'd be on a zero hour context.

Poor communication between head office, CSO, CSM, the client and yourself.

Choose another company to invest your time in.