Active Care Group - London

Kathy O.

Working with Blackheath brain injury rehab has been a lovely experience, seeing vulnerable Patients come in, not able to work, speak or having struggles post stroke and getting better , gaining independence. 🧡

Lisa B.

My partner was a client of active for nearly 10 years, the last 3 years have been an horrendous experience.
If you are working in social care or simply looking for a care company to offer support, please do not choose this company.
My partner had a ‘live in’ package due to complexity of needs. The quality of carers sent to him over the last couple of years changed drastically, it’s like they now employ anyone who comes to interview.
We have had carers intoxicated on shift, some leave my partner without care, he has had to go into ‘service failure’ because they do not have enough carers to cover, which means he has been left without care for a number of days with no back up plan. The only reason that service failure occurred was because they left it too late to find carers, usually the day before he needs cover. If clients do not have a regular PA, then most of the time they end up organising their own care or having to prompt the office to book in between regulars.
Sometimes it felt that carers treated your house like a hostel, somewhere to stay for free to earn money before they travel, whilst doing the bare minimum to support.
Most carers had no understanding that they were in someone’s home, that my partner is a human being, no understanding of how difficult living with an SCI is, & had no initiative, motivation or passion to want to help.

We have also had PAs in tears due to how they have been treated by this company which maybe why they struggle to retain staff, especially the good ones.

Not all PAs were bad, but our experience over the last 2 years meant that the bad out weighed the good. Having live in care is supposed to make life easier when in fact having this through active made it harder and life more stressful.

Please look elsewhere, there are better companies out there that put a lot of effort in to matching PAs and clients. We have now left this company, this was the best decision we have made!

K W.

Although assistants' preferences as to what type of clients we were able to support were recorded during training, I was once sent to a client who also had mental illness, which I specifically stated I was not able to support. This client also had another carer from a different company, the carer was a male carer who was harassing me during my shift, and did not want to let me leave after my last shift had ended when there were only two trains out of this town per day. I was determined to get on a train after the traumatic experience, and ended up having to run away after my last shift when the male carer was not holding me down physically. NEVER AGAIN. I was working till my hands were swollen and hurt like nothing else, I was harassed, I was sent to a mentally paranoid patient who scared me, and still I was the one questioned by a coordinator why did I leave after the last shift. Assistants do not matter, we were not human beings. I immediately quit after the harrowing experience. It was disgusting how they thought that employing people from Eastern Europe meant they could do whatever they wanted with them.

Julie K.

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.
They owe me over £400. Imagine how much money they save by doing this to all their PAs. Not everyone is as persistent as I am and I am sure that my experience is not an isolated one. They seem to run their business like an insurance company and give you the run around till you give up trying.
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.

Zeo

Stay away from this company. Ended up walking out today after just 5 days of working with them. Emded up working up to 15 hours per day instead of 10 and had hardly any breaks. My client was very rude and verbally abusive, swearing at me all the time and calling me stupid. Any time I called the office they wouldn't answer, even when it was to report an incident. If you need to go home from a client because of an emergency they will not care and you have to stay there for the days you said you would work. They will also find any reason NOT to pay you the correct amount.

Tom S.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS

I was a customer of Active Assistance for 8 years. I don't exaggerate when I say that living with their care and service was one of the most difficult and stressful things about becoming quadriplegic, and that leaving the company was one of the best decisions of my life.

If you are newly injured or a Care Case Manager speak to other customers with SCI and take the negative experiences shared in these reviews very seriously. Despite being such a large company, they have currently ran out of staff and emailing customers to find emergency care themselves. A lot of their PAs are scruffy backpackers who will use your house like a hostel. It's not surprising most are unmotivated and morale is low given how they are treated by the company. They even pay Active for the privilege of living in Your house (£8 a day, the accommodation offset rate) – accommodation which active obviously doesn't even provide or pay for.

If you have a good coordinator and a regular PA things go all right, because you basically do the scheduling between yourselves and inform the company. The least you have to do with them the better, as with most agencies. If not, assignments are a string of last-minute, short stints by brand-new PAs, and the coordinator responsible for your care changes regularly giving you no consistency. The only positive was their training, which used to be quite good, but now is probably remote, meaning your PAs will lack hands-on experience in very basic competencies.

I was patient. I complained. I hoped things will get better and they never did for long. They have their ups and downs like any busiiness but now Customers are leaving in droves and they are putting people at risk through care failure. Get out while you still can.

Paul M.

ABSOLUTELY DIABOLICAL

At the weekend I finally left Active Assistance, now known as Active Care Group - Care in the Home division, after 11 years of using their service. They don’t even pretend to provide personal assistance anymore; the very thing that used to make them progressive.

I’ve just read Tom Shaw’s review and it gave me the encouragement to write my own to back him. Everything he has said is completely accurate.

If you’re an existing service user please be brave and make the change.

If you’re newly injured, a case manager, resettlement officer or a funder, please stay away from this company. You’re setting yourself or patient up for a lifetime of suffering.

If you’re thinking about coming to work for this company please don’t. They won’t treat you well and you’re unlikely to stay very long.

All of the positive reviews have either been left by:
a) user, family member or employee of rehabilitation or residential service; not care in the home.
b) somebody from the recruitment team
c) somebody that has just been interviewed or completed training; but not been on assignment.
d) somebody from the leadership team.

It is safe to say that these can all be ignored with regards to care in the home.

The one nice thing I would like to say is that my care co-ordinator and CSM were both great. My understanding though is most of them are not.

Sarah W.

No care safe or staff welbring. Only have 4 staff 2 main people rrest angrecy that bad. Dont care safe till you want dide . I miss few staff not many. Glad dont have worry woodlandcourt. I advices not go there. 6 month be look way out. Not suite for people ld,mental health or austim. I glad no live any more. I living inpaunte hopstail due break down take way support. We hopstail get 1 2 1 all day and night