Domiciliary care satisfaction rises to 93% after service overhaul  

Gibraltar’s domiciliary care service has undergone a major overhaul over the past year with satisfaction levels now standing at 93.4% following the creation of Community Care Domiciliary Services Limited, the Minister for Health and Care Gemma Arias Vasquez has said. 

Mrs Arias Vasquez alongside Care Agency CEO Carlos Banderas said the move to establish a single not-for-profit provider has proved positive after longstanding concerns over the standards of care delivered by multiple companies operating previously under separate arrangements. 

In response to issues arising from the service provision, the Government initially decided to standardise care and Lifecome Care was selected to provide the service after a tender process. 

But months later in spring 2025 the contract was mutually terminated after the Government was not satisfied with the service, resulting in less than 30 days to set-up the new service provider Community Care Domiciliary Services Limited (CCDSL). 

Mrs Arias Vasquez and Mr Banderas described how CCDSL had set itself the goal of improving standards and an audit has since found that most service users have had a positive experience with the new service. 

Some 452 service users were surveyed in March 2026 and 93.4% responded that they were satisfied with the service. 

There are currently 517 people receiving domiciliary care, although this number fluctuates daily depending on hospital admissions, respite care requirements or travel arrangements. 

Mrs Arias Vasquez said the scale of the service had expanded significantly over the past decade, growing from 68 users in 2011 to more than 500 today, while annual funding had increased from around £750,000 to over £4m. 

She also highlighted that with a budget of over £4m, it is crucial for the Government to ensure that the money is being well spent and that service users are happy with the service provided. 

“We’re quite proud of the service CCDSL is providing and it shows that the Government cares about these services,” she said. 

She added that the transitional team who set up CCDSL in the first six months did amazing work to ground the company. 

“The work that they do is they go into 517 homes every single day,” she said. 

“They take care of people [and] that could be my grandmother.” 

“They help with the transition [to and from] hospital, they help free up hospital beds. When someone is discharged from the hospital but they're not able to move particularly well or they need rehabilitation, the carers go and help them get up, help them get changed, help them shower.” 

Mr Banderas said CCDSL employs 257 staff and operates across Gibraltar seven days a week, supporting hospital discharges, elderly residents, people with dementia and end-of-life care patients. 

“It’s not just only for hospital discharges,” Mr Banderas said. 

“These carers will be providing personal care for the people who are at the last stages of their lives as well.” 

One of the main operational improvements involved dividing Gibraltar into zones to reduce travelling times between appointments, with staff contracts also changed from zero hours to 15 hours. 

Mr Banderas said the agency had also introduced regular audits and direct feedback calls with service users and relatives, initially conducted every month and later moving to quarterly checks as satisfaction improved. 

“They will contact each individual, and I think that's what is really positive, because we know our clients better, we support them better, and now when they have a problem, they can contact the office of the CEO and they will say, look, we have problems with the carers,” he said. 

“You can tell us that any time that you have a problem.” 

He added that the feedback was compiled by an impartial team at Europort who are not involved in adult services. 

According to figures provided during the briefing, satisfaction levels rose from 78.8% in May 2025 to 93.4% in the latest audit. 

The agency said 94.7% of service users reported receiving the care they were meant to receive, although 12.2% reported missed sessions. 

Mrs Arias Vasquez acknowledged the service was not perfect but said the scale of operations meant some disruptions were inevitable.  

“I’d hope that we get to a perfect or near-perfect service, but I’m realistic enough to think that we won’t ever get to 100%,” she said. 

She added that the service has improved and the majority of service users are happy after previous issues with service providers. 

“When push came to shove the Care Agency ensured that service users were catered to properly,” she said. 

New geolocation technology has been introduced to monitor whether carers arrive at appointments on time. 

Under the system, supervisors receive alerts if a visit has not been logged within 15 minutes of the scheduled time. 

Mr Banderas said the measure provides reassurance to relatives, particularly families caring for people with dementia. 

They also praised carers for continuing to work during periods of severe weather earlier this year. 

“The days that there were downpours in Gibraltar, when the carers knew that their service users would be at home by themselves, they were there,” Mrs Arias Vasquez said.