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1st Focus Homecare staff survey
To maintain total transparency for service users, their families, and future team members, 1st Focus Homecare in Edinburgh conducted its latest internal staff survey in March 2026.
Out of 69 invitations distributed via the anonymous Smart Survey platform, 26 responses were received—yielding a 38% participation level. Crucially, this represents a 13% increase in engagement compared to September 2025, signalling a workforce increasingly eager to use its voice to shape company culture.
Workplace Foundation: High Satisfaction & Clinical Confidence from Our Care Team
The raw data confirms that 1st Focus Homecare remains an exceptionally well-regarded employer in the Edinburgh care market, significantly outpacing industry averages for staff morale. Management’s commitment to clinical training—including their recent, widely praised “medical emergency and CPR course” led by an independent paramedic trainer—has built a highly confident frontline team. Many have said this not only helps them to care better, but is seen as training for their individual careers in the future.
| Key Morale & Performance Indicators | Tier 1: Top Score | Tier 2: Positive | Combined Positive Consensus | Neutral / Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Job Satisfaction (Very Satisfied / Satisfied) | 73.08% | 23.08% | 96.16% | 3.85% Neutral 0.00% Dissatisfied |
| Skills & Knowledge Confidence (Strongly Agree / Agree) | 76.92% | 23.08% | 100.00% | 0.00% Neutral 0.00% Disagree |
| Quality & Quantity of Supervisions (Excellent / Good) | 65.38% | 34.62% | 100.00% | 0.00% Satisfactory 0.00% Unsatisfactory |
| Communication Clarity (Excellent / Good) | 61.54% | 38.46% | 100.00% | 0.00% Satisfactory 0.00% Poor |
| Confidence in Management Team (Strongly Agree / Agree) | 57.69% | 42.31% | 100.00% | 0.00% Neutral 0.00% Disagree |
These numbers point to a home help and care company with strong operational procedures.
A rare 100% of staff feel completely confident that they possess the skills and knowledge required to execute their roles safely and professionally.
Furthermore, every single respondent rated workplace supervision and management communication as either “Good” or “Excellent”.
The qualitative feedback underlines a culture built on mutual respect, solid teamwork, and a shared focus on providing the best care and human dignity for our service users:
“Brilliant office team and nice colleagues. Fair company and benefits. Couldn’t work for a better care company.”
“What I like about 1st Focus is its commitment to person-centred care… Being part of a team that makes a positive difference in people’s daily lives is something that really motivates me.”
“Care supervisors and managers are often willing to come out and support carers when needed, which is very reassuring.”
If you feel that 1st Focus Homecare is a company you can trust, please contact our office on 0131 510 7878, where we can discuss your care needs. If we can help you or your loved one, we can arrange to meet you in person at your home to assess your care needs. Once an agreement is in place with you privately or via the local council, we will build you a care and support plan and agree on a start date.
Ethical Standards – Bridging the Gap for Frontline Professionals
1st Focus Homecare operates under a strict ethical framework: any score falling below an 80% to 90% absolute positive rating, or any qualitative pattern indicating employee strain, is treated as an area requiring immediate investigation.
While the structural foundations are remarkably secure, the open-ended feedback reveals systemic challenges typical of the wider Scottish care sector. True workplace transparency means addressing these friction points head-on to protect staff from burnout and ensure care delivery remains flawless.
1. Rota Stability and Advanced Scheduling Notice
While 100% of staff voice absolute confidence in management, the detailed feedback notes that scheduling is the primary driver of day-to-day stress. Staff members noted that shifts are sometimes reassigned at short notice, or carers are moved from their regular, long-term clients to cover other service users’ care packages.
- The Ethical Slant: For a care professional, a rota is not just a work timetable—it dictates their life outside of work, their childcare arrangements, and their physical and mental rest. Last-minute adjustments compromise work-life balance. Crucially, as highlighted in the client satisfaction survey, sudden rota shifts also disrupt the continuity of care for service users, who thrive on seeing familiar faces. Guarding the stability of the rota is a necessity for both employee health and client comfort.
2. Fair Compensation for Travel and Companion Packages
Under Question 9, 19.23% of staff rated their pay and benefits as merely ‘Satisfactory,’ and 3.85% rated them as ‘Poor’. The qualitative data directly clarifies this variance, highlighting distinct issues surrounding travel time between companion visits and the structures of 24-hour packages.
- The Ethical Slant: An issue raised by some staff appeared to be a misunderstanding that they were not being paid travel time between visits. 1st Focus do indeed pay travel time and we have recently made changes to how this is displayed on payslips to clear up any ambiguity surrounding this. A recent HMRC audit also confirmed that 1st Focus are compliant when it comes to paying travel time.
3. Inclusion and Democratic Meeting Accessibility
A recurring logistical concern was that staff meetings are frequently scheduled during standard working hours, inadvertently excluding field staff out on active shifts.
- The Ethical Slant: When team members cannot attend meetings because they are actively caring for clients, it creates a subtle culture of exclusion. True organisational inclusion means every carer deserves an equal seat at the table to share insights, absorb company updates, and connect with peers.
Action Steps: The Blueprint for Structural Improvement
Because this internal survey is very recent, the 1st Focus Homecare management team has not yet formalised a final action plan. However, based on our track record of responsive management, the following targeted interventions will offer a direct roadmap to address our team’s important and valued feedback.
1. Implementing a Two-Week Rota Minimum
To restore a healthy work-life balance, management can commit to finalising and publishing staff schedules at least two weeks in advance. While emergency care coverage will always require occasional flexibility, creating a baseline of stable runs allows carers to plan their personal lives with confidence.
2. Auditing Travel Time and On-Call Rotations
Management can initiate a comprehensive audit of travel times between localised companionship visits. Recognising and compensating significant travel gaps represents a vital step toward continued long-term staff retention. Additionally, the recent policy requiring companionship carers to absorb weekly on-call shifts should be reviewed.
3. Creating Hybrid, Accessible Staff Forums
To resolve team meeting exclusion, 1st Focus Homecare can transition to a hybrid communication format. This includes:
- Digital Streaming: Broadcasting standard staff meetings via Microsoft Teams or Zoom so live-in or field carers can listen in during gaps in their schedule.
- Rotated Scheduling: Occasional Saturday morning digital briefings to capture companionship carers who cannot step away during midweek care hours.
4. Specialised Companion Supervisions
A highly constructive staff suggestion noted that standard supervision formats are naturally tailored to physical care packages. Management can easily introduce a structure that would focus heavily on social engagement metrics, loneliness mitigation, and innovative tools—such as our employee who highlighted using Alexa smart speakers to engage clients with music, poetry, and history.
Conclusion: A Leadership Team that Listens
What makes 1st Focus Homecare stand out in the Edinburgh care landscape is not a lack of workplace challenges, but their absolute willingness to publish their staff’s feedback completely unfiltered.
As a care company in Edinburgh, we believe we have an obligation to show full transparency. We are monitored by The Care Inspectorate in Scotland, and if we wish to gain the trust of local families and seniors in Edinburgh, then we must continue to make our own internal surveys available to the public, just like our service user satisfaction survey that was recently published here on our website and on our social media channels.
With 96% of our workforce stating they are satisfied or highly satisfied with the company as a place to work, the core of this business is incredibly healthy.
By taking these detailed, frontline insights and using them to refine scheduling stability, pay structures, and meeting accessibility, 1st Focus Homecare will continue to build a workplace that supports its staff as thoroughly as its staff supports the community. Consistent care for the client can only happen when there is consistent care for the carer.
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