by Jo Meek BBC Five Live Report Researcher

Agencies must now meet much tighter standards

The home care sector is under-funded, under-staffed and over-subscribed. More than 600,000 people rely upon carers who come into their own homes. Last November the government postponed plans to enforce criminal checks on home care staff working through agencies.

As researcher for the BBC Radio Five Live report, Home Care: Who Cares?, I had been told by charities working with the elderly and vulnerable adults that it was incredibly easy to get a home care job.

But would I be able to get a job? Could I, someone with absolutely no experience in caring, be given the keys to the home of a vulnerable elderly person with little or no questions asked?

After a 10-minute chat, one agency offered me a job to start the next day The BBC's Jo Meek

I started the way anyone looking to find employment as a carer would start - by looking in the job ads section of the local paper. I called 15 different agencies to find out exactly how lax their recruitment procedures were.

When I asked how much experience was needed, the answer was resoundingly honest: not much, if any at all. Mostly you just need a car to allow you to nip from one "client's" home to another.

Within a couple of hours I had three interviews to attend the next day. And I was stunned when after a 10-minute chat, one agency offered me a job to start the next day.

I had provided them with two referees - neither was contacted. Unchecked, I would be expected to pick up an elderly person from a local hospital and take him home and "make him comfortable".

I resigned before actually meeting the client. The whole experience has left me with no doubt that the system has been left for far too long without any controls.

Astoundingly, at the time, the agency was not breaching any regulations.

Safe from harm

Fiona Westwood, who represents care workers at Unison, was not surprised that I was offered work so readily. She says: "I have to be honest and say that in our experience, in general terms, there are agencies that do cut corners."

In our experience, in general terms, there are agencies that do cut corners Fiona Westwood, Unison

But cutting corners is unacceptable, says Kathryn Stone, the director of Voice UK, a charity that supports vulnerable adults who have been abused.

"It is not right to make distinctions of who is more deserving of a safe environment to live in, and be cared for in".

In England the National Care Standards Commission has just this month taken on the responsibility of regulating domiciliary carers.

Now agencies that supply carers have to register and meet the standards set by the NCSC. A similar commission is due to be regulating in Scotland, but currently there are no regulations for Northern Ireland or Wales.

Home Care: Who Cares? will be broadcast on BBC Radio Five Live on Sunday 27 April.