Hi again! We’ve been unhappy with Dad’s care home for a long time but decided enough was enough today, due to a safeguarding issue.
Luckily, we’ve been offered a room in (what we think will be) a much better home. As Dad’s current place has (yet another) outbreak, the new home can’t assess him for some time. They can if we remove him and keep him at home when they visit.
So we plan to remove Dad on Wednesday night so he can be assessed on Thursday morning. We’ve informed his current home manager that we will be terminating the contract and why. We’ve been advised to call social services to check we are in the right. Someone mentioned getting a DOLS in place before exorcising our rights as POA?
Has anyone here had to do anything like this before? Does anyone know the legality / technicallities involved?
Whose decision is it to make?
This will partly depend on whether the person is paying for their own care or whether it is being funded by a public body, such as the local council.
It also depends on whether the person can decide for themselves.
If the person is paying their own fees then they are free to leave the care home whenever they like, if they can decide that for themselves. Legally this is called having the ‘mental capacity’ to decide that. If they can’t their wishes and feelings should still be taken into account but the decision will normally be made by their family or those close to them with input from professionals about their needs.
If there is someone with a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) for health and welfare they will take the lead but otherwise it will probably be a joint decision and needs to be about what is best for the person. If someone has an LPA for property and finance they should also be involved because there will be financial implications.
If the local council (or more rarely the NHS) are paying the care home fees then in theory the decision will be made in the same way but the public body will have much more of a say because they hold the purse strings. The costs of care at home may be different. They may also need to review any Deprivation of Liberty order that may be in place.
Even if there is no current public involvement the local council can be asked to help with assessing the person’s needs and arranging care at home. Or in rare cases where the council is concerned for the safety of the person going home they might get involved (this is called safeguarding).
Thank you for that link. My brothers and I have shared LPA for both finances and health. Dad can no longer make important decisions for himself. He is self funding.
Dad used to live with me. I was his main carer for 7 years. We had help with a live-in carer but eventually felt Dad’s needs would be best met in a home. Dad should only need to be cared for at home for a few days. We have family members who can help with this. He should be assessed next Thursday by the new home and we’ve been told it should only be a couple of days after that until he can move in there.
As we feel that his current home have broken the contract by failing to do no harm and provide basic care, as we pay them to do, we feel we have the right to remove him as soon as we practically can. We just need to make sure we can do this as smoothly as possible.
I am confused about DOLS. As mentioned above, I assume I’ve is in place as the home restrict his access quite severely. I thought I was told that we might need to have one in place to remove him, as we feel we can better serve his needs? I may have got that wrong though.
If you have Power of Attorney, DOLS is not an issue.
Your Dad gave you Power of Attorney while he was still able to make decisions for himself and granted you that power because he trusted you. My understanding is that, in law, an Attorney (you) making a decision is as if your Dad was making it for himself.
