Homes dispute 'threatens wellbeing of elderly'

Society Guardian, August 6, 2002

A campaign to prevent further care home closures in Birmingham will move to the high court today after the local authority was accused of unfairly boycotting private sector providers in a dispute over fees.

Lawyers acting on behalf of the Birmingham Care Consortium (BCC), which includes 86 care home owners, residents and their relatives, will be seeking a judicial review of the city council's policy of refusing to place elderly people in the home of their choice.

The consortium is opposing the local authority's refusal to place elderly people in homes that have drawn up new contracts based on the "fair and economic" rates recommended in a report for the council by healthcare analysts.

The recommendations were rejected by the city council, and a spokeswoman said it wanted to offer older people a choice of homes but it could only place them with providers who signed up to its own contract.

An injunction preventing the city's social services department from refusing to make placements in homes owned by BCC members, is also being sought by the consortium.

Before mounting the legal challenge, the BCC wrote to the council offering to accept a compromise fee structure, until the rates recommended by the analysts Laing & Buisson were introduced in April 2003. It says the council did not reply.

The care home owners say the council's stance breaches the National Assistant Act 1948 (choice of accommodation) direction 1992, which states that a local authority must place a person in the accommodation of their choice.

Five elderly plaintiffs also allege that limiting their choice of home is endangering their wellbeing and encroaching on the European Convention of Human Rights.

Solicitor Yvonne Hossack, of Wood Shawe and Co, who is lodging papers at the high court in London today, said elderly people were being put at serious risk by the council's boycott of her clients.

In her submission, she argues that elderly and vulnerable people were being forced to live at home with inadequate care or proper supervision, or were being kept longer than necessary in hospital because the home of their choice was unavailable.

Alan Pearce, the BCC's chairman, said: "We are backing this court action in order to provide an adequate supply of good quality care for the elderly in our society.

"Council leaders have already publicly admitted that their homes are slums and, therefore, I don't believe capable of providing a suitable environment for proper care.

"If the council continues with its disastrous policies towards the frail elderly, most of the private homes in the city will be forced to close by their bankers.