Ombudsman fires warning to councils over care charging and commissioning

The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) has warned councils not to significantly change contractual funding arrangements for current care home residents because they alter the way they commission care.

The warning came following a report in which the LGO recommended that Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council reimburse a woman’s estate the full amount of third party top-up payments.

The Ombudsman’s investigation found that a further 160 older people and their families in the Tameside area could be affected.

It has asked the authority to review these cases to see if a similar remedy was appropriate. This only applies to residents placed in care homes prior to the introduction of the council’s new quality framework.

The LGO acknowledged that adult social care costs were placing an increasing burden on authorities’ budgets.

However, it said that councils “should not reduce the amount they pay for care home placements, and leave families to find the difference, where there are funding agreements already in place for a particular level of care”.

In the Tameside case the complainant told the LGO that his mother, who was 80 and had dementia – had to pay an additional £88.70 every week to remain in the home she had lived in for the past three years.

“When the council reviewed the way it commissioned placements, the home in which the man’s mother lived was excluded from a new quality framework, despite meeting the set criteria,” the LGO said.

As a result, Tameside reduced the amount paid to ‘off framework’ homes and there was a shortfall in the amount paid to the care home, which the family had to make up.

The son’s only options were to pay significantly more for his mother’s care or move her - at a significant risk to her health and wellbeing - to a different home, the Ombudsman said.

In addition to recommending reimbursement of the top-up payments, the LGO called on the local authority to apologise to the complainant and pay him £250 for the time and trouble in bringing the complaint.

Dr Jane Martin, Local Government Ombudsman, said: “Councils are entitled to take into account their resources when planning how they commission services, and many are experiencing particular pressure in adult care, but they must properly assess the impact of any changes on existing users and act in accordance with the law.

 “I urge all authorities to look very closely at their plans, if they are changing care commissioning in their area, to ensure that no vulnerable residents are placed in a similar position.”

Dr Martin added: “In this particular case, our complainant was in a very difficult situation, he could not move his mother and risk her health deteriorating, and he could not afford to pay the extra money the council demanded.”

A copy of the Tameside report can be viewed here.