Institutional abuse and Evictions of Care Home Residents

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Dear Mr Paulley,

I am writing in response to a Freedom of Information request you
recently sent to Bristol City Council.

Question 1

Please supply information relating to the incidence of attempts by care
providers to evict residents in care homes - that is, care providers
giving residents notice to leave or otherwise attempting to get them to
leave without their involvement in the decision or against their
wishes.

Please indicate the number of cases you are aware of for the last 3
years, also indicating if and how your council responded to the
situation, and what was the ultimate result of the situation, i.e. if
and how the situation was resolved.

Answer 1

The contract between the Provider and the Council seeks to protect the
rights of the residents to avoid their 'enforced' discharge from a care
home and to date, we are only aware of one incident where a resident has
been evicted from a care home.

Providers are required to notify us if they think a 'placement appears
to be inappropriate' in order to allow all parties to work together to
find a solution. The outcome is often that a more appropriate placement
is found or that the level of support provided to the resident is
changed. We involve the resident and their family in this process and
seek to find a solution that suits all parties.

The Provider has very limited rights under the contract to enforce
termination. If the Provider decides that they do want a resident to
leave, they can do this but must give 6 months notice to the resident
and the Council.

Question 2

Please provide me with the number of instances your council is aware of
where either CQC or local authority safeguarding procedures have
substantiated allegations of institutional abuse of a Leonard Cheshire
social care service user over the past 3 years.

Further, please provide anonymised information on the alleged behaviour
by Leonard Cheshire resulting in the conclusion.

Answer 2

The Safeguarding Adults Team at Bristol City Council have not been
involved in any cases in the last 3 years where allegations of
institutional abuse in a Leonard Cheshire home have been substantiated.
Nor is the team aware of any substantiated cases in these homes that
have been investigated by other Local Authorities.

Further to this, the Safeguarding Adults Team at Bristol City Council
have not been involved in any investigations of institutional abuse in a
Leonard Cheshire home.

This response should answer your request in full, however if you are
not satisfied with this response or wish to lodge an appeal against any
exemptions that may have been applied, you can do so by writing to the
Data Protection Officer at Bristol City Council Legal Services, The
Council House, College Green, Bristol, or [Bristol City Council request email]. Details of
the complaints procedure can be found at
http://www.bristol.gov.uk/complaints (
http://www.bristol-city.gov.uk/complaints ).

If, after you have exhausted the council’s complaints procedure, you
are still not satisfied with the response you have received you have the
right to complain to the Information Commissioner, details of your right
to complain can be found at http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints.aspx

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______________________________________________________________________
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Sign-up for our email bulletin giving news, have-your-say and event information at: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/newsdirect

View webcasts of Council meetings at http://www.bristol.gov.uk/webcast

Bristol is the UK's first Cycling City. Visit www.betterbybike.info to join thousands of others getting around by bike.