Posts Tagged ‘Social Care’
Tuesday, June 4th, 2013
Yesterday the Legal Government Ombudsman (LGO) recommended that a County Council pay a 16 year old £3,000 to be used in conjunction with its leaving care team to promote his independent living.
He’d been abandoned by his parents and after refusing a voluntary foster placement or B & B offered by the Council he “sofa-surfed” with friends. The LGO’s criticism was that there was no evidence he had been “counselled” or given appropriate reading material as to the benefits of becoming a looked after child at his age. He would have benefited at the time from the support of a social worker and the associated resources that would bring.
An informal non-permanent arrangement with a friend’s family, subsidised by the Council, was regarded as insufficient.
If this means social workers now have to try to persuade sofa-surfers to become looked after, that’s going to have a heck of an impact on stretched leaving care services.
Posted by Sarah Erwin-Jones, who specialises in social services, the care sector, education and negotiating legal costs; advises on risk management issues including data protection matters.
Sarah Erwin-Jones
0115 976 6136
sarah.erwin@brownejacobson.com
Tags: abandonment, care leavers, child neglect, children's services, Claims, Complaints Social workers, LGO, PL, Social Care, sofa surfers, statutory duty
Posted in Charities, employer/public liability, Employers & Public Liability, Insurance, Local Authorities, Social Care | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 15th, 2013
A Serious Case Review (SCR) is to take place following the conviction of seven members of a paedophile ring yesterday.
It will look at the actions of all the agencies involved. Cases like this often seem to end up with public agencies being held to account, in circumstances where it is difficult for local authorities to defend themselves. They cannot, after all, release confidential information about young people. In this case the council has sensibly released what information it can, and has explained the limits on what they are able to do to help young people and their parents and carers to avoid risk taking behaviour.
We can confidently expect the SCR will identify some lessons that the various agencies can learn. Sadly there is a good chance that some or all of the agencies involved may face claims in reliance on those findings.
Posted by Sarah Erwin-Jones, who specialises in social services, the care sector, education and negotiating legal costs; advises on risk management issues including data protection matters.
Sarah Erwin-Jones
0115 976 6136
serwin@brownejacobson.com
Tags: child abuse, compensation claims, grooming of children, liability, Oxfordshire, paedophile ring, Sarah Erwin-Jones, SCR, serious case review, Social Care, trafficking
Posted in Charities, Data Protection, employer/public liability, Health, Insurance, Litigation, Local Authorities, NHS, Social Care | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 15th, 2013
Leading national health and social care partners have launched an ambitious plan to encourage local innovation and integration between health and social care services as part of moves towards “fully integrated” services by 2018.
‘Integrated care and support: our shared commitment’ calls for expressions of interest from integration ‘pioneers’ to take on responsibility for pioneering change in their health economy by 28 June 2013. It’s clear pioneers are expected to demonstrate “rapid progress” and the pressure to evidence results will be high.
The newly created clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in pioneer areas will play a key role in shaping and developing any proposals. Whilst the links between this initiative and the CCGs authorisation framework (to be finalised this Autumn) is unclear the plan is closely linked to the CCGs commissioning function and so will be a consideration.
This approach is a sign of things to come so the early decisions of these forerunners will no doubt be watched with interest by their peers, particularly CCGs.
Posted by Emily Birkett, who specialises in advice to NHS bodies ; their local authority partners and related organisations in commercial law, contracting, procurement , competition governance and all aspects of primary care.
Emily Birkett
0121 237 3934
emily.birkett@brownejacobson.com
Tags: CCG's, clinical commissioning groups, Emily Birkett, expressions of interest, Integrated care and support: our shared commitment, integrated services, pioneer, Social Care
Posted in Health, NHS, Public Sector | No Comments »
Friday, May 10th, 2013
Yesterday saw Barrister Barbara Hewson make some pretty controversial remarks. These have been widely quoted, and commented upon – usually with abhorrence. The response to her article was entirely predictable but also shows that as matters currently stand, this is not an arena in which it is helpful to make sweeping generalisations.
Our own experience is that when handling allegations and claims it really is necessary to descend to the individual facts of every case before forming any views. This will include the relative age of the child and alleged abuser, the nature of the relationship and the power dynamic between them, and the maturity of the young person in question. Making broad unspecific judgements about whether or not old men are being “scapegoated” while an investigation is ongoing is simply not, in my view, appropriate. These really are cases where the specific experience and memories of those involved merit individual attention.
Posted by Sarah Erwin-Jones, who specialises in social services, the care sector, education and negotiating legal costs; advises on risk management issues including data protection matters.
Sarah Erwin-Jones
0115 976 6136
serwin@brownejacobson.com
Tags: age of consent, Barbrara Hewson, child abuse, Metropolitan Police Force, NSPCC, old men, Sarah Erwin-Jones, Savile, Social Care, spiked, Stuart Hall, Yewtree
Posted in Charities, employer/public liability, Health, Insurance, Litigation, Local Authorities, NHS, Social Care | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 6th, 2013
When I first started dealing with child abuse group litigation in the late 1990s our perception was that police investigations were inefficient. They seemed to interview hundreds of people, charge tens of people, get eight or nine to trial, and secure convictions or guilty pleas in three of four cases. This ‘trawl’ style of investigation always run the risk of picking up false or exaggerated allegations.
That process also cost a huge amount of money. Since then we’ve seen police adopt a more cautious approach, which is usually less demanding of resources, and focussed on gathering well tested evidence that is likely to secure a conviction.
The DPP now thinks they have been “overcautious” in the Jimmy Savile investigation. New guidelines for police and prosecutors will be drawn up. The draft policy is expected for consultation in May. Since it will have implications for all organisations that work with children, we will be urging our clients to consider contributing to the consultation.
Posted by Sarah Erwin-Jones, who specialises in social services, the care sector, education and negotiating legal costs; advises on risk management issues including data protection matters.
Sarah Erwin-Jones
0115 976 6136
serwin@brownejacobson.com
Tags: child abuse, children's services, consultation, Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP, employers liability, Jimmy Savile, Keir Starmer, Pendulum, police investigations, Sarah Erwin-Jones, Social Care, vicarious liability
Posted in Charities, employer/public liability, Employers & Public Liability, Insurance, Local Authorities, Social Care | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 13th, 2013
The Government has announced outline plans for how we will pay for the care we might need when we get old. This is a long overdue grasping of a very prominent nettle so any progress is welcome.
Inevitably the new system will be very complicated. The £75,000 cap only covers “eligible needs”, and that needs to be defined. There will also be a national minimal eligibility threshold (to lessen the current postcode lottery); financial assessments to see if you qualify for state support; and if you are paying yourself, the system will carry out its own valuation of the care you need, and then use that valuation to monitor your progression towards the cap. Quite a challenge for a vulnerable group of people.
In all probability very few people will actually reach the cap. The hope is that greater cost certainty will encourage new financial products which, if taken up widely, will provide security and peace of mind at a reasonable cost for many.
Posted by Chris Webb-Jenkins, who specialises in defending claims against education and care providers and their insurers; risk management, stress, information management and child protection issues.
Chris Webb-Jenkins
0115 976 6175
cwebbjenkins@brownejacobson.com
Tags: Chris Webb-Jenkins, Dilnot, Social Care, £75000 cap
Posted in Health, Local Authorities, NHS, Public Sector, Social Care, Social Housing | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 21st, 2012
Today we have another Supreme Court Judgment on vicarious liabilityThis Appeal concerned whether a Catholic Institute could be vicariously liable for the abusive actions of its lay brothers, employed at a school by a third party.
The Court held that there were two stages to consider: first whether the relationship between the abuser and the defendant was capable of giving rise to vicarious liability; and secondly the connection that linked the relationship between them and the wrongful conduct.
In a refreshingly straightforward judgment it found that the Institute was vicariously liable for the alleged acts of abuse committed by its brothers. The effect was that both the managers of the school and the institute were BOTH vicariously liable for the alleged abuse.
Much has been made in the past about the possibility of this extending the principal of vicarious liability to cover foster placements. My view is that this judgment will do nothing to dampen those fires. Fostering and Adoption Agencies beware!
Posted by Sarah Erwin-Jones, who specialises in social services, the care sector, education and negotiating legal costs; advises on risk management issues including data protection matters.
Sarah Erwin-Jones
0115 976 6136
serwin@brownejacobson.com
Tags: child abuse, children's services, employers liability, Foster care, Fostering and Adoption Agencies, Jimmy Savile, Sarah Erwin-Jones, Social Care, vicarious liability
Posted in Charities, employer/public liability, Insurance, Local Authorities, Social Care | No Comments »
Monday, October 15th, 2012
Over the weekend further allegations have come to light that Jimmy Savile manipulated a position of power and trust to sexually assault patients. It is reported that he was a volunteer at Broadmoor Hospital for over four decades.
That brings us allegations in social care, at the BBC, in hospitals and in a secure psychiatric hospital. Unsurprisingly, compensation claims are threatened, although it is open to complainants to make a claim to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority ( CICA).
As an organisation, compensation claims should be expected. We’ve already seen two eminent claimant lawyers talking about it and we can expect more to join in. Careful strategic planning will be needed to ensure that victims’ claims are considered with care and compassion, whilst at the same time not losing sight of the issues and wasting public money.
A fuller briefing appears on our website.
Posted by Sarah Erwin-Jones, who specialises in social services, the care sector, education and negotiating legal costs; advises on risk management issues including data protection matters.
Sarah Erwin-Jones
0115 976 6136
serwin@brownejacobson.com
Tags: BBC, Broadmoor Hospital, CICA, compensation claims, Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, Jimmy Savile, mental health, sexual assults, Social Care
Posted in Charities, Health, Mental Health, NHS, Social Care | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 18th, 2012
A report by Louise Casey, an adviser to this government and the last on social issues, has been published today. It discusses the problems facing “troubled” families and proposes how to turn these families’ lives around.
Louise interviewed 16 families. It will surprise no one that she found unemployment, domestic violence, juvenile delinquency and educational failure, and that these problems had not begun recently, but had continued on from past generations. More interesting is her firm conviction that the way forward is not for new guidance, or structural reform. Progress is made on the front-line of service delivery. She wants skilled intervention workers to be dedicated to these families, to provide intensive support.
This recommendation has been criticised for being expensive. However, these 120,000 “troubled” families cost taxpayers £9bn every year. When you add the social and human cost to these purely financial figures, isn’t the truth more that we cannot afford the consequences of a failure to act?
Posted by Chris Webb-Jenkins, who specialises in defending claims against education and care providers and their insurers; risk management, stress, information management and child protection issues.
Chris Webb-Jenkins
0115 976 6175
cwebbjenkins@brownejacobson.com
Tags: Chris Webb-Jenkins, domestic violence, louise casey, Social Care, social issues, troubled families, unemployment
Posted in Education, Government bodies, Local Authorities, Social Care, Social Housing | No Comments »
Thursday, June 28th, 2012
It has been reported that from 1 August the Health and Care Professions Council will be expecting social workers to meet standards relevant to their area of practice. The standards can be found here . It’s a 20 page document, setting out the 15 key expectations of social workers from being able to “practise safely within their scope of practice”, to “be able to establish and maintain a safe practice environment”.
You can bet your bottom dollar that it’ll be used as a benchmark in negligence claims to challenge the quality of social work practice.
In practice, although we often find that claims might succeed where information is not shared or properly looked at in the round, as often as not the issue is not the quality of social work practice, but the lack of social workers to whom cases can be allocated.
Posted by Sarah Erwin-Jones, who specialises in social services, the care sector, education and negotiating legal costs; advises on risk management issues including data protection matters.
Sarah Erwin-Jones
0115 976 6136
serwin@brownejacobson.com
Tags: benchmarking, Health and Care Professions Council, Sarah Erwin-Jones, Social Care, social workers, standards
Posted in Social Care | No Comments »
Monday, June 18th, 2012
Delivering Dignity is the latest in a line of reports highlighting deficiencies in adult care. While these reports are important, what everyone really wants to see is resulting improvements on the front line of service delivery.
Greater clarity in the legal obligations on service providers would help, and there is perhaps reason to be more optimistic than usual for this. Change truly is in the air. The government has just launched a consultation on a radical simplification of safeguarding guidance relating to children, and in July we should see the long-awaited White Paper on adult care, which hopefully will follow the Law Commission’s call for a radical simplification of adult social care law.
If government simply sets out clear legal obligations, leaving the service providers with the responsibility of working out how to meet them, this could play a large part in achieving the “major cultural shift” which Delivering Dignity calls for.
Posted by Chris Webb-Jenkins, who specialises in defending claims against education and care providers and their insurers; risk management, stress, information management and child protection issues.
Chris Webb-Jenkins
0115 976 6175
cwebbjenkins@brownejacobson.com
Tags: adult care, adult safeguarding, Chris Webb-Jenkins, delivering dignity, Social Care
Posted in Social Care | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 28th, 2012
After much debate and 2,000 amendments, the Health and Social Care Bill finally received Royal Assent yesterday.
But what does this mean for Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), apart from confirming their eventual dissolution? After all, much work has already been done: PCTs are merged into clusters and are delegating their responsibilities to newly formed shadow clinical commissioning groups.
Although most PCTs have plans in place to manage the transition, following Royal Assent they and their clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) must be careful not to force the pace of change and risk confusion as to which organisation is responsible for which functions. PCTs remain accountable for their statutory functions until 31 March next year and that includes anything delegated to the shadow CCGs. They must ensure they have mechanisms in place to review, adapt and stress test their governance structures to provide assurance that they have sufficient oversight and control of their functions, both retained and delegated, to manage the busiest part of the transition period.
Posted by Emily Birkett, who specialises in advice to NHS bodies ; their local authority partners and related organisations in commercial law, contracting, procurement , competition governance and all aspects of primary care.
Emily Birkett
0121 237 3934
ebirkett@brownejacobson.com
Tags: Commissioning, health and social care, NHS, primary care trusts, royal assent, Social Care
Posted in Health, NHS, Social Care | No Comments »
Friday, March 16th, 2012
Local authorities will need to ensure that quality is not compromised as the new adoption scorecards are introduced, the first of which is due out in the next few weeks. Under the scheme local authorities will be scored on how long it takes to find adoptive parents for children in care. In principle this is a good idea, but in reality, will speed of adoption now trump the suitability of the placement?
Scorecards should be a step in the right direction, but they would be a more complete and useful tool if they also acted as an indicator of performance by taking account of adoption breakdowns. This would serve as encouragement to place children, not just promptly, but also appropriately and measure what is important – the success of the placement. A delay in placing a child for adoption can be damaging, an adoption break down can be devastating.
Kate Bear
0115 976 6104
kbear@brownejacobson.com
Tags: adoption, children's services, government, local authorities, Social Care
Posted in Local Authorities, Social Care | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 29th, 2012
Today sees the publication of a report by the Commission on Improving Dignity in Care for Older People. The media coverage is misleading. It says this report is another jeremiad on elderly care in this country. Actually it is nothing of the sort. It looks to the future, and suggests ways to improve care. Rather than being stentorian, the report asks for feedback.
Such skewed coverage by the media is unhelpful. While it backs the report’s suggestion that staff need to be more talented at caring, and better skilled, its portrayal of the caring profession as an unattractive, thankless blame game will surely turn good people away.
Caring is a difficult job. Few people can do it really well. Those at the front-line of service delivery need our encouragement and support to make the improvements which we would all like to see.
Kate Bear
0115 976 6104
kbear@brownejacobson.com
Tags: care, caring, compassion, dignity, older people, report, Social Care
Posted in Social Care | No Comments »
Friday, February 24th, 2012
Government plans to launch a national adoption plan reform in the current system has met with mixed views. Last month it was announced that a record number of care applications had been issued in the family courts. If Michael Gove’s proposals that:-
- social workers should intervene “early and energetically” more readily, and
- adoption support is beefed up
are to be effected then that has an impact on resources. I wonder whether it is sensible to be imposing new performance indicators at the same time. Precious resources might better be applied to implementing the new adoption system rather than demonstrating how regional variation makes improvement in social care difficult to measure.
Remember the courts have to be convinced that a child should be the subject of a Care Order. Parents who successfully resist such applications may simply refuse to work with social workers into the future, feeling themselves exonerated by the court, and thereby exposing their children to avoidable risk.
Posted by Sarah Erwin-Jones, who specialises in social services, the care sector, education and negotiating legal costs; advises on risk management issues including data protection matters.
Sarah Erwin-Jones
0115 976 6136
serwin@brownejacobson.com
Tags: adoption, care, family courts, government, Michael Gove, Social Care
Posted in Social Care | No Comments »
Friday, February 10th, 2012
NHS Gloucestershire’s plans to transfer its community services to a newly formed community interest company (CIC) have been shelved following a judicial review challenge.
The challenge was brought by a local resident who claimed that the primary care trust (PCT) had not followed a proper process before deciding to award the community services contract (reportedly worth about £80 million a year) to the CIC.
A settlement was reached yesterday at the High Court under which the PCT agreed, without accepting that there was any merit in the claim, that it would not implement its decision to award a contract to the CIC at this time. The PCT will now start a new process to explore the best option for providing community services in Gloucestershire, which will include advertising for expressions of interest.
The case (and the costs and delays resulting from it) highlights the importance of ensuring, particularly in the current climate, that procurement processes are as watertight as possible.
Posted by Jonathan Hayden, specialising in: advising health and social care clients including clinical commissioning groups, primary and secondary care contracting, commercial contracts, joint ventures, statutory powers/duties and governance.
Jonathan Hayden
0121 237 4551
jhayden@brownejacobson.com
Tags: community interest company, NHS, primary care trusts, Social Care, trnasforming community services
Posted in Health, Social Care | No Comments »
Thursday, February 9th, 2012
The debate on the safeguarding proposals in the Protection of Freedoms Bill continued today. And, regardless of expert views to the contrary, the government refuses to accept the risk of grooming posed by people who will be able to work with children unchecked.
As the Bill stands a ‘supervised volunteer’ in a school would not be undertaking ‘Regulated Activity’ and therefore no checks would be required. This means that an individual who is barred from working with children could still volunteer with children as long as he is supervised. That cannot be right.
This ignores the fact that children see all adults in schools (and other settings) as appropriate and trustworthy. It allows an adult to build a trusting relationship during schools hours and to exploit it out of hours. In other words, to groom and then abuse a child.
Even Lord Bichard has pleaded for a change, but thus far such pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
Posted by Dai Durbridge, who specialises safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults in education, social care and health settings; defending claims against education, social care and health providers.
Dai Durbridge
0115 976 6578
ddurbridge@brownejacobson.com
Tags: adult safeguarding, child safeguarding, CRB checks, Lord Bichard, protection of freedoms bill, Social Care
Posted in Education, Social Care | No Comments »
Thursday, February 9th, 2012
Cafcass received 903 referrals in January 2012. This record breaking figure constitutes a 100 increase from December 2011. It’s not a blip, but a continuing trend. Between April and December 2011, Cafcass saw new applications up 10.5% on the previous year.
This has clear implications for services. Both Cafcass and those making the applications will have to factor these higher numbers into their planning systems and resource allocations, and many are concerned about this in the teeth of challenging spending reviews.
I know from experience that many councils struggle to find the resources to support the cases that are in care proceedings – what are the prospects that those children who are in need rather than at risk become neglected by professionals, only to be the subject of avoidable care proceedings themselves at a later date?
Posted by Sarah Erwin-Jones, who specialises in social services, the care sector, education and negotiating legal costs; advises on risk management issues including data protection matters.
Sarah Erwin-Jones
0115 976 6136
serwin@brownejacobson.com
Tags: adult safeguarding, cafcass, care applications, child care, child care proceedings, Children Act 1989, Social Care
Posted in Social Care | No Comments »
Monday, January 30th, 2012
The future structure and operation of the NHS Commissioning Board is set to be discussed at its board meeting this week.
Its board will consider a 63-page document outlining the NHS Commissioning Board’s future structure. It will have an “hour glass” shape – an 800-strong central office, four commissioning sectors (based on SHA cluster locations) and, at least initially, 50 local offices (covering PCT cluster areas). Each commissioning sector and local office is expected to have about 50 staff.
Whilst there is logic behind the structure, some might question how lean this structure really is. However, it seems that the NHS Commissioning Board’s budget represents a reduction of about 50% compared to the running costs of the functions transferring to it.
The board will also be asked to approve and adopt Clinical Commissioning Group guidance that has been in circulation (some in draft form) for a few months. Don’t ignore the board papers accompanying each item either, as they also contain some useful information.
Posted by Jonathan Hayden, specialising in: advising health and social care clients including clinical commissioning groups, primary and secondary care contracting, commercial contracts, joint ventures, statutory powers/duties and governance.
Jonathan Hayden
0121 237 4551
jhayden@brownejacobson.com
Tags: Commissioning, NHS, primary care trusts, Public Sector, Social Care
Posted in Health, NHS, Public Sector, Social Care | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
Research by Action for Children shows half of social workers ‘feel powerless’ to stop children being neglected due to high thresholds and inadequate resources. 80% of social workers warned that cuts will make it more difficult to intervene in neglect cases.
It is obviously difficult to make meaningful cuts in expenditure without decreasing the quality of service provided. No doubt local authorities are monitoring this balancing act very closely, and clarion calls such as this should be listened to.
However, thresholds and resources are two very different issues, and there is real danger if they are conflated. If the threshold is too low, then it is too low whatever the resources position. A lack of resources should not be a reason to lower the threshold – it would be wrong to make it easier to remove a child from his parents because social workers have less capacity to investigate the home situation. The budgets cuts create real pressure, and clear heads are needed.
Kate Bear
0115 976 6104
kbear@brownejacobson.com
Tags: action for children, child neglect, child protection, local authorities, personal social care budgets, Social Care, social services, social workers
Posted in Local Authorities, Social Care | No Comments »
