LGO reminds councils to offer care placements without need for top-up fees

The Local Government Ombudsman has warned councils that, when arranging care, they must offer families the option of a nursing or care home placement which does not need a top-up fee.

The LGO’s comments came at the conclusion of an investigation into a case involving Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council.

A family in the borough had paid a top-up fee for three years for their father’s care, when they should not have been asked to do so, the Ombudsman found.

The LGO claimed the case was “another example of people across the country being given insufficient information to be able to make informed choices about their care”.

The man concerned had gone into a nursing home temporarily in September 2007. Before he moved into the home, Sandwelll MBC contacted 13 nursing homes on the family’s behalf to check if they had any vacancies.

However, only one of those homes it spoke to on the list accepted its standard rate. This home did not have a room available for the man at the time.

This meant that the family only had the choice of homes which required a top-up fee. They were unaware the council should not have charged them a top-up if there were no homes available at its standard rate, the LGO said.

In a report, the Ombudsman also found that when the council decided the man needed to live permanently in a nursing home it again failed to help the family find a home that did not require a top-up.

Three years later the man’s daughter told Sandwell it would be difficult for the family to continue paying the top-up fee, but did not want her father to be moved because she feared it would be detrimental to his health.

The council agreed to consider paying the top-up fee and in the process contacted local nursing homes, one of which did not need a top-up fee and had a room available. Because the family refused to move the man from his home the council decided not to pay the top-up.

According to the Ombudsman, Sandwell should have then conducted an assessment of the man’s needs and assessed the risk of moving him to determine whether he could be moved to a more affordable home.

The LGO said the council now agreed that it was wrong to charge a top-up when the man first moved into the nursing home as no alternative was given to the family that did not require a top-up.

It has offered to refund the top-up paid by the family till the placement was made permanent in October 2007. It does not accept it was at fault from that point afterwards.

The LGO has recommended that Sandwell apologise to the daughter and refund the top-up fees she has paid. The council was also told to pay £300 for the time and trouble the daughter had gone to in bringing the complaint to the Ombudsman.

Dr Jane Martin, Local Government Ombudsman, said: “When arranging care, councils must offer families an affordable alternative to a placement which requires a top-up fee. If no placements are available in their area that do not require a top-up then councils must fund the top-up themselves.

“In this case, no affordable placement was offered and the family was not made aware that such an alternative should have been available to them.

“I would urge Solihull council to act upon my recommendations and consider the lessons from our focus report.”