10 signatures reached
To: Helen Whately
Protect care home residents equally. Quality Assurance team to cover self funders, too.
Include self funders (people who pay their own care fees fully, and have no tax-payer funded assistance) in the Quality and Assurance Team's remit.
Vulnerable adults with dementia are NOT "customers". The pandemic has worsened potential abuses and problems with standards in care homes.
Social services-funded residents have the advocacy, support and intervention of the council's Quality Team when concerns are raised. Self funders are excluded.
Stop the discrimination against people who have saved all their lives and are paying expensive care fees out of their own pockets.
They deserve good quality care, too. They deserve the same protection from the council which Social services funded residents enjoy. Nobody should be treated worse because of who pays their bill.
Why is this important?
Elderly self funders in care homes, especially those with dementia, often lack mental capacity. They are highly vulnerable, and unable to discern good or safe care from bad, unsafe or abusive care. They are therefore NOT customers, which is how they're currently treated. They can't choose their care, and family advocates, especially in this pandemic, are too often unaware, or excluded, unable to support or protect their loved ones.
If the Quality Assurance team is solely for social services funded people, its name should reflect its purpose, which is revenue protection.
