Minister gives hope to care home residents in meeting with Paul Burstow

12.00.00am GMT Thu 17th Jan 2008

Paul Burstow MP and representatives from the Relatives and Residents Association (RRA) yesterday met with social care minister Ivan Lewis to discuss urgent concerns they have about the regulations of care homes for older people and the failure of current complaints procedures.

Social care regulation is currently undergoing a major overhaul with a new Bill now going through Parliament.

However, it is unclear whether the new care regulator will have a clear and workable system of dealing with complaints. The current system is widely agreed to be unsatisfactory and can leave self-funders totally unprotected.

The minister was encouraging, saying that the status quo could not remain, but was unable to give specific details.

Commenting, Paul Burstow said:

"The Minister did undertake to look at the legislation currently going through parliament to set up the new care regulator. It would be a missed opportunity if the law did not ensure that everyone in a care home has a means of raising complaints with an independent body.

"The single most important step this Government could take is to close the human rights gap so that people living in private care homes have the same legal rights as those funded by local authorities. It is a scandal that the Government has dragged its feet for so long on this matter."

Judy Downey, Chair of the RRA added:

"The Minister responded with great sympathy and compassion to the dilemmas facing relatives. He gave a clear assurance that the status quo would not be acceptable in future.

"The Association also argued for there to be a statutory right of oversight and review of each resident's care from a trained social worker, regardless of how their care is funded. It also stressed the need for there to be a statutory basic nutritional standard laid down for care homes".