Adult Social Care issues

Jamesd49

@Cress

Thanks for your messages, I went to my GP in February about a few things, including my social care assessment, he said he would ring the council and resolve things, he said he would call me within two weeks. 

He never did call me. 

So I finally got the courage to call the doctors and it wasn't even on my notes from that session, no calls had been made. 
I asked for the practice manager to give me a call about it, I was told she would give me a call the following day. That call never happened and I been waiting maybe 5 weeks. 

I have tried my local mind before, they refused to help me with anything, I found the staff at my local mind to be quite rude, so I have no involvement with them. 

Jamesd49

@lisathomas50 thanks for your messages, 

I believe the advocates to do with the social care assessment have to be the ones provided with by the council, your not able to use your own, its all down to the wording in social care act, I have done a lot of research into advocates local to me and 99% of them will say they can't help with social care assessment and will say to contact adult social care at the council who will provide you one, as they fund it. 

Tried my MP and local councillors, never get a reply. I believe the councillors have been told by the council not to discuss any issues with me. 

Thanks 

MarkM88

Jamesd49 said:

@MarkN88

Yes I have,  but they refused to accept any complaints. So not much I can do 

What do you mean they refused? They cant refuse a complaint, they have to investigate. 

What was their response when you sent them a email/letter of complaint?

Have you also read this? https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/health/nhs-and-social-care-complaints/complaining-about-social-care-services/social-care-complaints-procedure/how-to-make-a-complaint-about-adult-social-care-services/

Lisatho11987777

I am at a loss then the council can't refuse an advocate and if you say you have gone through all the complaint procedures and they have refused your complaint I don't understand thst part as a complaint cant be refused unless its a complaint that has already been made and has been concluded then the complaint can be dismissed as its already been dealt with

If that is the case the only other option is to take your complaint to the court of human rights but you will have to prove that you have gone through every other option available to you and would have to send copies of all complaints and copies of replys you have received and the outcome of any complaints made 

Citizen advice can help you do this if you say you can't find an advocate 

Cher_Alumni

Hi @Jamesd49 I'm sorry you've come up against such consistent barriers to getting the services/care you need.  It sounds frustrating to say the very least.  

I think it would be wise at this point to get free local independent help from those especially trained in social care procedures and legislation.  You can do this via the Advice Local website.  Alternatively, there is also the Law Society of England and Wales.  I appreciate you haven't had much luck up to press with organisations contacted but keep persevering to find out what your rights are in this situation and appropriate next steps.

Also, it's important to follow the complaints pathway set out to show you have complied with processes and can evidence where the local authority has refused to engage with you.  So, if you haven't already, I'd recommend keeping an audit trail of any correspondence/communication with the parties mentioned.

 A few of our members have signposted to this Citizens Advice 'Where to start if you have a problem with adult social care' webpage which advises to:

Depending on what you want to achieve, you may have different options to make a complaint:

• first speak to the person providing the care, or their manager. This could sort out the problem quickly

• use the local authority complaints procedure or the complaints procedure of the care provider if this isn’t the local authority

• report your complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman

• take legal action, for example, for personal injury, negligence, discrimination or for breach of your human rights

• report concerns to a regulatory body

• report concerns to other bodies such as the Care Quality Commission or your local Healthwatch

• talk to your local councillor about your concerns.

Whilst, this Age UK 'How to resolve problems and complain about adult social care' guidance goes more in-depth, outlining the complaints process right up to a judicial review, which you might find insightful.  However, again I'd urge you to contact those specialist trained to get personalised help asap as there are time limits within which to submit complaints/take action.

@lisathomas50 I agree with keeping a record of all interactions too.  I'm unable to find a source advising to take complaints to the court of human rights (it is still early and I do have baby brain though  ).  If you could provide one, that would be great to ensure factual information is conveyed - otherwise do you mean escalating the complaint to a judicial review as outlined in the Age UK guidance?

Please keep us updated with how you get on @Jamesd49 and I hope you're keeping well.

MarkM88

@Cher_Scope

Does this help? https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/health/nhs-and-social-care-complaints/complaining-about-social-care-services/adult-social-care-problems-taking-legal-action/

Cher_Alumni

@MarkN88 It does indeed    Thanks Mark! 

MarkM88

Cher_Scope said:

@MarkN88 It does indeed    Thanks Mark! 

No problem. 

Jamesd49

@MarkN88

They refused to accept any new complaints from me, well thats the stance they have taken, my local council have an online account where you log complaints, they even blocked my log on and if I try and sign up with another email they blocked that. 

They state I can email in complaints, I did that and it literally got ignored. 

Yes I have read it, thanks 

Jamesd49

@lisathomas50

Thanks for your reply, according to the social care act, everybody who does a social care assessment is entitled to an advocate. The council don't make the rules on it, they simply have to follow them, whether they choose to follow them is up to them. 

I emailed the council and asked for an advocate, they replied and said no, when I asked why, they ignored me, that was maybe January/February this year and I am still waiting for a response. 

Same as at any time during the process you can request a review of your assessment and they can check your needs and what support your getting, I requested this from the council and even quoted the part of the social care act which states this and they ignored me. 

So any issue I got to the council with they just ignore me, including reasonable adjustments for my autism which I have been asking for maybe 2 years +. 

So as you can see they make my life very difficult. I get the feeling they hope I just give up and go away

Jamesd49

@Cher_Scope thanks for the reply and advice, I will have a think about what you said. 

As you can imagine its all very stressful and this isn't my only issue, so juggling multiple things. 

The thing is I was getting help from the social worker at the council, I really enjoyed working with her, I felt she did the assessment well, the report was good, the outcome to the assessment was good, I had no reason to moan or be unhappy. 

Then I just got this letter out of the blue claiming I refused support, when I asked for evidence, they never replied, as I know there is none. 

So I am confused to why they would stop my support when I was happy and things was going well. 

littleacorn

@Jamesd49 I have been in simular position and decided to write down whathad  happened. Then what changed, the date and how I found out (was it following a phone call, letter or email, if so with who and what time if you have it,  print off copy of email) what i did next with date, name and a copy of the email sent or as much detail as i could remember.  

I did this with evey contact i had with social care. If there were any gaps I sent as much information as I had.  Yes it was alot of time and information gathering all this. I sent all this as apart of my complaint to the council not to social care as complaints are heard by a different department which investigate your complaint. I also kept details of my compaints letter that I sent by recorded delivery or whatever it is called ( this was incase they later say they never recieved it). I then kept  a copy of my complaint including all the details.

This may be a lot of information to gather but how can they riggle out of all of this evidence? 

Working with an  indepent professional might help you keep on track if you can find one or a trusted relative or friend.  "A problem shared is a problem halved"

Good luck.
 

Lisatho11987777

@Cher_Scope you can put an application into the court of human rights but every avenue  has to be tried first as you say there is also judicial review but you have to have hard evidence of every correspondence sent and received  from the council and the complaint procedures and all the reasons why the complaint was refused 

The op has said he got a letter saying he refused support maybe the op could explain more to you about the letter in a private email 

Council can withdraw support  if you miss appointments or some part of the support you refuse to do its very hard to help on a forum 

I have had clients in similar positions but easier to deal with when you have the whole picture but the op needs to see someone who can see the whole picture as already suggested  above hopefuly the op can get the help they need  from the suggestions made above but I think for the best free advice on this situation if the op can't get an advocate would be the citizens advice they have a bigger umbrella covering everything 

Hope the situation can be sorted out 

Tori_Scope

Yes, it certainly does seem as though it's important for jamesd49 to get some one to one advice @lisathomas50. We're not specialists in issues of social care, so speaking to a professional would be the best course of action  

Jamesd49

Thanks to the people who replied yesterday, I have taken onboard what you have said. 

Jamesd49

I just wanted to say thanks to the people who replied 

I have thought about it over the last few days and I don't think I can fight the council anymore, the process of logging a complaint and either going to the ombudsman/court is difficult, the lack of advocate support is bad, I can only find one advocate local to me and they won't help, won't even reply to my emails. Spoke to both my local MP's, one is even the minister for disabled people and they both don't seem that bothered. Tried the local councillors and they don't care. 

So I am stuck for options, anybody else got any advice or anything? 

Thanks