Last time our LA/ICB tried to remove Rohan from our home was 4 months ago on the day of his 21st birthday!
It started when our agency went bankrupt and served noticed late October. Ten days later the LA informed us that they only had one offer from another provider. Unfortunately they were not suitable as they could not accommodate Rohan’s care team.
We received a shocking call via Rohan’s solicitor on his birthday while we were out in Cambridge celebrating to say that “due to his mother’s conduct” – which was me sharing my concern that the company couldn’t meet need – “the company had withdrawn their offer of care so they had no other choice but to place Rohan in Addenbrookes or in a nursing home”. They claimed “it was too late to find another care company”. I felt sick to the pit of my stomach: in the height of flu season either of these situations could have been life threatening for Rohan, and would have put me on 24hr duty. I cancelled my work in Sweden for the following week at expense to myself and my amazingly understanding client.
All the other families I knew had been given free choice, just as we had in early 2023 when we chose our last agency.
Several days prior to this we had given the LA/ICB three company names that had said they could all meet his needs. These were not accepted by the LA for our package, yet two of the three were acceptable for other service users in Cambridgeshire. Six days after Rohan’s birthday I was able to evidence this discrimination, after which the ICB put the package on their framework and received 15 tenders in less than a day, including one of the three companies we had named. After working another four twenty-hour days with our amazing solicitor, including much heartache, no sleep, and very large bills, through threatening LA/ICB with Judicial Review they were forced to assign one of the care companies we asked for fifteen days before, but on the steps of the court. We think the LA/ ICB spent in excess of £60k on solicitors on this occasion, out of the public purse, to bully a vulnerable young man from his home. We felt blessed that we had an amazing team of carers who stuck with Rohan all the way through, despite their work visas potentially being in jeopardy. I personally was almost broken at the end physically and mentally, and it took me many months to recover.
We requested an FOI for costs from CCC and ICB associated with this legal case, CCC have now asked for a second extension and the ICB told us “..the ICB does not hold the level of financial data that would enable us to provide an accurate response to this request.” As a tax payer and member of the public this made me very uncomfortable, so I sought advice from the ICO who asked me to challenge the decision and ask for an internal investigation. I made my original request on 14th February 2024 and we are still waiting…
On this occasion we have personally asked them for a meeting on many occasions, as have our MP and our solicitor, but they refuse to communicate directly and are using your money (tax payers’ money) again to speak through very expensive lawyers. This feels like a waste when this could all be resolved with a round table meeting. The only people winning here in our opinion are the two legal firms working for the LA & ICB.
