So, they are now destabilising Rohan’s care again!
We got a huge bombshell from our solicitors last night. We were due to submit grounds for our JR, which was halted by an email from LA solicitors saying they’d had a meeting with our current care provider, who didn’t want mediation with us or to continue working with us.
Additionally, they are claiming that none of the carers want to move over with us, bar one who is a British national. The agency doesn’t provide sponsorships so none of the other carers can move.
We all know this is a lie, as do our lawyers but the judge is simply not expected to look behind the face of the evidence, and the carers are all too afraid to make a statement in our favour as they might lose their jobs and right to stay in the country. This means our case, that was built on continuity of care has collapsed.
The new company starts on 10th April and the old one will leave on 22nd. Our current care provider still hasn’t given any valid reason for the termination – the only one we can think of is that they have been threatened by the ICB/LA as 90% of their work comes from the ICB.
We have been set up to fail because the company that has been named is simply not fit to meet the need. This will put me on duty 24 hrs/day as I cannot risk Rohan’s health – even one of the leading personnel in the ICB has stated in his evidence that continuity of care should be maintained IF POSSIBLE, which in this case it is. Once the care breaks down or they have made up new stories about me, they will try and take us back to the Court of Protection and threaten Rohan’s right to live at home again!
A bit of back story… everything was going great with our current provider, we had fab carers that adore Rohan, I had spent months training them, and brought over others from previous providers. We even said in a care plan meeting how wonderful it was and thanked the company.
After our current provider sent in the termination letter, the LA/ICB shut down and went completely quiet. They locked us out of ALL decisions regarding a new company, which is contrary to both the Care Act and our Deputyship order. They refused to talk to us or engage with us. We heard rumours of safeguarding so I set to work evidencing the “concerns”, we think they were trying to take us to Court of Protection again as since December they have a draft order open over our heads like a sword of Damocles. We managed to deal with that threat and started litigation to secure safe provision for Rohan. Two weeks later they announced the new company to us, with a choice of that or a residential home by email. EXACTLY THE SAME AS ON HIS 21st BIRTHDAY LAST YEAR.
This email also included a manager who we have an open complaint against – what other kind of organisation would keep someone with a complaint against them on that job?. –We were told by the CEO that Rohan’s Social Worker “doesn’t even work for her”, and then by another executive that “she has been taken off Rohan’s case” – however she is still directly involved, and hence we get the same threat every time: take what we are going to give you, or else…We know four other families that have complaints against her and she is still directly involved in each case!
This is not normal. In Nov my friend disagreed with the LA over the company they recommended to her, and they gave her what she wanted even though it was off framework.
This is vindictive, discriminatory behaviour which doesn’t have Rohan’s best interests at heart. The same organisation that is supposed to safeguard Rohan is destabilising his care and endangering his life by choice.
What we need now is a miracle – we could do with raising about £100,000 this weekend so we can privately commission the company who can meet need, move our carers over without risk to them, and then take the LA to court. That would just be a short term stop-gap though, for just three months, but still cheaper than the legal fees the local authority has spent in attacking us.
Please donate and share this widely. We want to stop this abuse of vulnerable families happening in Cambridgeshire and beyond.
