LAWYERS BACK CARE WATCHDOG AS IT BARES IT’S TEETH
Thousands of Elderly peoples in Care Homes do not receive even basic standards of care according to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) which is health and social care regulator for England. Today it issued a damming report on Care Homes and threatened to close four hundred homes unless they improve.
James Hurford a specialist Community Care Solicitor at Swain & Co Solicitors, based in Havant and Southampton said, “The Watchdog found more then ten thousand people living in squalid conditions and receiving inadequate care. It referred to homes where seventy thousand people live as “adequate”.
I welcome the approach by the Commission. We have an ageing population and it is appalling that concerns arose over staff supervision, health and safety and dispensing medication”.
The CQC wants to help drive low quality care out of the market. It wants local authorities to reject services from poor providers.
James Hurford who is a Legal Aid specialist, said “The Legal Aid authority, the Legal Services Commission, showed remarkable foresight a year or so ago when it made it clear that it wanted to develop a resource of specialist expertise in Community Care Law to cover Hampshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. I moved to the area to specialise in this area of work after my firm, Swain & Co Solicitors, won the national contract to advise the elderly, disabled and frail of their rights to care and support”.
The CQC can play a vital role in establishing and raising standards.
Swain and Co also provide a specialist social welfare advice service in Gosport. Free advice sessions are provided at the Gosport Voluntary Action Group, 96 Pavillion Way, Gosport, (next door to Gosport Citizens Advice Bureau) from 1-4pm each Monday. The service operates on a drop in basis.
For further details contact James Hurford or Jess Connelly, Swain & Co Solicitors on 0800 056 6880.