Listed below are 26 myths in adult social and health care law – CASCAIDr will be setting out to bust 2 a day (4, some days) via a link on Twitter and Facebook and by way of addition of the link to this table, to WHY these are myths, in writing.
Circulate NOW please, to anyone in your network who needs to know…
and remember this is all for fundraising to get CASCAIDr launched in January to provide free legal advice to the most critically affected by legally illiterate, indefensible decision-making.
You can donate to the right, on a secure donation site, (the MyDonate button) or put your donation specifically towards our myth-busting fundraising event target, here: CASCAIDr’s myth busting fundraising event donation page
All of these myths will be covered orally, allowing for further questions, by way of live 1.5 hr webinar on 8th December, at 11am. Registration for that is free – here is the link – all you need do is put in your email address:
Register for free for Myths Webinar 8 Dec
After the webinar, recordings can be bought for for £50 (no VAT) and all proceeds will go to CASCAIDr, courtesy of Belinda Schwehr, Care and Health Law, whose last webinar, in that capacity, at least, this will be.
If you work in the statutory sector, the tone here may be a bit unsettling but this is after all, free legal analysis for any council or CCG staff finding it difficult to access support with the tricky bits of the legal framework – so go on, please – CASCAIDr’s aim is true, and we want to help you do it right – so please donate too, even if it feels awkward. Your own job satisfaction surely depends, in the long term, on being smart enough to be able to empower the most needy clients to get a decent care package? #LovingLegalLiteracy is worth it, we promise!
The System
| 5th Dec
morning |
You can’t get social care at all, if you’ve got more than £23,250 in savings |
| 5th Dec
afternoon |
Sorry, we don’t ‘do’ shopping, cleaning, recreation, meal preparation or night time care, any longer…it’s not social care, you see, because everyone has these needs…and there’s benefits for all that stuff |
Process/Disputes
| 7th Dec
morning |
We can tell you, the client, at your review, how much we’re going to cut your budget by, without any other process or negotiation |
| 7th Dec afternoon | If you disagree with the budget we offer you, we don’t have to give you any service in the meantime |
| 10th Dec
Afternoon |
If you complain, we have to suspend the care planning process until that’s been finished |
Assessment and access to the system
| 4th Dec
morning |
You can’t have an assessment – you couldn’t possibly qualify! |
| 6th Dec
morning |
You can’t have an assessment unless you try prevention and re-ablement first (for years!) |
| 7th Dec morning | You can’t have an assessment until you actually come here to live, and have arrived! |
Advocacy
| 4th Dec
afternoon |
You can’t get an advocate unless you are mentally incapacitated |
| 7th Dec afternoon | You can’t get an advocate if you’ve got anyone else who’s able to speak for you |
| 10th Dec
Morning |
You can’t get an advocate because we haven’t got any spare at the moment – let’s just get on with your assessment, shall we? |
Carers’ issues
| 6th Dec afternoon | You can’t count as a carer if your relative is already in a care home, in supported living, in hospital or if they are on Continuing Health Care or s117 Mental Health Act aftercare |
| 9th Dec
morning |
If you’re a carer, you will have to make do with a set sum of money for your support needs, because that’s what we’ve always done… |
| 9th Dec
Afternoon |
We can cap respite to a set amount per year and charge carers for it |
Care planning
| 12th Dec
morning |
We can cap the level of services provided in your own home to whatever the cost of any other way of meeting your needs would be, by any alternative that we can think of… |
| 12th Dec
Afternoon |
We can decide whether your care and support needs are met or not, even if we don’t pay for anything after the assessment in which we found you were eligible… |
| 14th Dec
Morning |
We can change your care plan and cut the funding whenever our own funding gets cut from central government or our own budget looks wobbly |
Direct payments issues
| 14th Dec
afternoon |
You can only have a direct payment for your services, if it saves us (the council or the CCG) money… |
| 15th Dec morning | We can tell you the DP holder that you have to use an agency from our preferred provider list for your direct payment funded services |
| 15th Dec afternoon | People’s relatives aren’t allowed to be paid out of a direct payment |
Learning disability, epilepsy and autism issues
| 11th Dec
morning |
If you’re a person with a learning disability, you have to live in shared care to get our services, even if that means moving into a tenancy we’ve secured for you… |
| 11th Dec
morning |
If you live in one of the tenancies we can secure for you, you have to abide by house rules about friends coming back for the night |
| 11th Dec
afternoon |
If you have epilepsy, technology will enable your night time needs to be managed |
| 11th Dec
afternoon |
We the purchasers can tell you the provider or the parent whether someone needs specialist skilled staff and define ‘specialist’ |
Care home Providers’ issues
| 13th Dec
morning |
Top-Ups aren’t lawful, so you can’t do business with us, the council or the CCG, or ever charge the client or other people anything extra… |
| 13th Dec afternoon | We tell you, the provider, what the price of care is, and you have to accept our prices, and sue third parties for any top-ups that dry up! |
