On 20 April 2022 the Upper- Tier Tribunal for Special Educational Needs and Disability confirmed in London Borough of Croydon v K.A. [2022] UKUT 106 (AAC), the importance of having a broader and more holistic approach to the application of Section 9 of the...
A six-week consultation was launched by the Government on 9 September to seek views on its plans for staff in health and care settings in England to be required to have COVID-19 and flu vaccines to protect vulnerable people. They will then decide...
I read an article in the Sunday Telegraph on 13 October 2019 about the real crisis in the care system. It informed readers that vulnerable people who have been paying for their care home but are no longer able to pay, and no longer responsible for their own...
Following the publication of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) review in to care homes, is it time, as a care home provider, to check your terms and conditions, or as a resident to ensure you know what you are signed up to? The CMA has undertaken...
Fair care – does your care home comply with its consumer law obligations? Following a market study on the care home industry in 2016 and a consultation earlier this year, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published advice on consumer...
According to new research by Just Group , one in three people over 45 believe they will have to sell their home in order to be able to afford their care fees. Clear direction from the Government over how care is to be funded is severely lacking, with the...
In a recent report , 35% of those surveyed disagreed that their home should be used to fund care in the future. However, in a 5 year period the percentage of people who thought that the state would pay for future care dropped from 51% to...
Many of us will be familiar with the above refrain and recall the music hall tones in which it was sung by Paul McCartney. Many of the generation that first heard that song, 50 years ago, are now likely to be well over 64 themselves, some in their 70s and...
On Monday 19th November 2017, Channel 4 aired a great programme "How to avoid the Dementia Tax." They showed a number of genuine situations. It is true that the rules surrounding ‘elderly care funding’ are a postcode...
The government has recently confirmed an extra 500 medical school places in England for 2018. Training to become a doctor takes at least five years, and currently in the UK about 6,000 graduate each year. The British Medical Association says the plan...
The lack of government funding is an on going and worrying problem. But older people should be able to stay in their own homes if they are able to do so. It is an on going battle but one that we must continue to fight. It will of course also become a problem...
I think it is inevitable that councils are going to face litigation and claims as the cuts deepen. But people are right to stand up and fight for what their loved ones are entitled to. We already bring claims against the NHS for people who are paying care...
The news yesterday that Councils don’t pay a fair price for care may come as no surprise in these straightened times but it is a worrying trend for older people, their carers and loved ones. Whilst Councils are short of funds to cover the care needs...
The news that government-funded care is being scaled back may come as no surprise in these straightened times but it is a worrying trend for older people, their carers and loved ones. In fact it affects us all. It is the case that Councils simply do...
The news today that government-funded care is being scaled back may come as no surprise in these straightened times but it is a worrying trend for older people, their carers and loved ones. In fact it affects us all. It is the case that Councils simply...
"A standout name in Essex" quoted by Legal 500 2016 for Birkett Long! This year has been a great success for Birkett Long, 3 of our partners have again been ranked as "Leading Individuals". These are Claire Read, Head of Wills, Trusts...
We hear it constantly but those labels are really wordy, are they not? Grand-scale medical negligence cases costing thousands and beyond, are forever plastered in the media but a recent incident opened my eyes to an alarming number of everyday errors. ...
Over the weekend, BBC news published the headline “ The future for adult social care services in England looks bleak ” following George Osborne’s spending review indicating that there would need to be a rise in care budgets. Mr Osborne...
NHS continuing healthcare funding is a government promise that the NHS will pick up the nursing home bills of older people. Despite this promise, at Birkett Long we are still chasing £1.5 million owed to families, with that figure rising weekly. NHS...
In our Cost of Care seminars that Birkett Long held in Colchester and Billericay, I talked about the new Care Bill and the promises that it makes to reform the care sector. Obviously such reforms will cost money and the question arises – where...
By giving away assets, you limit your own choice as to the sort of home that you should go in. Nice care homes are very expensive and if you do not have the money, you have no choice. You will be at the mercy of your family or the Local Authority. This is...
The All Parliamentary Group on Parkinson’s have carried out the first ever formal Inquiry into NHS Continuing Care and have declared it “not fit for purpose and…failing vulnerable people and their families”. The report, called...
Today Birkett Long hosted one of two seminars on “The Cost of Care”. Nowadays, with people expected to live longer and the rising cost of care homes, many people are spending the majority of their savings on the cost of care; leaving little...
Recent news stories have made much of the government’s ‘u-turn’ to their previous pledge that in the future, no-one would have to sell their home to pay for care home fees. In May 2013 the Care Bill was introduced in the House of Lords....
During the Queen’s speech on Wednesday new rules were announced reconfirming the Government’s commitment to a cap on individual care costs and establishing the right of members of the public to receive help for care needs for themselves and their...