What we found:

Summary

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman investigated a complaint about care home fees charged to the complainant’s mother. We found Moors Park (Bishopsteignton) Limited: imposed additional charges for care provided over a weekly baseline limit of 25 hours, which was not set out in the contract; charged other residents additional fees without first amending their contracts;  This meant the care home caused the woman financial injustice and her son suffered time and trouble complaining.

The Ombudsman’s recommendations

We recommended Moors Park (Bishopsteignton) Limited:

• apologise to the son, and pay £100 for his time, trouble and frustration;

• show us it has refunded the additional fees the mother paid between April 2023 and her death; and

• show us it has refunded the additional fees paid by other residents between April 2023 until they signed an updated contract.

The care home initially agreed to refund the additional fees paid by the mother but has since decided not to implement any of our recommendations.

Moors Park (Bishopsteignton) Limited’s response

The care provider has provided the following comments to our notice:

“You have stated that we did not reassess [the resident’s] needs when revising her fee but actually we did and it was that reassessment that led to the revised fee being over the 25 hour threshold when previously it wasn't.

"You have entirely sidestepped our suggestion that you should investigate the unfair monopoly position adopted by local authorities which leads to well published requirements for a cross subsidy from private fee payers in order for providers to be viable. It is this iniquity that leads to providers looking for ways to achieve this whilst also seeking a fair way to calculate fees. This led to our policy of setting a threshold for care and charging an additional amount when this was exceeded so that as far as possible those that had the highest needs paid the most and were not being subsidised by those with lighter needs.

"We were transparent about how this was calculated as excess care time multiplied by an hourly rate.

"It is our opinion you should review your decision. However, If you are going to proceed with the AFN then you have a duty to report our position fairly”

We investigate individual complaints and the points that the care provider raises were not the subject of the complaint that came to us. We are not satisfied with what the care provider has done. The evidence shows it decided that the woman needed additional care but there is no evidence to show it first re-assessed her needs. While the care home sent a letter about the increase, the baseline it imposed was not stated in the contract. Because it has not put right the injustice, several residents may have been wrongly charged for their care.

We will share this notice with the Care Quality Commission – the regulator for health and social care in England. They can use it in future inspections of Moors Park (Bishopsteignton) Limited. This page from the Care Quality Commission website links to their inspection reports for Moors Park (Bishopsteignton): https://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-137970867

 

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