Hi folks,

Mum was awarded this last year after a long battle, despite having extremely serious and advanced dementia including serious violence. The blocker was the local authority, which hadn’t wanted to admit her into care - for a quick recap:

Dad has been disabled all his life - for the last 35 years Mum was his carer. Mum began exhibiting dementia symptoms four years ago. They lived at long range (Lincolnshire when I was based in Liverpool - they retired there to be in the country).

As many know I fought hard to try to get Mum medical support but they were both in extreme denial and it escalated into serious incidents. I ultimately called local authority Safeguarding several times in early 2024 after finding evidence of fire, cat faeces and insanitary conditions, rotting food, all sorts, it was as bad as you can imagine.

Eventually social workers were assigned who fought hard to avoid them getting care. No needs assessments were done. It was inevitable there was going to be a serious accident and there was, with Dad falling from his wheelchair face first into a wall and being seriously injured. I was alerted when I learned Mum had gone missing, we went to the house, they were both taken to A&E, A&E wouldn’t let them go home and forced the LA to organise emergency care.

It actually got worse after that as Mum beat Dad regularly in the shared room in the shittest and cheapest home the LA could find. They also told me to sell the house immediately as ‘they aren’t eligible for a deferred payment’, which was wrong. They didn’t supply needs assessments until a year after they had been in care (mid-2025 by this point) and the CQC became involved later that year. It was only in mid-2025 when they finally agreed to a DST assessment for Mum, who was given immediate CHC funding when looked at by the NHS and who then moved to another care home.

Since she was there she has assaulted more residents and caused some serious injuries. She has also assaulted more staff. At the previous home these incidents hadn’t been logged. She is now being moved to another home which supports patients with violent behaviours.

However, that home was in special measures in 2023 and one of their then-staff members had killed someone at another home. I have tried to fight this move and ask that she be moved to a provider closer to me (I now live and work in Newcastle) or closer to our wider family in Liverpool.

However I am told the ICB cannot move her beyond a neighbouring county and have to move her within county if possible. This is the only home available in-county.

Is that true? Are the Care Act 2014 provisions around access to family totally redundant in this situation?

Thanks folks. Appreciate any help and apologies if this brings back difficult memories/experiences.