Looking after your best interests

Please note that if you have a Social Services contract then we can represent your interests on all the issues mentioned below.

Social Services standards

Social Services have set standards for care homes to be met in order to maintain a satisfactory quality of life, including respecting your culture, ethnic background, age and sexuality.

• Privacy, dignity, choice, fulfilment and independence
  
  The home should aim to give you as much choice and independence as possible. You should be able to have privacy and be treated in a dignified way at all times. For example, staff in the home should be polite and courteous to you at all times and call you by the name of your choice. The home should offer you a choice in all aspects of your care and in your daily living routines wherever possible.
  
  In order to make your stay in the home as comfortable and interesting as possible, the home should organise a range of activities and entertainment. If an activity that you are particularly interested in is not provided, ask the home owner at a residents' meeting, or write down your suggestion and place it in the suggestion box at the home. The home should always encourage you to do as much for yourself as you can or want to. Ask what trips and entertainment the home has arranged during the last month. It is always useful to ask other residents, or their relatives, about the home and what it offers.
  
  

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• Personal care in the home
  
  If you require help in bathing or dressing, this should be done by someone acceptable to you. The same staff should care for you regularly so they can get used to your preferences. If you are unhappy about your care arrangements, then speak to the person in charge of the home, or if you feel you can't, ask for your Social Services care manager who will sort the matter out with you.
  
  
• Your doctor
  
  If possible, you should be able to see your own doctor and dentist, ask if they are on the home's list. Otherwise, the home owner will arrange for a local GP to provide your medical care.
  
  
• Your room in the home
  
  If your stay is funded by Social Services, it is our policy that you are entitled to have a single room and the home must not ask or tell you to share, unless you want to. The home should not ask you to move rooms, except for your own safety (although you may ask to change to another room), unless it is for a short term period to allow for repairs or decoration. You should be offered your old room back once the repairs are finished.
  
  If you stay in a home for short periods of respite care, you may not always be able to have the same room, but it is worth asking the home owner if this is possible. Staff in the home should knock and wait until you ask them to come into your room. The room should be decorated to your liking and furnished with your own furniture and personal effects where practical. You should be free to get up in the morning and go to bed when it suits you.
  
  

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• Living rooms in care homes
  
  Communal and sitting rooms in the home should be available at all times for you to meet and relax with friends.
  
  If you are a smoker, check if the home has a no smoking policy, otherwise the home should provide you with an area where you can smoke. You should be allowed alcoholic drinks and the home should provide an area where you can enjoy your hobbies.
  
  
• Meals and drinks
  
  It is important that the home gives you choice and variety at meal times. They should ask about your preferences and let you eat at the time and place convenient to you. You may want to eat in your room. If you are going out and think that you might be back late for any reason or miss the normal meal time, you can ask the home to put a meal back for you.
  
  Social Services encourages homes to let residents make their own hot drinks and provide facilities for them to do so.
  
  

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• Going out
  
  The home should encourage you to use both its facilities and local community facilities. Ask the home where the local library, post office, churches and shops are, and whether they provide free transport to them.
  
  You are free to go out at any time, but please let the home know where you are going and roughly when you expect to return. Sometimes it may be necessary to take special precautions to safeguard your interests. This might mean that you cannot go out unaccompanied, or that you may not be allowed to do things which are considered 'risky' or physically dangerous.
  
  
• Visitors
  
  The home should let you have visitors at any time convenient to you. Your visitors should be made welcome and offered refreshments.
  
  
• Pets
  
  Some homes may let you bring a small pet to live with you. You must check this with the home before you move in.
  
  

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• Using the telephone
  
  The home must have a place where you can make a private call without being overheard such as in a separate room, in a quiet corner or your own room.
  
  
• Hairdressing, chiropody and entertainment
  
  Services and entertainment offered regularly should be listed in the home's brochure. Some of these will be included in your weekly fee, others will have to be paid for, either from your personal expenses allowance or from your savings.
  
  
• Religious worship
  
  Some homes have close links with their local church and arrange for religious services to be held in the home. If you prefer and are able to visit your own church or place of worship, ask the home owner to arrange it.
  
  

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• Voting
  
  You still have the right to vote when living in a residential or nursing home. The home must help you to exercise your vote in all elections.
  
  
• Your views on the home
  
  Many homes have suggestions boxes, which they should encourage you to use. Homes are also required to hold residents' meetings from time-to-time, which your friends or relatives should be able to attend. The home should seek your views on a regular basis. If it does not then let Social Services know.
  
  
• Complaints
  
  The home must have a written complaints procedure that must be given to you when you move in. As well as expressing your views at residents' meetings, you have the right to make a formal complaint to the home owner or, your relatives and friends can complain on your behalf if you prefer.
  
  If you have any complaints the first person you should talk to is the home's owner or manager. If they do not deal properly with the issue you raise, or you feel you cannot talk to them, then contact the local Social Services office.