13. What rights do I have when I am in a care home?

All care homes, both residential and nursing, have to meet certain requirements before they can be registered with  the National Care Standards Commission. The government and Welsh Assembly lay down national standards setting out what you can expect from a home. These apply to any home no matter who is paying for your care.

Your home should produce a brochure, which spells out its facilities and fees, and a contract which sets out, for example:

• the room you will live in;
• the care and services you will get;
• things that are not included in your fees; and
• the notice period you must give if you want to leave.

The contract is either with you, if you arranged the care yourself, or with the council or the NHS, if they arranged your care. Either way, you should get a copy of the contract. If you didn’t arrange the place yourself, you won’t have a formal contract, but you still have legal rights. You should be given an agreement (which may be part of your care plan), which tells you exactly what care you should get and who you can complain to if you are not happy with it.

All registered homes must have a complaints procedure and should be able to give you information about how to complain. If you can’t sort the matter out with the home, you can contact the inspection unit of the care standards body in your area (currently the National Care Standards Commission in England and Care Standards Inspectorate in Wales, though planned new inspectorates may take over some of their functions). You can also use the local authority and NHS complaints procedures, outlined below, to complain about the elements of care in the home that they provide or arrange.