Right to challenge: The Oxfordshire Community Care Rights Project

by Margaret Coombs, Andrew Sedgwick

Disabled and vulnerable people of all ages and their carers need well-informed support to get the community care services they need. Right to challenge looks at practical ways of putting their views across to ensure that they receive the services to which they are legally entitled. From 1995-97 the Oxfordshire Community Care Advisory Group (a consortium of 12 voluntary agencies) employed an independent community care rights action researcher to enable people to obtain their full entitlements under the complex community care legislation. The stories illustrating the report show that people were difficulties in getting the right sort of information; lack of consultation; delays in getting assessment of need and written care plans; problems with hospital discharge planning; anxieties about charges for services; considerable stress in making formal and informal complaints. Describing the legal underpinning of the work undertaken with the first 180 referrals, and how it was evaluated, this report reveals what can be achieved through community care rights interventions. Conclusions and recommendations are drawn out for other initiatives, based on the experiences of this pilot project.

84 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1998