To ask the Minister of Health to detail (i) how he will ensure residents of care homes do not have their residency terminated for registering a complaint regarding the care they are receiving; and (ii) the obligations on Health and Social Care Trusts to advocate for and challenge care homes where residencies are terminated for non-valid reasons.

The current Regional Care Home Contract sets out the circumstances under which a Provider can terminate a residency. These include instances where Providers assess they are no longer able to meet the needs of a Resident or where the behaviour of the Resident or any other circumstances relating to the Resident are materially detrimental to the safety and welfare of other Residents or the conduct of the Provider.

Termination of any residency is always a last resort and all possible efforts will be made between the Resident (their relatives or representatives), the respective Trust and the Provider to resolve any issues that have arisen. Where this is not achievable and termination is the only remaining option, the Trust and the Provider will work together to ensure the needs of the Resident are met during this process.

My Department has established a Social Care Collaborative Forum (SCCF), the purpose of which is to provide a formal mechanism for the Department and representatives of the Social Care Sector, across the statutory, voluntary/community and private sectors, to work together as partners to build shared values and deliver improvements in social care.

A Commissioning and Contracting Workstream has been set up under this Forum to review the existing Regional Care Home Contract which has been in place for a number of years. While this work is looking at the contract in its entirety it will also consider how a culture of human rights can be embedded in a revised Contract.

The review of the contract will consider all relevant learning from COPNI’s recently published report entitled, ‘Respecting Residents’ Rights in Care Homes: A Review of the Regional Care Home Contract’, along with similar recommendations relating to tenure agreements as set out within the report issued by the Independent Review Team into events at Dunmurry Manor Care Home.

Alongside the work of the Forum, and resulting from the Independent Review Team’s suite of Reports into events at Dunmurry Manor Care Home, the NI Public Services Ombudsman (NIPSO), through their Complaints Standards Team, intends to develop a range of training packages and guides for public bodies to support all those involved in complaints handling from senior managers through to front line staff. This training will be rolled out to care home providers as well as a number of other organisations, as a way of supporting and encouraging best practice.

This work will also see compliance monitoring ensuring those public sector bodies subject to the new arrangements are fulfilling all their responsibilities and complying with the new standards. My officials are in regular contact with NIPSO in relation to the development and implementation of this work.

It remains fundamental that residents and their families are able to complain where they have genuine concerns about the care provided within a care home without fear of retribution by a care home or its staff.