Law must be changed to protect home residents
CHANGES must be made to ensure there is greater protection for care home residents, according to Southport politicians.
After David Barton senior was jailed for 21 years for conning Barton Park residents out of millions of pounds, calls have been made for the Government to do more to help people vulnerable to such crime.
John Wright, who has been nominated as the town’s Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, said: “Whilst the vast majority of care providers are decent, law-abiding people, doing their best to provide a good quality of life for their residents, these crimes show that the opportunity still exists for unscrupulous care home owners to take advantage of their elderly residents, to rob them and cause untold misery, in what should be the secure and contented days of their later years.”
Mr Wright is also calling for a review of regulations contained within the Health and Social Care Act (2008) to be undertaken to ensure that there can be no repeat elsewhere of what has happened in Southport.
He said: “I have written to the minister to ask that such a review take place. We have to be certain that the best possible protections are in place, and that we can all have the greatest confidence in the care of vulnerable elderly residents, in whatever setting they find themselves in.
“The Government needs to take a long hard look at the regulatory and scrutiny processes which we apply to care homes, and the protections we provide as a nation to residents. Any review should also look at processes which permit unscrupulous family members to abuse their relatives financially and in other ways.”
Liz Savage, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Southport, said that greater protection must be given to residents in private homes.
She said: “This is an appalling case of abuse of trust. These people were at a stage in their life when they deserved to be cared for not callously conned in this fashion. “Barton did this via gaining power of attorney, through gifts and being made a beneficiary in wills and although thankfully these sort of incidents are rare, there should be some sort of independent regulated scrutiny when elderly residents in such circumstances make these decisions as it seems a solicitor alone is little protection.
“As owner of the care home, he ensured he had total control over these people by befriending them and manipulating them. He had been doing this for nearly two decades and if it had not been for the tenacity of one family might well have gone on for two more.”
Sefton Council says its priority is and always will be the welfare of residents.
Since the conviction, local authority-funded residents at the home have been moved to alternative homes, while council staff have also spoken to all residents and their families that remain at Barton Park or arranged for them to have independent advocacy if they wished.
A spokesman said: “The welfare of all residents at Barton Park past and present remains our main priority and we will continue to support them and their families wherever possible.
“While this case is clearly distressing for everyone concerned, these crimes are extremely rare in our care home sector.”