The answer is definitely NO, in our view. We have heard of an authority which told homes that it would not be willing to take over the contracts for placement of self-funders who had taken themselves off to a home before their capital reached the threshold, and who then needed LA help when the money approached the threshold. This had the effect of the homes refusing to take on privately contracting clients who had well over the limit, which in turn meant that families had to access home placements in the next county, before they could find a home willing to take them. To add insult to injury, when the person did qualify for local authority help, the first authority suggested that they had taken up a new ordinary residence status, voluntarily elsewhere! This conduct risks a judicial review challenge, in our view.
When a person wants to go to a private sector home, they have the right under the The Care and Support and After-care (Choice of Accommodation) Regulations 2014 to do so, on the terms available at the time, so long as they can find a home which has a room and which says yes, in you come. Having one’s eligible needs for care and support met (under S18 Care Act 2014), once one’s money has gone below the capital threshold, is not conditional, in any sense, on having had a Local Authority assessment already, before one entered care.
If the home has been ‘got at’ by an authority with an unlawful indication that the authority will not take contracts over unless people had already been assessed under S9 Care Act 2014, it is going to affect homes’ willingness to take anybody in, on a private contract, unless they are going to be wealthy for the foreseeable future. This will further distort occupancy levels and make homes all the more dependent on local authorities, which would be disastrous for their ability to make profit or break even.