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Donations

 

Is there a minimum donation?

No, every little helps. We need donations from service users, carers, personal assistants, students, advice and information staff, care managers, key workers, social workers, housing officers, advocates, managers, elected members and the owners and managers of care provider businesses. Every little helps.

We need the public to empathise with the urgency of the need – it’s not too late to save the idea of a health and social care safety net that operates according to legal principles, fairly, rationally and predictably….for all.

Please go to our Donations information here, if you want make one now!

If you set up a regular payment, and your card expires, we need you to remake the payment arrangement – the donations button provider can’t process that for us, sorry to say.

 

What is the GiftAid button about?

If you are a UK tax payer, the government will add a contribution to your donation of 25%, if you fill out the declaration about your tax status. 

If you are a company a donation doesn’t attract Gift Aid but our registered status enables the company to deduct the donation from its profits, saving corporation tax.

 

What does it cost the Charity if I make a donation?

It depends on the method: on Nochex.com, it’s free to you, apart from the card provider’s 10p fee.

On CrowdJustice if we back your case by putting it on that site as a CASCAIDr case, there is a higher charge which we have to pay, but this is offset by the terms which enable the Charity to keep money that is not ultimately needed for litigation, for whatever reason (such as the council giving in, or the fund holder deciding they can’t face the stress of litigation).

 

What’s the difference between a pledge and a donation?

On CrowdJustice, one makes a pledge for supporting a specific case, and nobody has to pay anything, unless the total number of pledges reach or exceed the target set for the project.

If you wish to donate to the Charity itself, however, and its ongoing work, you need to do so by clicking on the Nochex.com yellow button, because there, any donation is taken at the point when it is made, and there are no targets to reach – it’s an open ended fund which we will inevitably need to rely on from time to time, despite our other sources of income, to keep funding the work that is free to Free Scope category clients.

 

Can we help by fund-raising, ourselves?

Yes, you can create a Fundraiser sub-page on Nochex.com, and by talking to your contacts about CASCAIDr. Through that sort of help with a sub-page, any donations attracted via your sub-page, go straight into the Charity’s bank account.

‘Collaborating with CASCAIDr’ will be a badge of pride for the future, we hope! We’d be happy to provide you with our GIF that makes that rubber-stamp statement nicely, for you to load up wherever you like.

 

Helping the Charity – what needs to be done?

CASCAIDr’s structure and leverage represents a carefully thought-through approach to addressing the fundamentally changed public sector and legal environment since before Covid-19 and which tries to mitigate the impact of that change for people who have few other options. 

Volunteering or advising will challenge you as a person, as an expert, or as a lawyer, and will reflect shared values about the importance of access to justice in support of the rule of law

The charity needs volunteers to talk to people who have a problem which they can’t quite get down on to paper on their own. The Charity has no staff as such, so this is very important work, which has a massive impact on the efficiency with which a person’s problem can then be analysed, against the Care Act or wider public law framework governing CHC decision-making.

It is a fact that some people in dispute with the State really also need someone to talk to, as well as advice. We can’t provide a wider form of counselling or stress management, and volunteers could be really helpful in that regard, too.

There’s a link to our Be a Volunteer form here, please note – with all the options for helping us, set out there, with an estimate of the time needed per week or per month.

The charity needs help with spreading the word, so if you are good at social media, or marketing, and have an idea about how we should be doing this, in the longer term, please note that there are ADMIN options for volunteers too, not just talking to people with legal issues. There’s writing work, and quality assurance etc, and website page management, for which we may be able to pay you a fee for doing something, in this regard. But unpaid ambassadors are needed too!

We also have business development needs, in terms of marketing our package deals to advocacy organisations, independent care advisers or brokers, law firms, health and care support providers and to parent and service user/carer groups.

We also need help to stay up-to-date with what’s happening in the sector. If a council or NHS body near you is doing something you can hardly believe, please let us know the details, via BelindaSchwehr@CASCAIDr.org.uk

 

Lastly, the charity needs help with case work – on a paid basis.

To be a case worker, you need to be Care Act aware, at the very least, and have some existing grasp of how public law works in this country. That’s the law of judicial review, if you are interested in helping us.

You don’t have to be insured, but you do have to be happy to be self employed, because we are not employing any staff.

We will pay you a flat rate for talking to people seeking advice, in complex Triage matters – and filling out the referral form and analysing what has or has not been Care Act compliant – and an enhanced rate if you progress with the facts and feel able to construct a pre action protocol letter before action from templates that will be made available to all our formal caseworkers. If you are doing work for our chargeable clients you will be paid a higher rate. The same applies to caseworkers doing advice for our Trading Company clientele. 

If you are really good at community care law, you can do Triage as well – which also attracts a fee per client triaged,  whether it takes a short time, or a long time. 

There is a conflict of interests declaration form to fill out, if you want to be a case worker, too, regarding your conduct in general and your relations with any of your own existing clients at the time you take on our work, so that the charity and its subsidiary can be sure we’re being squeaky clean.

Click here for an application form Link to Be a Caseworker

 

What is the scope of the Charity’s Objects?

1.1 The Objects of the Charity are:

1.1.1.  The relief of those in need by reason of youth, age, ill-health, disability, lack of mental capacity or financial hardship, for the public benefit by:

  • the provision of information about social care, equality and diversity law, social care and health law and human rights in England and Wales to people seeking health and social care services, any persons caring for such people, and any charities caring for such people, to assist such people to obtain those services; and
  • the provision of legal advice to people seeking health and social care services, any persons caring for such people, and any charities caring for such people, to assist such people to obtain those services.

1.1.2. The relief of poverty for the public benefit by:

  • the provision of information about social care, equality and diversity law, social care and health law and human rights in England and Wales to people seeking health and social care services, any person caring for such people, and any charities caring for such people, to assist such people to obtain those services; and
  • the provision of legal advice to people seeking health and social care services, any person caring for such people, and any charities caring for such people, to assist such people to obtain those services;

In each case for the benefit of people who through lack of means would otherwise be unable to obtain such information or advice.

 

Do you provide services other than an advice service? 

 Yes, CASCAIDr can provide affordable training and short talks for carers, user groups, parent / client support groups and charities, university departments, etc. Please see the link here

We can be paid to do mediation; we might be willing to act as someone’s litigation friend, or Rule 3A representative in particular circumstances – and we will always consider doing something for free, in the discretion of the Board, if it coincides with the charity’s aims. Just ask: BelindaSchwehr@CASCAIDr.org.uk

Our Trading Company CASCAIDr Trading Ltd can provide you with advice and training services, either in a package or by the hour or the event.

 

The Small Print

 

The basis on which CASCAIDr expects to conduct itself in relations with its customers whether paying or not:

 

Preliminary points and definitions

 

Since the charity’s primary ‘free scope’ beneficiaries will not be contracting with CASCAIDr for advice in return for payment, but the charity will be holding itself out as competent to provide the advice, and since other customers of CASCAIDr or CASCAIDr Trading Ltd WILL be paying for services, it is very important that you understand what we are offering or promising to do, and what we are not offering or promising to do, so please read carefully what is set out below.

  • CASCAIDr is the name of the charity, and CASCAIDr Trading Ltd is the name of its trading subsidiary (which is the company owned by the charity for the purposes of providing advice and training packages and other services for payment, for matters outside the scope of the Charity’s work and purposes).
  • CASCAIDr the Charity has two categories of Customer:
    • Beneficiaries (individuals) of free legal advice for matters regarded as ‘in free scope’ (defined below)
    • Clients (individuals and charitable entities) receiving chargeable legal advice but at a non-commercial rate for matters regarded as outside the charity’s ‘free’ scope (examples below)
    • Package deal purchasers (charities only) receiving legal advice and other services as part of their annual packages.
  • CASCAIDr Trading Ltd has two categories of Customer:
    • ‘CT Clients’ (individuals or non charitable businesses) receiving chargeable legal advice at an affordable but commercial rate through CASCAIDr Trading Ltd.
    • CT  Package holders (charitable and non charitable businesses) receiving legal advice and other services as part of their annual packages.

 

Which types of problems qualify for free advice?

In ‘free’ scope – examples (not exhaustive)  of the types of work which will be done free of charge        

CASCAIDr will focus on people’s current pressing public law matters in the health and social care legal framework: namely the extent, nature, and enforceability of rights regarding advocacy, assessment, eligibility, care planning and revision decision-making under health and social care legislation, regulations and guidance. We will provide services to people aged 16+.

Outside the scope of ‘free’ advice, but charitably priced at £135 an hour and NO VAT (for now) – examples

The notion of advice which is outside the FREE advice scope, but still within CASCAIDr’s charitable purposes includes by the hour advice for individual adults (people aged 16+, for our purposes), for example with

  1. problems outside the above areas of decision making, such as charging law, ordinary residence issues, some safeguarding allegations where related to a care planning dispute
  2. hand-holding – where there’s no defined public law problem as yet, but the desire for help to avoid one arising
  3. very recent (at our discretion) CHC or s117 reimbursement disputes
  4. a need for help to complain to eg an ombudsman, CQC, the PCA, professional disciplinary bodies, etc;

and secondly, organisations with a charitable status, involved in the provision of health or care or support, to publicly funded clients, beyond any work done within a package deal as described below.

Examples of matters that will be handled by CASCAIDr Trading Ltd at affordable but commercial rates, all subject to our belief that we have the expertise available at the time:

  • Long past historic claims (at our discretion) related to reimbursement of CHC fees or s117 payments
  • Remotely supporting intervention in legal proceedings in the Court of Protection brought by public bodies in the context of safeguarding (because litigation in this arena is not done under these bodies’ public law statutory functions)
  • Complex matters for individuals, taking in housing, homelessness, benefits or education matters as well as social care or health law
  • Advice to not for profit and commercial providers regarding their contractual disputes with public bodies’ commissioners of health or social care and support

Our charges, for individuals and charitable organisations, summarised:

The charity: We have to charge for Telephone or written Advice and Drafting for anyone, with regard to matters AFTER TRIAGE or OUTSIDE the Charity’s Free Scope category: eg complaints and legal correspondence to bring about a desired outcome, rather than put right a legal wrong.

– £135 an hour to individuals (the service includes for free, the triage time that it was necessary to spend, to give us full enough information for triage)

– £40 an hour to individuals for finishing Triage where we need to do a couple of more hours of paid SKILLED work to get to the bottom of the facts; alternatively this can be provided for free to those who want to speak to a volunteer, on the understanding that that person is not being held out as competent to give legal advice, and may not ask the right questions, first time round.

£40 flat fee for summarising the strengths and weaknesses of a case, for onward transmission to a law firm, or for presentation on a Crowdjustice page, to start fundraising.

The trading company: – £175 an hour if the client is an individual with a problem that comes within the scope of our Trading company, or a not for profit or charitable organisation, via CASCAIDr Trading Ltd – see below for more details. It’s £200 an hour if you’re commercially driven, or a public sector body. 

This latter rate is also the hourly rate for all organisations which subscribe to CASCAIDr Trading Ltd’s annual packages of advice and training – for any further hours of advice over the allotted 3 hours.

 

What are your insurance arrangements?

  • CASCAIDr has professional indemnity insurance cover in case we, our volunteers or paid caseworkers should ever be at fault in failing to take reasonable care in relation to our work or how we conduct ourselves, within the scope of what we have offered to do.
  • Our insurance cover does not extend to what any regulated lawyer may do or fail to do in the giving of his or her advice. The lawyer’s own professional indemnity insurance (or that of their firm, if they are providing pro bono services under a firm’s scheme) will cover them in that situation.
  • We have required all non-CASCAIDr covered advisers such as barristers and solicitors to ensure that they are covered by their own insurance, as it is a requirement of their professional regulators that they should be so insured when acting as a regulated lawyer under the terms of their practising certificates.
  • When acting purely as a paid caseworker or as individual volunteers providing a service to CASCAIDr/CASCAIDr Trading Ltd,  people who happen to be regulated professionals but are not held out as lawyers by CASCAIDr/CASCAIDr Trading, ARE covered by CASCAIDr’s own insurance policy.

 

What is a CASCAIDr Trading Ltd advice and training services package?

Please follow this link here.

 

What are the arrangements for funding a case beyond the pre action protocol correspondence stage?

  • If the CASCAIDr/CASCAIDr Trading Ltd  Case Worker considers that a claim should be pursued, notwithstanding that the public body in question has not shifted its position in response to CASCAIDr’s efforts, we will propose that the client considers funding any such claim though legal aid with a solicitor who you or we may have identified; alternatively through their own or someone else’s resources; or with the help of our charitable funding (at our discretion) or through a crowdfunding campaign, on terms explained at Crowdfunder’s website
  • Crowdfunding involves someone being the Case Owner, and this could be a solicitor recommended by us, or your own solicitor, or CASCAIDr itself, in which case the funding attracts a further 25% of contributions by way of GiftAid on donations from UK taxpayers. A client is free to use any crowdfunding platform they prefer but if the further involvement of CASCAIDr is wanted, we have chosen CrowdJustice as a dedicated public interest litigation crowdfunding site. If a person does not have a solicitor already located as willing to act, the only possibility for a campaign on Crowdjustice is through allowing a charity to act as case owner, under Crowdjustice terms and conditions, so our involvement offers that distinct advantage…
  • In a case where a Customer has agreed to try crowdfunding through CASCAIDr acting as the Case Owner, CASCAIDr will, for a £40 flat free, write up the case in a manner which is accurate and measured and intended to maximise the prospects of attracting donations, and run a social media campaign to the best of its abilities for the benefit of the Customer. No money is collected from donors unless a target is hit within 30 days.
  • If the target is hit within the 30 days, CrowdJustice platform’s own terms also provide that a charitable Case Owner holds funds that have been raised by crowdfunding on trust for the purposes of pursuing the case, and may keep any unused amount or nominate its allocation to another Crowdjustice case. This means that where CASCAIDr has been the formal Case Owner it would be entitled to keep any surplus of unused funds, beneficially, for use in furthering its charitable objectives for others’ benefit.

What is CASCAIDr’s aim?

To preserve and reinvigorate the rule of law within local government and that part of the NHS responsible for commissioning care and support packages for those with complex health needs.

We aim to empower and support people, their carers and practitioners to resolve disagreements about access to services – and, in doing so, ensure that those suffering disability or an impairment are not needlessly dragged into poverty or despair.

Why is it needed?

Whilst there is a growing understanding of the impact that austerity measures have had on social and health care provision, few are aware of the complexity of legal duties, powers and responsibilities owed to our most vulnerable members of society.

Most people only seek support or come to rely on social care services and funding in times of crisis.

Family members and carers, exhausted by providing dedicated care, rarely have the energy required to navigate referral processes or complaints procedures to secure fair processes and lawful packages of care.

As none of us can know our own future, we all need public sector decision-making to be properly governed by the law and sound legal principles.

Covid-19 has made an already bad deterioration in accountability and the chances of enforcement much much worse.

What does CASCAIDr’s service include?

  • A telephone helpline – 4 days a week – for a booked half hour free ‘steer’ for people who are not sure if they’ve even got a legal problem but who can’t cope with the online form
  • A referral form for people to fill in online
  • Volunteers to help people to express all the relevant detail of their predicament, if they are struggling
  • Expert advisers who will produce the checklist and letters that are the free output for those with crystal clear cases
  • Support and guidance for those who want to pay for further work
  • Support and guidance for those who want to crowdfund to bring formal legal proceedings.

What can people expect?

CASCAIDr advisers will:

  • Analyse a situation for omissions to comply with the Care Act or public law principles
  • Give the client a checklist to take back to the council/CCG
  • Write a letter in the form of a pre-action protocol letter, setting out what’s not been done correctly, in appropriate cases
  • Seek advice on the client’s behalf, from a direct access barrister or introduce a client to such a barrister
  • Consider helping the client crowdfund, so that the council or CCG knows that the client can, if required, challenge unlawful decisions in Court.

Is there anything that CASCAIDr won’t do?

We won’t

…act as a gun for hire: we care about our credibility and we won’t put forward a case just because you’d like us to, or would pay us money to do so – we care about the coherence of the legal framework, and aspire to supporting the achievement of a sustainable social care system;

…take your matter on, if it’s not within our advisers’ expertise – on which our judgement must be respected as final;

…act for both sides to a dispute, unless specifically asked, by both sides, to mediate with regard to the legal strengths and weaknesses of the parties, based on an agreed statement of facts.

…take on a matter that we know ourselves to lack competence upon – so for instance, personal injury law, CQC regulatory work, professional disciplinary complaints, Trusts and Probate law, employment law, Mental Health Tribunal work, as opposed to s117 care planning, Court of Protection work in cases of family dispute or where such matters have nothing to do with the needy person’s care plan….

Do you have a complaints policy?

Yes:

  • Customers’ complaints about the way CASCAIDr’s processes operate or appear to the Customer to have been conducted, must be taken up with the chief executive, by email to leeforster@cascaidr.org.uk or belindaschwehr@cascaidr.org.uk
  • If the complaint involves the chief executive, please ask her to be put in touch with one of three trustees and ultimately the Chair of the Board.
  • No complaint as to the substance of a decision to call a halt to the work of CASCAIDr on any case will be considered. The charity must be able to make professional decisions as to the merits of a case without fear of involvement in protracted engagement about the detailed reasons, but we guarantee that this position will not be taken without proper consideration.
  • Please find our formal complaints policy by clicking here.
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