Anne's Law - code of practice: easy read
Easy read summary of the Anne’s Law Code of Practice. Anne’s Law gives care home providers new duties related to visiting. The Code of Practice explains how these duties should work day-to-day.
Chapter 5: Review Process
Purpose of the review process
People who live in care homes and their family members or friends have the right to ask care homes to review a decision to stop visits.
Asking a care home to review a decision does not need to be part of a complaint.
The person asking for a review can share new information about the decision.
Care homes need to have plans in place to review decisions.
Valid Requests
A care home must review their decision to stop a person living in a care home having visitors.
They will do this if:
- someone asked them to review the decision
- the ask to review is valid
The ask to review is valid when the person who asks for it has good reasons. These are called grounds.
A person has grounds for a review if:
- in the time they cannot have visitors, an Essential Visit should be allowed. This is covered in Chapter 3: Visiting Suspensions
- the care home has not followed the Code of Practice
- the reason the care home stopped the visits has changed. For example, the risk of an infection spreading has changed from high to low
Requesting the review
A person must ask the care home to review the decision in writing. It can be:
- written on paper and given or posted to the care home
- sent by email
Care homes will help or give advice to people if they need support to ask for a review in writing.
The care home will let you know who to ask for a review.
When the care home gets a request, they will let the person who asked for a review know. They must do this within one working day.
The review will also be checked or signed off by a senior staff member where possible. For example, by a regional manager.
The care home will usually check the review within 24 hours. They will tell the person who asked for the review what the decision is.
Sometimes, in complex cases, the care home will need more time to review the decision. They might need to get more evidence and advice to decide if visits can go ahead. They might speak to:
- health protection team
- social workers
- Care Inspectorate
The care home will try to make the decision as quickly as possible. They will tell the person who asked for the review what the outcome is within 2 days.
The care home will keep a record of all the reviews they are asked to carry out.
If the person is not happy with the outcome of the review, they can:
- ask the care home to look at the decision again
- complain. For example, to the Care Inspectorate
More information on how to complain is included in the National Care Service Charter of Rights.