Care home definitions and associated use classes: FOI release

Information requested

1. Could you advise under FOI what defines a residential home offering onsite medical practitioners and giving medication on site and a standard care home for residents?

2. If neither the CI or HIS can differentiate the two are they operating correctly and giving the correct licenses to private operators?

3. What license is required to operate as a residential facility with onsite medical care and to be able to prescribe medication?

4. Is this different to a standard Class 8 license for standard residential care?

Response

In response to your first question (above), some of the information you have requested is available within published legislation. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. However, under section 15(1) (FOISA) (Duty to provide Advice and Assistance) it may be helpful if I provide the following extract of this legislation.

The definition of a care home is prescribed within section 47 of the Public Services Reform 2010 Act.

Schedule 12 of this Act defines a care home as:

A “care home service” is a service which provides accommodation, together with nursing, personal care or personal support, for persons by reason of their vulnerability or need; but the expression does not include —

(a) a hospital;
(b) a public, independent or grant-aided school; or
(c) a service excepted from this definition by regulations.

Section 20 of Schedule 12 of the same Act provides a definition of personal care and personal support, this states:

“personal care” means care which relates to the day to day physical tasks and needs of the person cared for (as for example, but without prejudice to that generality, to eating and washing) and to mental processes related to those tasks and needs (as for example, but without prejudice to that generality, to remembering to eat and wash); and “personal support” means counselling, or other help, provided as part of a planned programme of care.

In response to your second question (above), this is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested. This is because the Scottish Government does not directly commission or operate residential care homes or rehabilitation centres. Private providers will undertake their own processes for decision making however, all services must be registered with the relevant regulatory body such as the Care Inspectorate and Healthcare Improvement Scotland. Both the Care Inspectorate and Healthcare Improvement Scotland are separate bodies from the Scottish Government therefore if you have not already done so, you may wish to contact both for further advice and assistance relating to your second question of this enquiry.

You can contact the Care Inspectorate at; enquiries@careinspectorate.gov.scot
You can contact Healthcare Improvement Scotland at; his.comments@nhs.scot.

In response to your third and fourth questions (above), from the context of your request, it would appear that the reference to class 8 is a reference to class 8 of the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) (Scotland) Order 1997 (‘the Use Classes Order’).

The Use Classes Order sets out various classes of similar uses of a property. Where a use changes but the new use remains in the same class as the previous one, this is not development for the purposes of planning legislation, and no planning permission is therefore required for that change.

Use class 8 covers the following:

Class 8. Residential institutions

Use –
(a) for the provision of residential accommodation and care to people in need of care other than a use within class 9 (houses);
(b) as a hospital or nursing home; or
(c) as a residential school, college or training centre.

The Use Classes Order states that “care” means personal care including the provision of appropriate help with physical and social needs or support and in class 8 (residential institutions) includes medical care and treatment.

About FOI

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