An ITV documentary last night exposed how thousands of vulnerable are being evicted from their care homes with just 28 days’ notice.

The Tonight programme revealed over 11,000 ‘notices to quit’ had been served in the 18 months to April 2022.

The documentary exposed how some residents were being evicted because of complaints raised by their family members.

It cited the example of Jane Freeman in Sheffield whose father had to leave his care home after she complained about the quality of phone calls and visits during Covid.

Freeman, who admitted raising her voice during an altercation with the care home, told Tonight: “It was a massive shock. We were putting in a plan to fix the telephone line, but instead they found myself and my sister too difficult to work with, so the decision was we’re washing our hands of you, we don’t want this problem anymore and here’s the eviction. We were distraught.”

Jayne Connery, founder of the Care Campaign for the Vulnerable, said: “We have significant anecdotal evidence that suggests the vast majority of evictions occur when a care provider and family are in dispute.

“At that point, providers take the easy option to end an older persons’ residency as means of closing down a concern/complaint. Unfortunately, evidence exists to confirm that many vulnerable people evicted from a care home, subsequently die prematurely as a result of the associated trauma they experience as part of the move. That is a statistic most providers will recognise, yet the practice of arbitrary eviction continues unbated.”

Connery called for care home residents to have the same tenancy rights as people in housing and rentals, “making eviction a last resort with an opportunity for legal arbitration if necessary”.

Helen Wildbore, director of Care Rights UK, said: “Being told you must leave the place you call home can be distressing, have a detrimental impact on health and for people nearing the end of their life can even hasten death. Every day our helpline hears from people afraid to speak out about concerns with care for fear of reprisals like eviction. This dangerous situation cannot continue, it is allowing poor care to fester. The CQC must start to properly monitor and act upon inappropriate evictions so that residents and their families are not left to face these traumatic experiences alone.”

Nadra Ahmed, chair of the National Care Association and chair of the Care Provider Alliance, told us: “In relation to this depiction by ITV it is important to remember the only time a provider terminates a contract is if they feel they can no longer meet the needs of the individual or the expectations of family and friends in how they deliver the care.

“A provider’s ability to deliver assessed care is also heavily reliant on external support from GPs, mental health teams and physiotherapists, etc, which is very, very challenging for providers at this moment in time.”

Amanda Partington-Todd, deputy director of adult social care at CQC, said: “Last month we met with Dr Caroline Green and Helen Wildbore of R&RA to discuss how we can work together to improve the experiences of people who are served notices to quit. We discussed how we can improve our analysis of the data providers submit to us on notices to quit, and are committed to providing better support to people who raise concerns with us.

“We also committed to developing clearer communications to providers and our own colleagues to reiterate how seriously we take this matter. It is vitally important that people feel that their concerns are addressed, so we encourage people to tell us about concerns they may have with the care they or their loved ones receive so that we can take appropriate action. We look forward to working together with Dr Green and the R&RA to improve the experiences of people who use care services and thank them for highlighting this issue.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We strongly condemn ungrounded evictions. Residents and their loved ones should feel empowered to speak out if they are unhappy with levels of care without repercussions.

“The Care Quality Commission already takes action if it finds that providers are in breach of regulations, including failures to operate an effective system for complaints.”