Is this acceptable??

If he runs out of money then you can apply for funding from local authorities

Is it possible to put up secret cameras at all if this was my dad I think this would be the next step and also a tracking device I know it sounds harsh but its a cruel world we live in unfortunately I hope you get sorted x

There is no law against this. However, it could be against their company policies.

Is there a communal kitchen onsite ? If so is that where this stuff is going ? £270 is a lot of money in a week in food.

You need to speak to the location manager and find out what’s going on.

You can arrange for shopping days with him as well and supervise what he’s doing.

Oh yes, and frontal lobe problems are the ones which are least likely to be flagged up in a "capacity assessment" - they are difficult to legally define as we are all at different set points for our natural inhibition to our lack of it...
A good cognitive assessment (neuropsychology assessment or neurologist) may help.

There is a group of symptoms that can occur when the frontal part of the brain is injured. An aneurysm may or may not lead to this. It is generally called "disinhibition" ie we stop inhibiting ourselves. The usual examples are we might say what we think out loud without the polite civilized editing we normally exercise, we can spend money/gamble, look at pornography, drink or use drugs. A less discussed frontal lobe symptom is "reckless altruism" or "reckless generosity". I think you may be seeing this and whilst of course it can be exploited, it can just be spontaneous for the patient.

where is his money coming from? What happens when he runs out? Will
the care home let him remain there if he can’t pay for it?

to get POA he needs capacity so you might want to stay quiet for a while until it’s awarded as if there is any doubt then you won’t be awarded POA

I think that's a good start to finding out what is happening to the money he is spending.

You need to get POA as soon as possible, if he’s assessed and they find he’s not got 100% capacity then they won’t allow you to get it. Going through the same process at the moment ourselves for a relative

This is so complex. I've just googled and found the Headway leaflet on 'Safeguarding after head injury' which is likely relevant. Amd I think I would first contact the Adult Safeguarding team at your dad's council for advice, and I would probably call the police.

According to what your dad tells you, he is being financially abused by the care team. Social workers have assessed that he is able to make decisions and communicate them, he had told you he's buying things for the team that they should NOT be accepting, so fine - act accordingly. Likewise I think they are also neglecting him. Sure he wants to go out, but if a man who is at risk of falls is heading out alone they should have had some kind of process where they consider a pendant alarm, a care worker to accompany him etc. Even if they have decided against these actions or your dad won't agree to them, they should have a record of their discussions about the situation and if they haven't, imo that is neglectful.

If it turns out that he is telling you nonsense, that should be taken into account in considering his capacity (again). Incidentally family members can assess capacity, as can GPs etc.

Report to Adult Social Care to investigate and let the Home know you are doing so. Raise a Safeguarding please.
Request a new Mental capacity assessment. It must be decision specific ie can dad make an informed decision around buying groceries for the Home?
The MCA should not just be around paying for items in a shop. There’s a significant concern that he doesn’t fully understand that the Home provide meals and drinks in return for the weekly fees (whoever pays).
If he lacks capacity around his spending for food for the Home, it doesn’t mean he has lost all capacity. So he may still have capacity to make a decision on someone applying for LPA for him.

Basically you need a Social Worker involved asap to assess the situation.
Until then, can you put a stop / limit on his card? Just to reduce risk of him being taken advantage of?

The Law , as regards Mental Capacity has changed. Instead of a Wholesale diagnosis of ' Capacity' : ' Capacity' is now broken down into varoius aspects of Life. ' Financial Capacity' is one of them. There are systems available within the Law, which, can withdraw a persons right to access their own money, due to their reduced capacity in this area. You need to realise your power in this situation and go and contact Social services, who shoukd immediately fashion a plan of action to resolve this asap.

No , they should absolutely Not be accepting this. This is not acceptable and there needs to be a plan in place because hes being financially abused . All parties need to call a meeting. Work out a plan to protect this man financially. In the Care sector ' financial abuse' is a recognised concept and has to be delt with quickly.

This is not right. People with Dementia are known to overspend on unnecessary items. As my son's teacher once told me, "if you believe half of what he says and I do same, the truth is somewhere in the middle". I'd get other medical opinions and consider moving him to somewhere better.
My mother has declined mentally over the past few years, badly so over the last 2. She's had blackouts, falls, been overspending, increasingly agrophobic etc. Her GP has been painfully reluctant to help because she showboats for him. He "tested" her last November and told us she was within "normal range" whatever that means. She finally had a Dementia clinic appointment 2 weeks ago, they did the RUDAS assessment, she scored 9 (out of 30); has severe cognitive impairment and is effectively needing end of life care. So in 4 months gone from fine to totally doo-lally 🤷 I help my Dad look after her at the moment but it's hard and she's too far gone for us to get POA now.

The home my relative in would accept gifts or at least individual staff did. She often asked us to buy gifts with her money to give to someone who had helped her. The trouble was once she started doing it staff who had previously been less nice started cosying up and that’s when we started encouraging her to do less of it.

My relative enjoyed choosing and giving gifts so it was mutually beneficial but there was definitely scope for her being taken advantage of.

I wonder if that’s what’s happened here, he’s strayed off buying a one off treat for the residents and it’s escalated to this. I hope you get to the bottom of it and he hasn’t been taken advantage of.

Hi again OP. My mother was in a care home for many years. However it was a locked door dementia care home so no chance of her going out shopping! It was a brilliant care home and I trusted them completely.

As you father is deemed to have capacity then there is nothing you can do about this (as you have unfortunately already found in the past). He can spend his money as he likes, because he is deemed to be able to make his own choices, however bad those choices may be.

I would speak to the care home but you may not get anywhere for the reasons above. I often took in chocolate and snacks for the carers which were much appreciated and accepted, so if he's giving that type of food to carers/residents there probably isn't a problem with that. Far more of a problem IMO is that he is allowed out on his own, but again, you've tried and hit a brick wall there.

it is online and clearly highlighted in law:
to have capacity you must be able to understand retain and relay the information back. and I think in this case principle 3 of the MCA unwise decision does not mean lack of capacity.

it seems the home accepting the food is the issue more than your fathers capacity. Has your dad actually given his point of view on why he does it? (Food is terrible? He’s been asked? He’s doing it to be nice?) Your dad could very well have capacity and is continuing to do this because no one from the home has said no.
if the home tell him clearly that unfortunately they cannot accept such ‘gifts’ due to policies and he continues to do so despite reminding of this several times you may have grounds to question his capacity.

But capacity is complex it’s time and decision specific and can fluctuate. care staff shouldn’t be just stating he has capacity and can do whatever, they should be assessing his capacity everytime he goes out.

However deeming someone to lack capacity is a pretty big deal which can lead to consequences and very much taking away your fathers freedoms and rights. So first work with your dad the home and sw to enable dad to have his freedom but sensibly and safely first.
tell the home to stop accepting ‘gifts’ and they need to clearly tell your dad.
Raise your concerns with the S/W
maybe ask for an OT to work with your dad to come up with structured daily plan so he still has his freedom but more structured with things to do that doesn’t involve staying out until 10:30pm and spending huge amounts of money.

if all this fails then there could be reasons to question his capacity.

hope you sort this soon

Do supermarkets still offer cashback? Where you buy something, pay with card but also ask for some cash and they hand you some notes? Could he be doing that?

Are you sure it’s food and drinks from Tesco as he could be buying other items from there at higher value that he doesn’t want you knowing about for example electronics etc… can you see what he really bought?

OP from the food side of things the home would be subject to inspections from environmental health & be questioned on their food supply. No home should be accepting food from residents in this manner this would be totally unacceptable & they would know this food can’t be accepted.
I would ask the home for clarification.

The mental capacity thing is quite shocking. My father had several large brain tumours; he couldn't get dressed by himself because he was so confused that he'd try putting his long john's on over his head, like a jumper; he couldn't sit down in a chair because he couldn't work out where in space and time the chair was, and yet he was deemed as having mental capacity (and by the time he was assessed, he was already in a nursing home, with weeks left to live, and on all the drugs that make you high). I couldn't believe it.
I wonder if you can find a document online that outlines what it means, legally, to have mental capacity, and see if you can make it fit, knowing what you know. If so, perhaps look into having an assessment done privately?
I'd also be very unhappy with the care home. Ask for a copy of their rules and regs.

This must be very worrying for you. That’s a huge amount of money to spend and I’m glad you have contacted the care home.

A relative of mine was in a care home for respite and when I went to visit, there was a folder in their room (like how you would find in a hotel) with a list of phone numbers, care home facilities and some rules and regulations. It clearly stated that staff were not allowed to and would not accept any gifts from their residents. It said something along the lines of, we won’t accept them and do not wish to offend our residents so please do not buy anything for us as we will refuse to accept.

I would check to see if there is anything like this at the care home your dad is at. I don’t have much experience with care homes, but I assumed this was standard for all care homes as surely it would seem they are taking advantage of an elderly person by accepting gifts from them, whether they had capacity or not, especially such a large amount.

Oh and many health categories professionals can carry out an assessment. It isn't as black and white as capacity or no capacity. It's hugely common for people to deemed to have capacity over many aspects of life, but not financial, especially with brain injury, LD etc. Keep pushing until someone gets it right. And I'd avoid social workers and go with a gp or psychiatrist personally!