Leicester care home warning as cyber incident hits services

Some phone lines and IT services are still down due to the incident

A cyber incident at Leicester City Council has hit care homes, leaving uncertainty around staff pay and sparking safeguarding concerns.

Care home managers told the BBC the issue has disrupted important operational processes, such as filing incident reports, and could mean some staff will not be paid.

The city council shut down its IT and phone systems on 7 March.

The authority has not released further details on the nature of the incident.

Shyamal Raja, managing director of Midlands Care, which runs a group of care homes in Leicester and has a council contract, said the incident would have "wider implications" on the local social care sector.

He said he was notified by the council that a payment of hundreds of thousands of pounds could be delayed due to the incident.

Shyamal Raja is concerned about the wider impact the incident will have on other organisations

"We're in a fortunate position to have cash reserves or availability of lending from the bank but there's no real end in sight - there's a lack of definite answers," he said.

Mr Raja said he ensured his staff would still be paid on time this month but said he knew of other care homes without the reserves to ensure the same.

Vicky Lyons, service manager of George Hythe Residential Home, Leicester, said she felt there had been "little support" for care homes while a digital portal used to report incidents affecting residents, such as falls and injuries, was not working.

She said: "There could be serious safeguarding concerns.

"It could impact [residents] in a big way because we need to report things to make sure we're compliant."

Miss Lyons said there had been "no clear information" from the council and that care homes would be left with "big backlogs".

Payments 'not delayed'

Eerke Boiton, a computer science professor and cyber security expert from De Montfort University, said it was "very likely" the city council was facing a ransomware attack.

He said: "I think it's very likely that it's a ransomware attack but the biggest danger these days is if a criminal organisation is going into systems that may be useful to them."

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and Leicestershire Police say they are supporting the council.

Laurence Jones, strategic director of social care and education at the council, said: "We have written to all care homes to inform them of the ongoing cyber incident and the impact it could have on our payment system, but no scheduled payments to care homes have been delayed.

"We are hopeful that the payments, which are due towards the end of next week, will go ahead as normal.

"Our safeguarding arrangements have not been compromised. Care homes use a generic email address to report safeguarding concerns and that address is still operational.

"George Hythe Home, which is owned by Mr Raja, was visited last week and no concerns were raised. We have also spoken directly with Mr Raja to tell him that we don't expect payments to be delayed."

It was suspected some schools could also be affected by the incident.

The Leicestershire-based Embrace Multi Academy Trust said it shut down IT and phone systems over issues affecting one of its schools on 7 March.

A spokesperson for the trust said it was not confirmed whether this was linked to the incident at the city council.

The council later confirmed the issues at the trust were not linked.