Ed Mitchell & Clive Lewis QC report on a rare event in community care law
The High Court’s decision in R (B & Others) v Worcestershire CC [2009] EWHC 2915 (Admin) was that rarest of things, a successful claim for judicial review of a council’s decision to reorganise care provision which did not rely on non-compliance with general equality duties. It is a useful reminder that local authorities must be able to show that, post-reorganisation, service users’ eligible needs (the community care needs that a council has decided to meet) will remain capable of being met. The case arose because a council decided to close a day centre for adults with profound learning disabilities. Council officials told the committee which took the decision that an alternative centre would meet the displaced adults’ eligible needs.
However, when resourcing levels were fixed for that centre no analysis was carried out of whether that would be the case. As a result, no one could be certain that those needs would be met within the allotted
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