Challenging a local authority on procedural grounds can prove difficult, as Tim Spencer-Lane reports
In an era of prolonged economic recession and public sector cuts, the challenges for both service users and local authorities are considerable. The tension between, on the one hand, supporting disabled people to live full and independent lives in the community, and on the other, local authorities’ obligation to constrain expenditure and remain within budget, was illustrated in the recent High Court case R(D) v Worcestershire County Council [2013] EWHC 2490 (Admin).
In 2012, the council adopted a policy under which the amount of money that is provided to support a disabled person living in the community would be based on the costs of meeting the same person’s needs in residential care. It was a policy which the council had already applied since 2008 to older people. Disabled groups argued that it would result in high levels of unmet need and coercive institutionalisation, because domiciliary care could not be provided which costs less than the equivalent costs of residential care.
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