Under 5’s school transport
An excellent report[1] from the ombudsman concerning the legal obligations on a council to provide transport for a disabled child below statutory school age. The report provides a helpful statement…
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Category: what’s-new
Education Committee Report on SEND
The House of Commons Education Committee published its report on 'Special educational needs and disabilities' on 23rd October 2019. It doesn’t pull its punches and we must all hope that…
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Post-16 students and free school / college travel assistance
A further ombudsman's report concerning the duty to provide free travel assistance to school / colleges etc has just been published.[1] A March 2019 ombudsman's report[2] concerning the same Council…
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So what do you do?
You are a health / social care professional. You have read up on the lawfulness of funding panels – but you now find yourself required to attend a panel to…
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Direct Payments for Young People
A survey of 52 social services authorities found that rates of pay for Personal Assistants (PAs) were very low, typically at minimum wage rates. The report concludes that in many…
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‘Omg … will it never end’
It is not every day that an ombudsman’s report refers to an investigator’s note saying the above. Not every day that the ombudsman: asks a council to reflect on its…
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Pre-payment cards and direct payments
Think Local Act Personal (TLAP) has published guidance concerning the use by local authorities of pre-payment cards for direct payments / personal budgets. TLAP describes itself as a ‘national partnership’…
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Charges for community care
For many disabled people the cut backs in social care support have been accompanied by steep increases in local authority charges[1] exacerbated by the freezing of threshold allowances for the…
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DWP and MoJ unlawful inaction
Legal research by the International Disability Law Clinic at the School of Law, Leeds University concludes that the Government’s policy of not installing audio recording equipment for all Personal Independence…
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Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs) and social care responsibilities
An important ombudsman report[1] has just been published that reaffirms that: social services authorities have duties under the Care Act 2014 to ensure that necessary home adaptations are provided and…
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Extra care housing: ‘just in time’ systems are for cars not care
Extra care housing is a good idea. In practice however it looks to be failing all but the wealthy. This ‘post’ describes the idea behind extra care housing schemes and…
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Post-19 education transport costs
In a recent and important report,[1] the ombudsman has held that the transport needs of an adult in education are relevant considerations when assessing his (and his carer’s) social care…
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NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) and transitions into adulthood
Young people who are receiving NHS Continuing Care (and their families) are inevitably anxious to know what their care and support arrangements will be once they become 18. Not infrequently…
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NHS CHC and supine council leaders
The number of people eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare funding (CHC) in England has fallen – again. The most recent figures[1] have just been published and show that in the…
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Staying in a care home when savings spent
What can be done when a resident, who has self funded their care home runs out of money: having spent their savings on paying for their care home? Although councils…
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Can you cope?
It’s a simple question – yes or no? If you are a parent of a disabled child – it is a question, when asked by a social worker, that you…
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Elaine McDonald
It is reported that Elaine McDonald has died. She was by all accounts an extraordinary person and I hope she is remembered for this and her brilliance as a ballerina. …
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Personal Budgets: the tail and the dog
The law is clear: a disabled or older person’s eligible needs must be met, either by the council arranging the services or by providing a direct payment sufficient to enable…
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The charging regulations and injustice
A guest ‘post’ by Brian Collinge, a former local authority Chief Executive and father of a son who has severe learning disabilities. Brian identifies a major injustice experienced by disabled…
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Is Britain Fairer? No.
Disabled people … are finding themselves increasingly excluded from mainstream society, starting in education and continuing later in life. …. . Disabled people are more likely to be in poverty,…
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Continuing Health Care Funding and End of Life Care
Opening address to the Association of Palliative Care Social Workers Tackling Poverty in Palliative Care Conference York University 13th September 2018. One of our greatest achievements as a nation…
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Families with severely disabled children should not have to live like this.
A report by the ombudsman[i] contains the above quote (said by the disabled child’s mother). The report relates to a council’s failure (for over 3 years) to provide essential home…
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Improving Flexible Working Rights for Carers
A ‘What’s New’ post contributed by David Laurence and Samson Dawodu of the Disability Law Service. Those who care for disabled people should be entitled to reasonable adjustments in…
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Disabled Facilities Grants and young people in England
Local authorities have statutory obligations to pay grants to facilitate access to homes by disabled occupants as well as to make them safe for the disabled person and those they…
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The Misuse by local authorities of their ‘protection’ powers
Some disabled people and their families have had negative experiences of the way their local authority or local NHS body behave. In some cases this behaviour feels oppressive and sometimes…
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Pet care costs and social care charges
For those of us concerned about the high level of local authority charges as well as those sceptical of about the ‘personal budgets’ agenda this is an interesting piece of…
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The accessibility of Disabled Facilities Grant application forms
What can a cash strapped local authority do if the law requires that a grant be paid within 12 months of an application? It appears that about half have decided…
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Another fall in NHS Continuing Care (CHC) numbers
The CHC figures for the last quarter of 2017-18 have been released.[1] They show that in April 2018 the total number of people eligible for NHS CHC in England stood…
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Difficult questions require a ‘plan’: ‘transitions’ as an example.
Robert Graves’ in his autobiography ‘Goodbye to All That’ describes how he, his wife and their small children were in urgent need of a house to rent in Oxfordshire –…
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Autistic children and care assessments
A ‘What’s New’ post contributed by Priya Bahri of the Disability Law Service. Autistic children and care assessments – the problem of local authority eligibility criteria’s. Background. The Disability Law…
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Administering a cap on costs [2]
The second in a series of ‘posts’ considering the options for the reform of social care funding, subtitled ‘avoiding the obvious’. The Government has announced that it will ‘publish a…
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FACS and fiction
Why is Germany’s military expenditure considerably less than the UKs’, despite Germany being significantly wealthier, more populous and closer to Russia?[1] Why does Essex spend 40% more (per person) on…
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52% of Carers are Refused Flexible Working – the Law Needs to Change
A ‘What’s New’ post contributed by David Laurence of the Disability Law Service. Disabled people are entitled to have reasonable adjustments made in their workplace conditions in order to ensure…
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Carers and their Rights: Guide
A pre-publication draft of a fully updated (2018) guide to the rights of carers to social care support in England. Please let me know if you find typos, errors or…
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Means testing children’s healthcare ~ by stealth
In England and Wales social services provide significant amounts of healthcare to disabled and ill young people which should be funded by the NHS. Although unlawful it has been condoned…
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Musical beds
The latest report of the Public Accounts Committee on NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) in England[1] is to be welcomed – introducing, as it does, a note of reality to the…
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Direct Payments Research
The School of Law at Leeds University and Cerebra via their LEaP Project are undertaking research on the adequacy of direct payments for disabled children. This has included Freedom of…
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Social care reform: avoiding the obvious [1]
The first in a series of ‘posts’ considering the options for the reform of social care funding. The English Government has announced that it will publish a Green Paper on…
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N v. Romania (2017)
In N v. Romania[1] the European Court of Human Rights has given a more formal ‘nod’ in the direction of the right to independent living enshrined in Article 19 of…
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The Torbay judgment: from the micro to the macro
Torbay Council v. Torbay Quality Care Forum Ltd [2017] EWCA Civ 1605. On one level this judgment can be seen as private sector residential care owners trying to boost their…
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The Barking Ordinary Residence decision
R (Barking and Dagenham LBC) v. Secretary of State for Health (2017)[1] is an esoteric but important Ordinary Residence decision. The case concerned a 24 years old person (HR)…
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The Cheese Sketch
The Monty Python Cheese sketch and social care have a lot in common. In the sketch John Cleese enters a cheese shop and asks for various cheeses. The proprietor (Michael…
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“That’s what your DLA is for”
A positive ombudsman report.[1] A council undertook a reassessment. Although the adult’s needs had not changed it decided to withdraw support for meal preparation and domestic tasks stating that (para…
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School transport costs rising
For the last umpteen years local authorities have been closing smaller schools[1] on the ground that they are not cost effective – and now the Vice President of the Association…
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Deconstructing the social care ‘meal’
Between 2010 and 2014 there was a 63 per cent fall in the number of people receiving 'meals on wheels' in England[1] and between 2011 and 2015 the number of…
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A dismal judgment
R (Luke Davey) v. Oxfordshire CC is the type of decision that I’d prefer not to write about. Part of the reluctance comes – of course – from the incredibly depressing…
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Another good judgment
Following the excellent UNISON judgment (justice is not a commodity to be traded) comes another: an Upper Tribunal decision R (CJ) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions concerning…
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What’s the point of section 5?
Section 5 Care Act 2014 places a duty on councils to promote an efficient and effective care market: such markets must promote user choice, have a variety of high quality…
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A human catastrophe
It needs saying and it needs resaying: the maintenance of austerity politics to advance a neoliberal political agenda has ‘led to a human catastrophe’ for people with disabilities in the…
Read moreNational Audit Office Report on NHS Continuing Healthcare
A NAO report on its Investigation into NHS continuing healthcare funding (CHC) makes interesting / depressing reading. The Press Release accompanying the Full Report notes that spending on CHC, NHS-funded nursing…
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