There are serious concerns as to the effect of the new Coronavirus Bill on vulnerable, elderly and disabled adults needing social care. A group of barristers from different chambers practising in this field has put together a short note to highlight key concerns, and to suggest improvements to the Bill. It is available at this link.
The growing trend for refusing support on credibility grounds
April 28th, 2016 by Jonathan AuburnIn a post in blog post last month, “I reasonably don’t believe you”, I discussed a recent case on an LA decision to refuse to support destitute persons subject to immigration control, where the LA decision rested on the view that the claimant was not credible in his claim to have no support. I commented in that blog that the trend for this sort of LA decision-making was growing. And so it seems. In R (O) v LB Lambeth [2016] EWHC 937 (Admin) Read more »
Reasons challenges to LA charging and care home fees decisions
April 27th, 2016 by Jonathan AuburnWhen LAs make decisions as to charging for care services and care home fees, can those decisions be subject to a public law reasons challenge, if so what is required, and what are constraints on LAs defending such challenges? Those were the issues the Administrative Court grappled with last week in Read more »
Changes made to the Care Act Guidance
April 1st, 2016 by Jonathan AuburnThe Department of Health has posted changes to the Care and Support Statutory Guidance on its website. Unhelpfully, there is no detailed list of the changes, nor any tracked changes or marked up version anywhere. So to see what has changed involves comparing the texts of old and new line by line. The major changes seem to be in the following areas: Read more »
Care and nursing home regulation and monitoring due for a shake up (or shake down?)
March 6th, 2016 by Jonathan AuburnThe regulation and monitoring of care and nursing homes is set for change. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ (BIS) project “Cutting Red Tape” has just published its report on regulatory reform in the adult social care residential and nursing home sectors Read more »
Analysis: Does the PSED apply to individual community care decisions?
February 26th, 2016 by Jonathan AuburnThe public sector equality duty (PSED), arising under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, is the saviour of many otherwise doomed judicial reviews, and the bane of defendants who thought they had all bases covered. It would seem to make little sense to have to undertake an equality impact assessment (EIA) for every exercise of a Care Act function relating to an individual, e.g. every provision / budget decision for individuals, or every individual adult safeguarding decision. And let’s face it, no social worker does an EIA with every Care Act assessment. But how precisely do we explain this in legal terms? Read more »
Care Act conundrum: Did Parliament legislate in error to mistakenly confer an amnesty on care home fees?
February 5th, 2016 by Jonathan AuburnAs lawyers we all know that feeling when we read an opponent’s legal letter, court submission, or a judgment that looks just plain incorrect in legal terms. It’s a distinct and clear feeling. Like when your child is obviously lying to you to cover up for some misdemeanour.
You may get that feeling reading letters and opponent’s submissions, less so with judgments, but never with primary legislation, right?
Section 69 of the Care Act Read more »
Capping care budgets: Has the Care Act Force Awakened?
January 28th, 2016 by Jonathan AuburnWe’ve all been to, or worse still, given, a year’s worth of thrilling talks on the Care Act 2014 and the revolutionary changes it will bring. Yet now in late Jan 2016, as we hoover up those last pine needles from the living room carpet and prepare to enter the first year after (“year 1 CA” as I call it), the sun is still in the sky (just), there’s even less money to fund social care – witness the slashing of local authority funding of public health – carers assessments join the (long) queue behind DOLS assessments, and the galaxy looks much like it did last year. That once shiny new claimant toy, the public sector equality duty, lies in the corner, like a double-bladed light-saber in need of batteries. Yes slowly, quietly, there are rumblings in far off worlds – Read more »