Legal challenge to the new model of health and social care bodies

July 10th, 2018 by Jonathan Auburn

In the recent case of R (Hutchinson & Anor) v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care & Anor the Administrative Court considered a challenge to the creation of a new model for the provision of health and social care in England. Read more »

 

Improper approaches to determining care budgets

May 10th, 2018 by Jonathan Auburn

In a recent report, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (“LGSCO”) has made some important findings about how local authorities may, and may not, calculate the cost of people’s care under the Care Act 2014. Read more »

 

Restitution claims for failure to pay for aftercare services

December 18th, 2017 by Jonathan Auburn

If an individual has in years past paid him or herself for mental health aftercare services, which should have been paid for by public bodies, does that person have a valid restitution claim to be refunded the monies spent? Read more »

 

Limitation period for LA recovery of care home fees

December 12th, 2017 by Jonathan Auburn

Last year I blogged about the issue of the limitation period for claims brought by local authorities for recovery of care home fees which they have paid and seek to recover from the individual care home resident or their estate. At the time I was concerned that there may be a gap in the law. Curiously, that blog post itself led to a court case which has now resolved the issue.

The issue, in a nutshell is this: section 69(3)(b) of the Care Act 2014 provides for a three year limitation period on claims brought by local authorities for the recovery of care home fees. This appeared to represent no change in the law. Yet the previous limitation period, applicable when section 56 of the National Assistance Act 1948 still governed such claims, was generally six years rather than three. Read more »

 

R (Davey) v Oxfordshire CC in the Court of Appeal

September 7th, 2017 by Andrew Sharland

Last Friday the Court of Appeal delivered judgment in R (Davey) v Oxfordshire CC [2017] EWCA Civ 1308. This is the first time the Court of Appeal has examined the provisions of the Care Act 2014. We were cautious about blogging about the High Court judgment ([2017] EWHC 354 (Admin)) whilst it was on appeal, as members of our chambers were in the case. Now that the appeal has been decided, we can speak more freely.

Read more »

 

The Children and Social Work Act 2017

June 14th, 2017 by Jonathan Auburn

After significant controversy and substantial amendments, the Children and Social Work Act 2017 received royal assent on 27 April. While the majority of the legislation is not yet in force, the changes contained in the Act will have important implications for the regulation of social work in England, safeguarding of children, and investigations into the death of children. In addition, the Act clarifies and amends the obligations of local authorities as corporate parents. Read more »

 

11KBW Community Care & COP/ DOL 2017 – Manchester, 22 March 2017

March 7th, 2017 by Claire Halas

11KBW invites you to two related half day seminars to be held at the Crowne Plaza, 70 Shudehill, Manchester M4 4AF on Wednesday, 22 March 2017.

The Community Care seminar will be held from 10am – 12.50pm.

The COP/DOLS seminar will be held from 1.45pm – 4.15pm.

People are welcome to sign up for either or both seminars.

Feedback from last year’s Manchester Community Care seminar was extremely positive, including these comments: “Excellent. Speakers are very clear in their presentation & advice”, “Very useful” and “Very good & informative”.

The sessions will be directed at updates on recent developments in the law in these areas. Read more »

 

New social care charging circular for local authorities

February 16th, 2017 by Jonathan Auburn

On 8 February 2017, the Department of Health published a new circular for local authorities, addressing charging practices for the 2017/18 financial year. By virtue of section 78 of the Care Act 2014 local authorities are required to comply with this Circular. Read more »

 

Support for NRPF families

July 14th, 2016 by Jonathan Auburn

Where a family is designated as having no right of recourse to public funds (“NRPF”) but is still supported under the Children Act section 17, what type of accommodation and what rates of support must the local authority provide as a minimum to comply with section 17? And when will any failure to provide appropriate support give rise to a breach of Article 8 sounding in damages? Those were the issues the Court of Appeal addressed this week in R (C, T, M and U) v London Borough of Southwark [2016] EWCA Civ 707. Read more »

 

The growing trend for refusing support on credibility grounds

April 28th, 2016 by Jonathan Auburn

In 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 »

 

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