Birmingham Adult Social Care Case

May2011

On 21st April 2011, thefamilies of four disabled residents from Birmingham won a landmark legalchallenge against the City Council after a court ruled the authority’s plans tocut its adult social care budget were unlawful. Final Judgment was given on19th May 2011.

Adrian Waite of AWICSacted as an expert witness on local government finance for the plaintiffs. Thisbriefing paper summarises the case.

The disabled residentswere told by the Council that as from 1st April 2011, any needs that were notconsidered ‘critical’ would no longer be paid for, leaving them concerned thatmany of their essential care and support needs would be unmet.

Solicitors IrwinMitchell and Public Law Solicitors acted for the claimants and engaged DoughtyStreet Chambers as barristers and Adrian Waite of ‘AWICS’ to act as an expertwitness on finance.

This Birmingham AdultSocial Care case is significant for a number of reasons:

·    Itunderlines the importance of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 –especially section 49a. Councils must take care to promote equality fordisabled people in considering policies and funding options that affectdisabled people.

·        Itunderlines the fact that any reorganisation of a service or setting of a budgetinvolves considering equalities duties through an effective Equality ImpactNeeds Assessment.

·      Itestablishes that local authorities cannot ignore the rights of disabled peoplewhen they make changes or economies in adult social care services and that theymust carry out.

·     Itestablishes that the setting of local authority budgets is not just a financialprocess but one that needs to be strategic and comprehensive and needs to takeaccount of the rights of individuals who are affected such as disabled people.In making economies, Councils need to demonstrate that they have considered andconsulted on all options.

Many authorities haverestricted eligibility for adult social care as part of a package of economiesin their 2011/12 budgets. Birmingham City Council was not alone in facing alegal challenge to their adult social care budget and was not alone in beingfound to have acted unlawfully.

For full briefing paper please click here.