Birmingham City Council social care cuts
ruled unlawful by High Court
Birmingham Post, Wednesday 20 April 2011
Birmingham Social Services is facing a fresh funding crisis after a High Court judge ruled a controversial cost-cutting plan to be unlawful.
Mr Justice Walker found that city council leaders ignored provisions in the Disability Discrimination Act when they decided to stop providing care packages for about 4,000 adults whose needs are assessed as being substantial.
His interim judgment blows a hole in the council’s budget, since the local authority had been expecting to save £17.5 million this year by restricting social care packages only to clients whose needs are critical.
The decision could also have repercussions for other councils across the country that are attempting to make similar cuts in social care.
Birmingham City Council cannot carry on with assessing individual needs until Mr Justice Walker delivers his full judgment next month, and is likely to have to conduct fresh consultation on equalities issues before reaching a new decision on the future of social care – a process that could take several months.
On this occasion, families representing four severely disabled adults succeeded in a judicial review by overturning the council’s decision to limit the care their grown-up children receive.
They argued that a move to restrict social services assistance was unlawful because it did not take account of equalities legislation.
Ian Wise QC, appearing for the families, said the council failed to consult properly about the impact the cuts and a decision to go ahead contravened a statutory duty to have due regard to the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act.
The council cabinet also failed to consider cutting spending in other areas or increasing council tax to find the £17.5 million without cutting social services, Mr Wise added.
About 11,000 adults in Birmingham were to have the care they receive reviewed as a result of the cuts, and 4,000 were expecting to be told they can no longer receive council-funded social services and will be "signposted” to services provided by the voluntary sector.
Birmingham City Council expects to save £17 million this year, rising to £53 million by 2014, by restricting care to adults whose needs are deemed to be critical.
It is the second time recently that Birmingham City Council has been found to have behaved unlawfully when making spending cuts.
2 weeks ago, it lost a similar case over the way it reduced funding for voluntary organisations, including the Citizens Advice Bureau.
It was found then to have ignored equalities legislation and not to have consulted properly on the impact the cut would have.
Unison welcomed the ruling, with the union's regional head of local government Tony Rabaiotti describing it as a "landmark ruling and a tremendous victory for thousands of vulnerable people across Birmingham who rely upon social care provision. Social Care workers across Birmingham have been telling Unison over the last few months that they are genuinely frightened by the proposal to so severely axe social care provision. They have been telling us that vulnerable people will simply be left to fend for themselves. The council now has the opportunity to pause, think again and work with us to maintain quality social care provision for the people of Birmingham.”
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Meanwhile on BBC News on Wednesday 20 April 2011: -
Birmingham City Council disabled care limits 'unlawful'
Judges have ruled that Birmingham City Council's plans to limit social care for disabled people are unlawful.
The families of 4 severely disabled people took the case to the High Court sitting in Birmingham.
The test case is the first in a series of possible legal challenges to councils around the UK mounted by those facing cuts to social care.
Birmingham City Council is planning to reduce care packages to about 4,000 people over the next 3 years.
The authority, a Conservative-Liberal coalition, says it needs to make the cuts to help slash £118m from its adult and communities directorate.
In total it needs to save £308m from its budget.
It explained that only those whose needs had been assessed as "critical" would qualify for council-funded care.
But the judges ruled that the council business plan was unlawful because it failed to comply with Section 49a of the Disability Discrimination Act.
The 4 people, who cannot be named for legal reasons, include a 65-year-old woman with severe learning difficulties who receives 24-hour care in a home paid for by the council.
They also include a 25-year-old man with a rare genetic disorder and severe learning disabilities who receives overnight respite care, also funded by the council.
Both were set to lose their council-funded care.
The sister-in-law of the 65-year-old woman said:
"I'm deeply concerned about what impact this will have and it's important to take a stand here. She relies on the council's support to assist her with daily living skills and to support and promote her independence, including assisting with personal care tasks, preparation of meals and safely accessing the community. The care is hugely beneficial and without it her quality of life would fall dramatically."
The case was also brought on behalf of a 30-year-old deaf, autistic man with severe learning disabilities who is prone to self-harm. His specialist day care would also have gone under the plans.
The fourth person is a 36-year-old woman with severe a learning difficulty whose day care centre will close and who is also set to lose respite care.
A Birmingham City Council spokesman said they would be looking at the judgement in detail before making a decision on whether to lodge an appeal. He said:
"The generality of the budget is not affected; this is a decision about the eligibility criteria for adult social care. Like all councils, Birmingham faces a huge financial challenge, with adults and communities having to make a share of the savings like all other directorates, and we need to assess the impact of this decision. It is also important to point out that this judgement is about the process we went through with regard to the Disability Discrimination Act, not the actual decision about where savings should be made."
To read the original article and watch a video of Karen Ashton of Public Law Solicitors who defended the families of the disabled adults: -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-13147675
Meanwhile on www.communitycare.co.uk on Thursday 21 April 2011: -
Adult care staff cast as 'villains' due to cuts, says Adass head
Council Adult Services Officers are wrongly being made out to be the "villains of the piece" because of the cuts they have to implement, a leading director warned today after his authority lost a key legal case.
Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, President Peter Hay was speaking after a judge ruled that a decision by his council, Birmingham, to raise its eligibility threshold for care from 'substantial' to 'critical' was unlawful.
In an interim judgement, Mr Justice Walker ruled that the council had failed to pay due regard to the impact of its plans on disabled people during the decision-making process, contravening the Disability Discrimination Act. He indicated the council would need to review its plans.
However Peter Hay, Birmingham's adult and communities’ director, said officers were only trying to do their best with constrained finances, resulting from government cuts. He said:
"What's concerning me more is that officers are being made to be villains of the piece. We are trying to meet a challenge and there are lots of challenges out there. Somebody has to construct a way of operating on the fact there's less money. That's what we will still try and do."
Up to 5,000 people in Birmingham could have had all or parts of their social care packages withdrawn under the plans.
Peter Hay said the council would await the full judgement, which is due next month, and consider the proposed remedy before deciding whether to appeal, but said people needed to understand there was a gap in funding. However he conceded there were implications in the ruling.
"We need to see a full detailed judgement to look at what the court's thinking is."
The Birmingham ruling has national implications said Barry Pickthall of West Sussex-based Don't Cut Us Out campaign, which is considering mounting a legal challenge against that council's decision to raise eligibility from moderate to substantial.
"It's very positive and it's going to have an impact on all those campaigns that are seeking a judicial review. There's a lot to be learned from this," Barry Pickthall said.
Sarah Pickup, Adass vice-president, said:
"The decision taken by Birmingham is one of many difficult decisions that councils around the country have to take in order to balance their budgets in the face of reduced resources. Despite significant financial pressures, all authorities understand the need to have regard to the Disabilities Discrimination Act 2010 and the impact on equality those decisions will have."
Please see link to original article: -
www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk, Monday 18 April 2011
Support team for disabled children cut by council
EIGHT specialist workers who support disabled children are being axed due to council cutbacks.
A team of 30 staff at Stoke-on-Trent City Council help children with hearing impairments, sight difficulties, autism and mental and physical special needs.
But the authority is currently restructuring its workforce and will now contain a team of just 22 staff.
The changes are being introduced as the integrated services budget, including the team working with children with special needs, has been slashed from £5.04 million to £3.4 million.
One of the slashed positions being axed is believed to be a teacher of the deaf, causing a national charity to name Stoke-on-Trent as one of the worst places in Britain to raise a deaf child.
Stoke on Trent City Council has already axed four teachers of the deaf since January 2010 prompting worried parents and the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) to launch a campaign calling for on the posts to be reinstated.
A petition on the Stoke on Trent City Council’s website has so far been signed by 505 people worried about how the job losses will affect deaf children.
But despite the campaign, further cuts have been made.
Now the National Deaf Children’s Society claims there are just three visiting teachers of the deaf to work with Stoke On Trent’s 200 hearing-impaired children.
The remaining teachers, who work with children and their families from the moment they are diagnosed, will now each have to juggle the caseloads of around 70 children each.
NDCS has now written to Education Secretary Michael Gove, calling on him to intervene.
NDCS is considering taking legal action against the authority as it believes Stoke On Trent City Council failed to consult parents properly and did not properly assess the impact of its cuts on equality.
Jo Campion, NDCS deputy director, policy and campaigns, said:
"We are absolutely appalled to learn that yet another cut has been made to the support team for deaf children in Stoke-on-Trent. The city is now one of the worst areas in the country to bring up a deaf child. Without the right support, deaf children and young people are vulnerable to isolation, abuse, bullying, poor self-esteem and low levels of achievement. NDCS is calling on the Secretary of State to directly intervene in these cuts and use his legal powers to ensure that deaf children in Stoke-on-Trent are getting the essential support they need.”
Katy Evans has a three-year-old son Charlie, who is deaf. She said:
"I am furious that another teacher of the deaf has been cut; I am losing sleep over it. Charlie was born deaf and has two years of learning and development to catch up on. He needs this specialist help to bridge the gap between him and other children.”
Sharon Menghini, Director of Children and Young People’s Services at Stoke on Trent City Council, said:
"A restructure is currently taking place among staff that supports children with special educational needs and disabilities. This means we won’t comment on specific staffing issues, however the restructure of the Central Support Services for special educational needs and disability, including hearing difficulties, will provide a more integrated service for supporting deaf children in mainstream schools. This new team will include teachers and support staff that will support schools to ensure that all children with special needs and disabilities make good progress across Stoke On Trent and continue to build on the good work already taking place in this area by our staff.”
Please see link to original article: -
The Independent, Tuesday 19 April 2011
Disabled charity that helped Cameron's son loses out in cuts
David Cameron's commitment to protecting disabled services in the UK has been criticised after a charity of which he is a patron had its funding cut by £250,000.
The Kids charity helped the Prime Minister look after his son but has had its support reduced as a result of local government funding cuts.
Mr Cameron faced further criticism after it emerged that an £800m grant for disabled services announced in December could be spent on other projects.
Kids charity offers one-to-one care facilities to about 7,000 disabled children across the UK and helped care for David Cameron's son, Ivan, who was born with cerebral palsy and epilepsy, until he died in 2009.
Parents reliant on the charity criticised the Prime Minister for not doing more to protect its funding – although colleagues point out that could have been seen as an abuse of position.
Heather Gordon, from Blackburn, whose 11-year-old son Callum has learning difficulties and had been attending sport classes run by Kids Charity which are being cut, said:
"He must know how hard it is for other people with disabilities. I thought he would have been more in favour of the kids and other people with disabilities after having a disabled son."
Sally Ralph, who receives advice from the charity after her two-year-old daughter Lily developed a haemorrhage on her brain, believes the Prime Minister could have done more. She said:
"It is so unfair, he should have spoken up and said 'This is a worthy charity'. He knows a lot about it and he should have done more to protect it."
Kath Kadri, whose son Hadi has Down's syndrome and attends a playground in Camden threatened with closure, said:
"It is the only outdoor centre within Camden for children with special needs. It is unique."
The charity, which also boasts Sir Elton John and Cherie Booth as patrons, has had its funding cut by four local councils after their central government budgets were slashed.
An £80,000 project to help 28 children enjoy leisure activities in Blackburn and Darwen has been scrapped, as has a £78,000 project in Wigan. A £72,000 scheme for more than 100 under-fives in East Yorkshire also faces the axe.
All the councils blamed the scrapping of the schemes on funding cuts from central government.
A Number 10 spokesman said Mr Cameron was still committed to top quality disability care and blamed the decisions on individual councils.
"This is something that the Prime Minister talked about a lot before the election and is a very personal issue to him. These are local authority cuts; it is not his decision,"
Last night, it emerged that £800m pledged for short breaks for families was not ring-fenced.
The Kids Charity Chief Executive, Kevin Williams, said he was confident that the Prime Minister was committed to helping disabled families, but he was concerned about the decision not to safeguard the money.
Marc Bush, head of policy at the disabilities charity Scope, said the Government's eagerness for reform was creating problems for disabled people.
"David Cameron is aware of the issues and they have perhaps focused on the issue longer because of his personal interest,"
Mr Bush said: "But the pace of reform is so fast that there are unintended consequences that hit the vulnerable communities he wants to protect."
A Department of Education spokesman said that, while the funding was not technically ring-fenced, councils still had a responsibility to provide short breaks for disabled families and they would be working hard to ensure that they fulfilled these responsibilities.
Sir Paul Ennals, chief executive of the National Children's Bureau said:
"We know that children and young people, one of the most vulnerable groups in our society, are not being protected and are actually being hit by the cuts several times over."
Please see link to original article: -
Meanwhile, The Daily Mirror reported on Wednesday 13 April 2011 that the Disability element of Child Tax Credit would be halved: -
Please see link to original article: -