FOUR severely disabled adults have succeeded in overturning Birmingham City Council’s decision to only fund social care services to meet “critical” needs.
The High Court has upheld their judicial review claim that the decision was unlawful.
Birmingham’s budget included immediate savings of £51million from its adult social care spending in 2011/12 and a major part of this was to come from the change in its eligibility policy to “critical only”.
This would have meant withdrawing council-funded services from all disabled people assessed as having substantial needs.
The council said that it would ‘signpost’ those who would no longer be eligible to possible alternative sources of support, such as the voluntary sector, but no detailed plans were in place when the council made its decision.
The judge agreed that the council failed to give proper consideration to the impact of this new policy on disabled people.
Karen Ashton, solicitor for three of the adults, said:
“In cash-strapped times such as these, the public sector must do more to avoid the consequences of cuts falling on those who are least able to bear them. This is not just a moral obligation, but a legal one.”
Kari Gerstheimer, head of legal Services, at Sense, the national deafblind charity who prepared an expert witness statement for the court, said:
“ Sense is delighted with this ruling. This confirms our view that deafblind people have the right to be fully included in society.
“Short term cuts are short sighted and are likely to result in higher future social care costs. Removing entitlements will cause distress and detriment to deafblind and disabled people. While we recognise this verdict will increase the pressures on local authorities, we are reassured to know that they will support disabled and deafblind people’s rights and entitlements.”
www.sense.org.uk
