Care And Health Law Cases

Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman Disabled Homelessness Guidance

Leave a Comment / How housing rights fit in with the Care Act, Intro to Ombudsman reports RE the interface between Housing and Care, News /

https://www.lgo.org.uk/assets/attach/6805/GPG-Homelessness-decisions-for-Disabled-people-F.pdf The Good Practice Guide – Homelessness Decisions for Disabled People (June 2025) offers guidance to assist councils in making fair, lawful and effective decisions for disabled people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness.  The guide begins with key learning for councils; it then considers common issues and complaints stemming for Ombudsman’s Reports and […]

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Disabled Facilities Grants overview

1 Comment / Funding Adaptations of housing, for assisting care planning, Intro to Ombudsman reports RE DFGs /

Introduction Disability Facilities Grants are capital grants administered by local housing authorities to contribute to the costs of adaptions required to enable eligible disabled people to continue living safely and independently at home.  DFG funding and delivery Funding in England is pooled by Housing Authorities into councils’ local Better Care Fund (BCF) pots, which aims

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Sammut v Next Steps Mental Healthcare Ltd and Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust [2024] EWHC 2265 (KB)

Leave a Comment / Care and Health Law Cases /

This case revisited the issue of liability of state-funded private health and care service providers for breaches of the Human Rights Act 1998.  Sammut v Next Steps Mental Healthcare Ltd and Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust [2024] EWHC 2265 (KB) The facts Paul Sammut suffered from chronic, treatment-resistant schizophrenia and for much of

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Thirumalesh Chellamal Hemachandran and another -v- Sudiksha Thirumalesh and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust

Leave a Comment / Article 2 the right to life, Article 7 the right to freedom for beliefs, Article 7 the right to freedom for beliefs, Article 8 ECHR, Care Planning, Budgets and Choice Rights, Human Rights in health and Social Care, Human Rights relevant to Care Planning, Maximising people’s capacity to make decisions in every respect BEFORE deciding they lack capacity /

Summary: The situation in which a person appears not to believe their doctor or other professionals and therefore might or might not lack capacity is a difficult one.  This judgment in the posthumous case of Sudiksha Thirumalesh overturned a long-standing legal precedent stating that if someone does not accept their medical diagnosis or prognosis, they

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EM v Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead

Leave a Comment / Children and Families Act 2014 services, Children's Continuing Care from Education and Health Services alongside children's social services, How Children's Services fit in with the Care Act (and transitioning from Children's Services /

Decision date: 28 May 2024 Summary: There is no requirement that anyone with an EHCP reaches any particular level of formal education. Instead, the UT said a Tribunal must always ask itself whether the education or training provision could benefit the particular person, given their needs, where the issue is the test for ceasing to

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Surrey Police v PC (by his Litigation Friend the OS, Surrey & Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, and Surrey County Council

Leave a Comment / Advocacy, Involvement and Participation, Advocacy, Involvement, Participation, Information rights and Consultation, Article 5 the right to liberty, Article 5 the right to liberty, Choice, Control and Risk, related to the legal framework for care planning under various legislative provisions, Duties and powers to involve others, Emergencies and vital acts justifying deprivation of liberty before a court application is heard, Health and Safety, How the Care Act fits in with the Mental Health Act (and s117 aftercare), Human Rights relevant to Care Planning, Relevance of Mental Capacity to Care Planning, Risk management in the context of the Care Act and other legislative duties regarding care services, Safeguarding under the Care Act, The involvement of the Court of Protection in care planning under various public functions /

Factual overview Surrey Police made an urgent application to the High Court to authorise the deprivation the liberty of PC, a 26-year-old in police custody.  In her judgment, Theis J focused on the relevant practice in similar situations where vulnerable individuals were in a state of severe distress in police custody, as well as on

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R (YVR) v Birmingham City Council

Leave a Comment / Article 14 freedom from discrimination in the context of one’s human rights, Charging and financial assessment, Human Rights in health and Social Care, Judicial Review, Remedies, rights, complaints, regulatory and criminal law aspects to adult social care, enforcement of one’s rights, The right to charge for social care /

R (YVR) v Birmingham City Council [2024] EWHC 701 (Admin) 26 March 2024 – Collins Rice J Summary – This case concerned Birmingham City Council’s charging policy which the claimant YVR contended discriminated “against people who, like him, are so disabled they cannot, and will never be able to, do any paid work.” Click on

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A and B v Essex County Council [2003] EWCA Civ 1848

Leave a Comment / Civil Proceedings, Financial Compensation and Restitution, Remedies, rights, complaints, regulatory and criminal law aspects to adult social care, enforcement of one’s rights, The relevance of the criminal law to health and social care /

The Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s finding that the local authority was vicariously liable for the negligent failure of its employees to ensure that the prospective adoptive parents were given full and relevant information about the children before they were placed   Adoptive parents, A and B, sued the local authority in negligence

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Recent Local Government Finance Developments 

Leave a Comment / Care Planning, Budgets and Choice Rights, Public law principles relevant to Care Planning /

LAs in England receive funding from various sources, including central government grants, council tax, business rates, and fees and charges for services. The distribution of funding among LAs is determined through a complex formula known as the Local Government Finance Settlement. Unlike central government, LAs are not able to borrow to finance day-to-day spending, which

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A Local Authority v SA (by her children’s guardian LJ) [2005] EWHC 2942 (Fam)

Leave a Comment / Assessing for incapacity where it is relevant to Care Act functions, How the Mental Capacity Act affects the Care Act, Procedural safeguards before meeting needs with a regime that amounts to Deprivation of Liberty /

This case raised novel questions about the court’s inherent jurisdiction in relation to vulnerable adults.  The adult in this case was SA, who had been made a ward of court as a minor, in order to protect her from an unsuitable arranged marriage.  Having reached her majority, the question for the court was whether it

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