West Berkshire Council faces High Court battle over care cuts

In what has been described as a landmark legal battle, public law specialists at Irwin Mitchell have issued proceedings against the council on behalf of five disabled young people with problems such as seizures, epilepsy, requiring 24-hour supervision, have suffered abuse and are unable to leave the house.
The five are ineligible for the social care services they need due to changes in the council's care policy which saw services cut, personal budgets introduced to pay for care, and the introduction of need assessments.
West Berkshire Council is one of only three councils in the whole of England, alongside Wokingham and Northumberland, to currently operate a policy which means that only those with needs classed as ‘critical’ can access care services.
After undergoing an assessment those deemed 'substantial', 'moderate' or 'low' do not get support.
If successful, the case will prevent any council from adopting the policy again under existing laws.
Irwin Mitchell is arguing that potentially thousands of people miss out on necessary care and support in cases such as neglect or abuse, being unable to carry out the majority of their personal care, or where they cannot sustain the majority of their support network and family and other social roles.
The team of lawyers, who last year won cases on behalf of disabled individuals against two councils over proposed plans to move to the ‘critical-only’ policy which West Berkshire Council has in place, said the consequences of the judgement could be far reaching.
The lawyer at Irwin Mitchell acting on behalf of the five clients, Alex Rook, said: “Many severely disabled people across the country rely heavily on the support that is offered by social care services, but not all of those people fall under the umbrella of what is deemed ‘critical’.
“It also leads to what is often described as the ‘postcode lottery’ in social care, whereby any of our clients could move to one of the 149 other councils that do not have the same policy and would then be eligible for much needed care. We are determined to ensure that our clients can get the support they need and are lawfully entitled to.”
The law firm’s five clients, who cannot be named for legal reasons, are all directly affected by the policy.
A pair of siblings both have a learning disability and autistic-like behaviours, another suffers epilepsy and seizures has a mental age of around five or six years old, and is in need of constant supervision and without this is liable to hurt herself,.
The fourth has a diagnosis of mild learning disability and has also been assessed by West Berkshire Council as being vulnerable to abuse and exploitation by her peers, while the fifth has diagnoses of autism and epilepsy, has no speech, very limited communication skills and displays challenging behaviour.
Mencap, the UK charity for people with a learning disability, is supporting the legal action.
The charity’s chief executive, Mark Goldring, said: “The impact of these changes has been highly detrimental, as, without this support, people with a learning disability face a real struggle to live full, independent and safe lives, and an ever greater strain is placed on family carers.
“Local authorities have a duty to keep vulnerable people safe and provide them with support. By operating a critical-only policy, where even those with substantial needs are deprived of care services, a local authority is shirking its responsibility to some of the most vulnerable people in our society.”
West Berkshire Council did not comment when approached by Newburytoday.co.uk.