Claimants launch appeal in battle over 'critical-only' care policy

A group of disabled claimants are to appeal a High Court ruling refusing them permission to apply for judicial review of a council’s policy of only providing access to care services to people with ‘critical’ needs.

Earlier this month James Dingemans QC, sitting as a Deputy High Court judge, ruled that a claim that West Berkshire’s policy was irrational was unarguable. The judge also said it was for local authorities, rather than the courts, to decide what their social policies should be. 

The claimants, advised by law firm Irwin Mitchell, argued that the ‘critical-only’ policy was in breach of s. 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970.

West Berkshire is one of only three authorities to operate such a policy – the other councils are Wokingham and Northumberland.

News of the appeal comes just days after the Government proposed in its Care and Support White Paper to introduce a national threshold for eligibility for care services.

Anne-Marie Irwin, a public law specialist at Irwin Mitchell who is acting on behalf of the clients in the West Berkshire case, claimed that the council’s ‘critical-only’ policy was an example of why the proposals put forward by the Government were needed.  

“This is because such frameworks mean that some of the most vulnerable members of society are left in a position where the care they are entitled to is wholly dependent on where they live – a postcode lottery which creates serious inequalities for potentially thousands of people,” she said. 

Philip Hoult