County council breached equality duty in setting care home fees: HIgh Court

A county council failed to discharge its public sector equality duties when setting fees payable to care home providers, the High Court has ruled.

Devon County Council claimed that the failure was “technical”, relating to the assessment of the equalities impact of its funding decision – and in particular in relation to the impact of potential home closures.

The local authority said it had undertaken to conduct a more detailed equalities assessment and take any specific findings into account. “This may, or may not, result in a change to fee rates.”

The ruling came after the Equality and Human Rights Commission intervened in the case.

Devon added that it welcomed the fact that the judge had found in its favour on the two other grounds for the challenge.

The claimants, various independent care home operators, had argued that the model the county council used to calculate fee levels was flawed and unreasonable. They also challenged the consultation the council carried out.

The judge said the decision on fees was “a rational one which was preceded by a fair consultation process”.

Tim Golby, Devon’s lead on social care commissioning, said: “We very much welcome the court’s ruling that the way we calculated this year’s 6.6% fee increase was fair and appropriate.

“The judgment shows clearly that the model we used was rational, took into account the level and quality of care, and that we consulted widely before implementing the decision.”

However, Golby admitted the council was “very disappointed” that the judge felt that the authority did not pay enough regard to equalities legislation.

The Devon case comes just days after Newcastle City Council said it would appeal a High Court ruling that its approach to setting fees for care home providers was unlawful.

Newcastle claimed it was time to “draw a line in the sand” over the rates paid.

Philip Hoult