Stockport Council has been forced into a U-Turn over plans to reduce a disabled woman’s care package following a successful legal challenge.
The council’s Direct Payment Policy led to a reduction in the care provision offered to a 36-year-old woman who is autistic with severe learning difficulties and Turner syndrome.
The local authority also told the woman’s family they had used some past direct payments for their daughter incorrectly. The council issued the family with three final notices and threatened to take them to court.
Lawyers at Irwin Mitchell, acting on behalf of the family, wrote to Stockport Council, urging it to reverse the decisions, or potentially face a judicial review in the High Court.
The council has now withdrawn the new Direct Payments Policy and reinstated the woman’s original care package, pending further review.
Mathieu Culverhouse, the expert public law and human rights lawyer at Irwin Mitchell representing the family, said: ‘The news that Stockport Council has reversed its decision to change our client’s care arrangements is a victory for her and her family.
‘The family’s determination to challenge the Council’s decisions could now have far reaching implications, opening the door to others facing similar decisions in respect of direct payments.
‘By refusing to reinstate her direct payment and continuing to apply the new Direct Payment Policy, the council was failing to meet her assessed needs. With the new policy withdrawn, our client will once again have the lifeline of maintaining contact with her family at weekends.
‘The family feel strongly that a proper review was not undertaken and were distressed by the demand for the payments to be returned, which were all spent in line with statutory guidance in the Care Act. These will now be fully refunded.’
Kieran McMahon, former CEO of Disability Stockport, said: ‘Not only is this a victory for the families and individuals concerned, but also a victory for common sense and fairness.
‘Direct Payments and the Care Act were primarily introduced to give people the choice to make sensible decisions about how they are supported and provided for. This has been a major principle underlying the modernisation of services and inclusion for individuals and families.
‘To take these options away or to restrict them drastically was very much a retrograde step. Not only does this disempower people, but it greatly reduces innovation in social care.
‘I trust the local authority will go back to a more inclusive approach to policy development and fully engage the community as principal stakeholders, as they have done in previous years. This will enable better focus for solutions to finance and other constraints and also encourage greater participation and cooperation for everyone.’
