Posts Tagged ‘local authorities’
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
Research by Action for Children shows half of social workers ‘feel powerless’ to stop children being neglected due to high thresholds and inadequate resources. 80% of social workers warned that cuts will make it more difficult to intervene in neglect cases.
It is obviously difficult to make meaningful cuts in expenditure without decreasing the quality of service provided. No doubt local authorities are monitoring this balancing act very closely, and clarion calls such as this should be listened to.
However, thresholds and resources are two very different issues, and there is real danger if they are conflated. If the threshold is too low, then it is too low whatever the resources position. A lack of resources should not be a reason to lower the threshold – it would be wrong to make it easier to remove a child from his parents because social workers have less capacity to investigate the home situation. The budgets cuts create real pressure, and clear heads are needed.
Kate Bear
0115 976 6104
kbear@brownejacobson.com
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Tags: action for children, child neglect, child protection, local authorities, personal social care budgets, Social Care, social services, social workers
Posted in Local Authorities, Social Care | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 18th, 2012
A new national property company “PropCo” could be set up to manage the primary care trust (PCT) estate.
According to media reports the Department of Health is considering plans that the PCT estate will be better managed by a single management organisation, rather than by numerous successors to the individual PCT’s. There are suggestions that the PropCo could be devolved into regional subsidiaries with regional arms, but at this stage nothing is concrete.
Early opinion appears to be mixed. However, key questions remain, such as what effect this will have on the day-to-day management and dealings with individual NHS properties. It could be suggested such an approach may create uniformity in managing the PCT retained estate “across the board”. However, will such centralisation slow down the delivery of patient services and the placing of new providers into those properties?
There will be a need to carefully review these proposals as they emerge, but guidance on future property holding arrangements will be welcome news for PCTs.
Posted by Mick Suggett, who specialises in commercial freehold and leasehold property within the public health and local authority sectors; preparation of reports on title for lenders and public bodies.
Mick suggett
0115 908 4885
msuggett@brownejacobson.com
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Rating: 7.0/10 (2 votes cast)
Tags: Department for Health, health, local authorities, NHS, primary care trusts, propco, property
Posted in Health & Safety, Local Authorities, NHS, Property | No Comments »
Monday, January 16th, 2012
Today is the first working day of the obligation under the Localism Act 2011 for local authorities and single status fire and rescue authorities to produce a Pay Policy Statement. The government issued draft guidance for consultation before Christmas and once that comes out in final form authorities will know exactly what is expected.
While a lot of local authorities will already have started thinking about drafting a statement it will require a lot of input from both officers and members and will need to be approved by the full authority. This approval is aimed at making the authority more accountable to the local tax payers with the hope that the gap between the highest and lowest earners will reduce.
The policy must be applied from 1 April 2012 and it will be interesting to see if the government’s wish to effectively “cap” the pay of the most senior officers will come true.
Posted by Anja Beriro, who specialises in : local authority law, public sector procurements, commercial agreements, projects and shared services; clients: local authority and private sector bodies
Anja Beriro
0115 976 6589
aberiro@brownejacobson.com
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Rating: 7.0/10 (1 vote cast)
Tags: fire and rescue authorities, government bodies, local authorities, local tax payers, localism act 2011, Localism Bill, pay policy statement, Tax
Posted in Commercial Litigation, Government bodies, Local Authorities, Public Sector, Tax | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 30th, 2011
The case of Essex CC v Williams [2011] examined whether or not those over the age of 19 met the criteria under the Education Act 1996 to receive a Statement of SEN.
The Court of appeal has now released its judgement setting out that those over the age of 19 could not be considered a “child” under the Education Act 1996. This will mean that authorities do not have to maintain Statements of SEN past that age.
The court said that for most people it would be absurd to refer to a young adult of 20 years or more as a ‘child’ and that they would not extend the specific definition of child as set out in the Act.
Extending this provision would have far reaching budgetary implications, as well as raising safeguarding concerns around teaching adults alongside children. It looks like there will be a further appeal, which we will again follow with interest.
Laura Richards
0115 976 6249
lrichards@brownejacobson.com
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Tags: Education, education act, local authorities, safeguarding, SEN statements
Posted in Education, Local Authorities, Public Sector | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 29th, 2011
Chancellor George Osborne has announced a new funding package for education, which includes an extra £600 million to create 40,000 school places over the next three years in local authorities with the greatest demographic pressures. The package also includes £600 million for 100 new free schools, which will be opened as academies by groups of parents, teachers, charities, businesses, universities, trusts, religious or voluntary groups.
The government hopes that the free schools (which will include specialist maths schools for 16-18 year olds) will help produce the next generation of engineering and science graduates needed for long term economic prosperity.
The academy programme continues to storm ahead with 1,419 academies open in England to date and hundreds more in the pipeline. With the extra funding announced and the Chancellor’s undiluted praise for Mr Gove it is safe to say that the academy programme will not be slowing any time soon.
Hayley Roberts
0115 908 4862
hroberts@brownejacobson.com
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Tags: academies, Education, free schools, funding for education, George Osborne, local authorities
Posted in Education, Local Authorities | No Comments »
Thursday, November 10th, 2011
The doctrine of vicarious liability establishes that an employer is liable for the acts or omissions of its employees. It was founded on a two stage test: (1) is the relationship (normally one of employment) one to which the principles will apply; and (2) whether the act or omission was within the scope of employment.
Case law has chipped away at the doctrine, ever widening the relationships that now seem to give rise to vicarious liability. Mr Justice MacDuff’s judgment in JGE yesterday was no exception. It widened the first stage further to include a situation whereby the key elements of “employment” did not figure.
Although Mr Justice MacDuff said that the doctrine is not “infinity extendable”, previous judges made the same point before adding one more little extension. Mr Justice MacDuff’s judgment was no different. So where does that leave us? Potentially analogous facts to those relevant in this case are easy to imagine; the relationship between foster carers and local authority springs to mind. Mr Justice MacDuff’s judgment by no means opens the door for such claims, but he may well be offering a key to a previously locked door.
Posted by Ceri-Sian Williams, who specialises in defending claims brought against social services
Ceri-Sian Williams
0115 976 6563
cwilliams@brownejacobson.com
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Tags: case law, Education, employers liability, fostercare, JGE, local authorities, Social Care, vicarious liability
Posted in Education, Social Care | No Comments »
Monday, October 31st, 2011
Councils and other “relevant authorities” will be required under the Localism Bill to adopt a code of conduct consistent with the Nolan Principles of Public Life as a result of amendments tabled by the government on 27 October.
The Bill originally placed a duty on councils to promote and maintain high standards of conduct. However there was no requirement to have a code of conduct so there was no firm mechanism to ascertain whether Council’s were meeting the standards.
The move comes following claims that there are “serious deficiencies” in the Bill if it were implemented as originally drafted. Clearly, a code of conduct is a step forward in giving some clarity as to what the high standards might be.
However, to be effective, standards will not only need to be consistent between authorities but there will also need to be suitable sanctions for breaches of them. The challenge for councils will be having a fair, lawful and proportionate process including a right of internal appeal to enforce the code.
Helene Maillet-Vioud
0115 976 6213
hmaillet-vioud@brownejacobson.com
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Tags: local authorities, Localism Bill, Nolan principles of public life, standards of conduct by councils
Posted in Local Authorities, Regulatory | No Comments »
Monday, October 31st, 2011
A judge has ruled that four siblings receive damages after Buckinghamshire County Council’s Social Workers failed to protect them from very serious sexual abuse by their father. The highest award was £155,487; the lowest £12,000.
What makes this case unusual is the large discrepancy between the lowest damages award, and the highest award.
More significant still is the fact that this judge was prepared to find that, although social workers closed the file on 5 June 1993, a duty of care was owed to a child who had not even been conceived. Hampton, J pointed out that the risk posed by the father to “any child” in the family had been established. I do hope this finding is Appealed. If it is allowed to stand it could be the basis of broadening the category of people to whom social workers owe a duty considerably. There simply aren’t the resources to carry out risk assessments anticipating children who aren’t on the scene.
Posted by Sarah Erwin-Jones, who specialises in social services, the care sector, education and negotiating legal costs; advises on risk management issues including data protection matters.
Sarah Erwin-Jones
0115 976 6136
serwin@brownejacobson.com
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Rating: 9.0/10 (2 votes cast)
Tags: child protection, local authorities, safeguarding, Social Care
Posted in Local Authorities, Social Care | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011
A father of a child with Down’s Syndrome is challenging a local authority’s (LA) decision to cease funding his 22 year old daughter’s education. He wants her education to continue until she is 25.
This case will hopefully clarify LA obligations around when they can lawfully cease to maintain a statement of SEN. Current guidance recommends LAs maintain statements until the age of 19. Yet the proportion of children and young adults with Down’s Syndrome staying longer in schools continues to increase. If the Court of Appeal decides that a LA should educate a pupil with SEN until they reach 25, it will force LAs to carefully examine the provision for these individuals alongside younger students, both practically (e.g. safeguarding) and financially.
The outcome of this case is awaited by many interested parties. However, the Court of Appeal have rightly reserved judgement to a later date. This case will require careful scrutiny and a sound grasp of the wide-ranging consequences on all those affected by the decision.
Laura Richards
0115 976 6249
lrichards@brownejacobson.com
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Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)
Tags: child education, downs syndrome, Education, education authorities, education rights, local authorities, sen
Posted in Education, Public Sector | No Comments »
Thursday, October 20th, 2011
The government has launched a two year inquiry into the exploitation of children by gangs following a report by Bedfordshire University. Current data, based on limited reporting, indicates that 10,000 children may be affected and that children in local authority care are four times as likely to experience sexual exploitation as those who are not.
The inquiry will be conducted by The Office of the Children’s Commissioner, exercising its powers under the 2004 Children’s Act to investigate the scale of the problem. Local authorities and the judiciary will be forced to provide information about child exploitation for the first time. One of the key issues seems to be that less than half of Local Safeguarding Children Boards collect data on exploitation and three quarters of Councils are said to have failed to put in place the 2009 government guidance to protect children from exploitation.
No doubt both of these concerns will be covered when the government sets out its strategy for dealing with the problem. An interim report is due in July 2012 and is likely to give more detail on the full extent of the problem.
Kate Bear
0115 976 6104
kbear@brownejacobson.com
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Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)
Tags: 2004 children's act, bedfordshire university, local authorities, safeguarding, sexual exploitation, the office of the children's commissioner
Posted in Education, Local Authorities, Social Care | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011
A recent survey by the shadow children’s minister Sharon Hodgson suggests that 80% of local authorities in England have cut funding to children’s centres in the past year, and that 90% plan to implement cuts in 2012. This is in addition to almost 50 centres which have already, or will be, closed.
There are approximately 3,600 children’s centres in England, 50% of which are in some of the most deprived areas. They are essentially a “one-stop shop” bringing together a full range of services offering support and guidance to parents to help them support their children’s development and learning.
Necessary savings in budgets required today may simply be postponing a greater costs burden in the future if the opportunity for early intervention is lost, and things go wrong later on.
Posted by Ceri-Sian Williams, who specialises in defending claims brought against social services
Ceri-Sian Williams
0115 976 6563
cwilliams@brownejacobson.com
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Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)
Tags: budgets, children's centres, children's minister, local authorities, local authority cuts, Sharon Hodgson
Posted in Local Authorities, Social Care | No Comments »
Thursday, October 6th, 2011
There are an increasing number of claims being made against local authorities for failing to take children into care. Whether or not a duty is owed to each particular child depends on the facts of the case – the closeness of the relationship between the authority and the child, the forseeability of harm, and whether it’s “just and reasonable” to impose a duty of care.
Cash strapped local authorities are now considering charging parents who put their children into voluntary care.
Both the arguments for and against such a policy are understandable. It’s been done in the past, but in the current climate there’s a risk that immediate savings will be more than set off in addressing future claims from children whose families descend into damaging crisis because the parents refused to pay for voluntary care.
If there is a change of policy it needs to be clearly stated, followed up with well evidenced clear and regular staff training, and closely policed.
Posted by Sarah Erwin-Jones, who specialises in social services, the care sector, education and negotiating legal costs; advises on risk management issues including data protection matters.
Sarah Erwin-Jones
0115 976 6136
serwin@brownejacobson.com
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Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)
Tags: children in care, local authorities, Social Care, voluntary care
Posted in Local Authorities, Social Care | No Comments »
Thursday, October 6th, 2011
We often act for agencies that have employed people who are accused of abusing children. For the most part these agencies are publicly funded local authorities. The claimants themselves frequently have Legal Services Commission (LSC) certificates, which means both claimant and defendant are publicly funded.
A recent change in the law means that more and more claimants are suing their abusers direct, particularly when it is difficult or too expensive to demonstrate any local authority involvement/negligence. In EB v Haughton although the criminal court had found the abuser not guilty the Judge in the civil court found the alleged abuse had taken place and had caused the claimant injury and loss worth over £30K. It now transpires that Haughton had also a LSC certificate which paid his solicitor’s costs and means it is difficult for the claimant to enforce her award and her £111,000 costs ( I bet she was on a CFA). She has decided to sue the LSC. As far as we can make out, the claimant’s case is that the LSC owed her a duty of care not to fund an unmeritorious defence. We would be most surprised if this claim succeeds, but we do expect more claims based on the actions of individuals to focus on institutional defendants such as local authorities, schools and charitable organisations who will be seen to have larger pots of funds then the abusers themselves.
Could publicly funded institutional defendants bring similar claims against the LSC? Watch this space.
Posted by Sarah Erwin-Jones, who specialises in social services, the care sector, education and negotiating legal costs; advises on risk management issues including data protection matters.
Sarah Erwin-Jones
0115 976 6136
serwin@brownejacobson.com
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Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)
Tags: Claims, EB v Haughton, Legal Services Commission certificates, local authorities, LSC
Posted in Local Authorities, Social Care | No Comments »
Friday, September 30th, 2011
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s announcement (29 September 2011) that only 60 babies were adopted last year, comes the news that the number of children in care in England has increased to 65,520.
Monitoring these placements is not easy, it involves social workers working with multidisciplinary teams and families to try and work out what is best for each child. We are seeing an increasing number of claims arising out of such placements (and indeed failure to make such placements). To defend each claim we have to read lots of paper and electronic documents. We also need to spend valuable hours with practitioners so that we can explain what Social Work Practice means on the ground, and why decision making is not simple. The amount of time this involves is breathtaking yet quite often the value of the claim relatively low.
Sadly my view is that Social Workers may, like health professionals, have to become used to the idea that giving evidence in professional negligence claims is simply part of the job. Employers can make that change of culture easier by providing regular training and support.
Posted by Sarah Erwin-Jones, who specialises in social services, the care sector, education and negotiating legal costs; advises on risk management issues including data protection matters.
Sarah Erwin-Jones
0115 976 6136
serwin@brownejacobson.com
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Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)
Tags: browne jacobson, child protection, children in care, Claims, local authorities, professional negligence, professional negligence claims, Public Sector, safeguarding, sarah erwin-jones, Social Care, social work practice, training social workers
Posted in Professional Indemnity, Public Sector, Social Care | No Comments »
Friday, September 30th, 2011
DofE statistics show that around 4000 babies under the age of one were adopted in 1976 but this fell to 150 in 2007 and was down to just 60 in 2010. This is partly cultural, partly because the process takes over a year and partly because good practice requires social workers to try and keep families together.
Alongside all of this, local authorities are increasingly being asked to pay damages for failing to remove children from inadequate families early enough. Claimant lawyers often argue that delay means their clients have missed an opportunity to be successfully placed with an adoptive family, instead growing up in foster or institutional care. They say this part of the claim alone is worth at least £50,000.
Local authorities take heart – this latest report shows how difficult it is going to be to succeed in these arguments. Three quarters of children in care are placed with foster parents with a remaining 12% in residential accommodation. This suggests that only 10 to 12% are suitable to be even considered for adoption.
Posted by Sarah Erwin-Jones, who specialises in social services, the care sector, education and negotiating legal costs; advises on risk management issues including data protection matters.
Sarah Erwin-Jones
0115 976 6136
serwin@brownejacobson.com
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Rating: 10.0/10 (2 votes cast)
Tags: adoption, browne jacobson, child protection, damage claims, foster parents, inadequate families, local authorities, safeguarding, sarah erwin-jones, Social Care
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 7th, 2011
The process of transferring RDA assets has taken place in stages and is expected to be completed by 19 September 2011. In July, the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills published a list of RDA land and property assets being transferred to the Homes & Communities Agency (HCA), who will be accountable to government for the effective management and disposal of the portfolio.
The majority of the RDA land and property portfolio will be transferred into a stewardship arrangement with the HCA through which local partners, including local authorities, businesses, local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) and others will be able to influence their development. As such, there is likely to be an increased number of interested parties who may each have potentially conflicting interests.
Those dealing with the development of former RDA land will need to factor in these changing arrangements for the holding of it. The transfer of land to the HCA may have significant impact upon current and future transactions and their timeframes.
Helene Maillet-Vioud
0115 976 6213
hmaillet-vioud@brownejacobson.com
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Rating: 8.0/10 (1 vote cast)
Tags: department for business innovation ans skills, HCA, homes and communities agency, local authorities, RDA assets, RDA land
Posted in Local Authorities, Property | No Comments »
Thursday, August 11th, 2011
The Highways Agency, which oversees motorways and trunk roads is introducing rules requiring contractors to carry out emergency repairs only if the potholes are more than 4cm deep or 15cm wide, meaning that potholes under this size will not be repaired.
Previously contractors were required to ensure the road gave an “even, comfortable and quiet” ride and to patch even minor defects within 24 hours.
Concerns have been raised that this will lead to more temporary speed restrictions being imposed and cost more in the long term because there will be less preventive maintenance but the real concern must be to the safety of the road network with the increased risk of motor accidents and the increase in claims against the Highways Agency.
Posted by Steven Conway, specialising in: defence of claims on behalf of insurers, local and public authorities, in particular employers’ liability and public liability claims.
Steven Conway
020 7337 1037
sconway@brownejacobson.com
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Rating: 9.1/10 (11 votes cast)
Tags: budgets, code of practice for highway maintenance, emergency repairs, Highways Agency, insurance, local authorities, potholes, steven conway
Posted in Insurance, Local Authorities | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011
Public bodies acting in good faith to bring proceedings to the Court of Protection appropriately should not fear a costs order, but where delay in doing this makes the case more complicated and costly, they can expect to be punished in costs, as well as publicity.
In the long running Deprivation of Liberty case of G v E, Manchester City Council was named and shamed for breaching Articles 5 (liberty) and 8 (family life) of the European Convention by removing a young man with learning difficulties from his foster family, and putting him into a supported living arrangement without lawful authority.
The Court of Appeal has now (2 August 2011) upheld the costs order that the local authority should pay a hefty chunk of the family’s legal costs, rumoured to run to hundreds of thousands of pounds. After the recent judgment in Neary, this is another good reason to be getting appropriate cases to Court as quickly as possible.
Posted by Ben Troke, who specialises in clinical negligence; health law; access to NHS and social care and funding; Court of Protection / Mental Capacity Act; Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards; NHS Constitution and patient rights.
Ben Troke
0115 976 6263
btroke@brownejacobson.com
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Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)
Tags: costs order, Court of Protection, deprivation of liberty, European Convention, G v E, local authorities, Manchester City Council
Posted in Local Authorities, Social Care | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 6th, 2011
This is a rare victory of local authorities in the current climate of frequent legal challenges to spending cuts.
Former prima ballerina Elaine McDonald has health problems. She needs to urinate several times each night. She also needs assistance to use a commode to avoid falling. She wants her council to pay for a night time carer. The council prefers the cheaper option of providing incontinence pads. She alleges this is a breach of her human rights, and disability discrimination.
All 5 Supreme Court judges, and no doubt the country at large, sympathise with Ms McDonald. However 4 out of 5 were very clear that the council’s decision to supply incontinence pads was lawful.
The emotive nature of the claim is clear from the judges’ unusually robust language. Lady Hale, who agreed with Ms McDonald, said her claim should succeed in “a civilised society”. The other judges described her conclusions as “remarkable…surprising…regrettable” and to be “deplored”.
Strong stuff indeed.
Posted by Chris Webb-Jenkins, who specialises in defending claims against education and care providers and their insurers; risk management, stress, information management and child protection issues.
Chris Webb-Jenkins
0115 976 6175
cwebb-jenkins@brownejacobson.com
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Tags: disability dicrimination, Elaine McDonald, former ballerina, local authorities, Supreme Court
Posted in Local Authorities, Social Care | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
Last week saw a particularly challenging employment appeal tribunal decision for local authorities and managers in the care sector. An Iranian residential social worker successfully held his employer liable for acts of racial harassment carried out by an extremely challenging child. It was found that the employer was liable under the Race Relations Act 1976.
The tribunal concluded that the employer had known the employee had his accent mocked and that the child said he should go “back home”. The tribunal also decided that the local authority had not acted to put in effective measures to prevent the behaviour. The behaviour was harassment for which the employer was liable given its inaction.
The tribunal dismissed the argument that the child’s underlying intention was to challenge authority and was thus not racially motivated. This decision has important consequences for managers in the health and care sector, whether working with challenging children or the elderly.
Posted by Sarah Erwin-Jones, who specialises in social services, the care sector, education and negotiating legal costs; advises on risk management issues including data protection matters.
Sarah Erwin-Jones
0115 976 6136
serwin@brownejacobson.com
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Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)
Tags: care staff, employment appeal tribunal, local authorities, Race Regulations Act 1976
Posted in Employment, Local Authorities, Social Care | No Comments »
