Cuts to disabled services ruled ‘unlawful’


by Don Paskini    
May 26, 2011 at 1:30 pm

Third Sector magazine reports:

Disability charities might receive better than expected grants from local authorities after a ruling by the High Court that the process used to make cuts to disabled people’s services by Birmingham City Council was unlawful, according to a charity for blind people.

The Royal London Society for the Blind said councils should ensure that any cuts they made were lawful following a decision by the High Court last week that Birmingham City Council had breached the Disability Discrimination Act by proposing to limit council-funded social care to those deemed to be in critical need.

Birmingham’s proposed cuts were part of reductions totalling £212m across all sectors. According to the RLSB, £51m of the reductions affected disabled people’s services.

A spokesman for the RLSB said it was “almost inevitable” that the High Court ruling would mean many other councils would have to reduce the cuts they were making to disabled people’s services.

“All councils will have to revisit their plans to ensure that they are complying with the court judgement,” he said. “We think many councils will not be in compliance and will have to make sure that they conform with the Disability Discrimination Act.

“This is likely to mean that disability charities receive more generous grant settlements than they had previously been promised from local councils.”


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About the author
Don Paskini is deputy-editor of LC. He also blogs at donpaskini. He is on twitter as @donpaskini
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Reader comments


1. George W. Potter

Brilliant news!

2. Richard Shrubb

The Tories may have to be unfair to the disabled after all – by allowing us the services we require. They always say they’re being fair to us when they’re stuffing us, so I like them being unfair to us, even if we have to force them!

3. Unity

Don:

Shouldn’t that be ‘Disability Services’ or ‘Service for the Disabled’ – a disabled service is simply one that no longer works.

I did say on another thread that I’m a pedantic mood today.

4. Watchman

I’m trying to work out how a council decides a cut is lawful, when any cut could be challenged and the final decision made in the courts after the event. Is this not a disincentive to cut, even if the cut is actually lawful and necessary.

Having worked (indirectly) for Birmingham City Council, I doubt that failure to follow proper legal procedure was a key issue here…

5. Unity

@Watchman,

Having read through the judgment, the court ruled against BCC on the grounds that the information provided to cabinet members and councillors when making the decision on this budgert was inadequate in respect of its statutory duties under s.49A of DDA 1995 (as introduced in law by DDA 2005), which is the positive duty of eliminate disability discrimination, etc.

It less a matter of procedure, more a matter of the nature of decision requiring a higher standard of due dilligence than other budgetary decisions – s.49A sets the bar higher than usual and the Council missed its jump.

6. So Much For Subtlety

I may have misunderstood what has happened but perhaps someone can help me if I am wrong. They have not been told they can’t cut services. They may merely been told they have go to through some useless box-ticking first – weeping crocodile tears the whole while I assume.

How is this anything but a bad thing? They don’t have to keep funding levels up. They merely have to employ some extra useless pen pushing drones to make sure the paper work is all tidy and nice. A regressive policy given they will be upper middle class lawyers by and large. Who benefits except the lawyers?


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
  1. Liberal Conspiracy

    Tory/Lib Dem cuts for disabled people "unlawful" http://bit.ly/ivSXhZ

  2. Elly M

    Tory/Lib Dem cuts for disabled people "unlawful" http://bit.ly/ivSXhZ

  3. Brian Moylan

    RT @libcon: Tory/Lib Dem cuts for disabled people "unlawful" http://bit.ly/ivSXhZ #disability #ukpolitics

  4. neilrfoster

    Tory/Lib Dem cuts for disabled people "unlawful" http://bit.ly/ivSXhZ

  5. sunny hundal

    Oooh! Govt cuts to disabled ppl’s services by Birmingham City Council ruled unlawful http://bit.ly/ivSXhZ floodgates open to more lawsuits?

  6. Martin Eve

    Oooh! Govt cuts to disabled ppl’s services by Birmingham City Council ruled unlawful http://bit.ly/ivSXhZ floodgates open to more lawsuits?

  7. Maeve McKeown

    Oooh! Govt cuts to disabled ppl’s services by Birmingham City Council ruled unlawful http://bit.ly/ivSXhZ floodgates open to more lawsuits?

  8. Aaron Chandra

    Oooh! Govt cuts to disabled ppl’s services by Birmingham City Council ruled unlawful http://bit.ly/ivSXhZ floodgates open to more lawsuits?

  9. Kirst

    Oooh! Govt cuts to disabled ppl’s services by Birmingham City Council ruled unlawful http://bit.ly/ivSXhZ floodgates open to more lawsuits?

  10. Stuart John Bulloch

    Oooh! Govt cuts to disabled ppl’s services by Birmingham City Council ruled unlawful http://bit.ly/ivSXhZ floodgates open to more lawsuits?

  11. Porgy The Cat

    Oooh! Govt cuts to disabled ppl’s services by Birmingham City Council ruled unlawful http://bit.ly/ivSXhZ floodgates open to more lawsuits?

  12. neilrfoster

    Oooh! Govt cuts to disabled ppl’s services by Birmingham City Council ruled unlawful http://bit.ly/ivSXhZ floodgates open to more lawsuits?

  13. Chris Boyle

    Tory/Lib Dem cuts for disabled people "unlawful" http://bit.ly/ivSXhZ

  14. Guy Manchester

    Cameron may hate disabled ppl but it seems the courts dont: Tory/Lib Dem cuts for disabled people “unlawful” http://j.mp/iRYwrW

  15. cheesley

    RT @June4th: Tory/Lib Dem cuts for disabled people "unlawful" http://bit.ly/ivSXhZ RT @libcon:

  16. Thomas Hemingford

    Oooh! Govt cuts to disabled ppl’s services by Birmingham City Council ruled unlawful http://bit.ly/ivSXhZ floodgates open to more lawsuits?

  17. Thomas Hemingford

    RT @June4th: Tory/Lib Dem cuts for disabled people "unlawful" http://bit.ly/ivSXhZ RT @libcon:

  18. Thomas Hemingford

    Cameron may hate disabled ppl but it seems the courts dont: Tory/Lib Dem cuts for disabled people “unlawful” http://j.mp/iRYwrW

  19. Andy Bean

    Tory/Lib Dem cuts for disabled people "unlawful" http://bit.ly/ivSXhZ

  20. Sue Marsh

    Cuts to disabled services ruled ‘unlawful’ | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/oYB0ELv via @libcon

  21. James Hoddy

    Cuts to disabled services ruled ‘unlawful’ | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/oYB0ELv via @libcon

  22. Sinister

    Cuts to disabled services ruled ‘unlawful’ | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/oYB0ELv via @libcon

  23. J P

    RT @suey2y: Cuts to disabled services ruled ‘unlawful’ | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/oYB0ELv via @libcon

  24. Clare Jordan

    Cuts to disabled services ruled ‘unlawful’ | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/oYB0ELv via @libcon

  25. Sari B

    Cuts to disabled services ruled ‘unlawful’ | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/oYB0ELv via @libcon

  26. David Marsh

    Cuts to disabled services ruled ‘unlawful’ | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/oYB0ELv via @libcon

  27. tracy ewan

    Cuts to disabled services ruled ‘unlawful’ | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/yhLxNKJ via @libcon





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