Social care cuts plan is unlawful

High Court judges are to make a ruling on council care cuts that will have implications for all local authorities in England and Wales.

In April they made an interim judgement that Birmingham City Council had acted unlawfully when it tried to cut social care funding for some disabled adults.

The Conservative-Liberal Democrat run council said it had to save £212m from its 2011-12 budget due to funding cuts.

A full judgement is expected at the High Court in London later.

Deafblind charity Sense said the ruling should be a warning to all authorities.

Its head of legal services Kari Gerstheimer said other councils in England and Wales may be considering making similar cuts to social care.

“We hope that this judgement sends a very strong message to those councils, that we are in a climate of cuts.

“But even in a climate of cuts there are choices to be made and a civilised society does not choose to cut services to people with the greatest need – that’s disabled people,” he added.

The families of four severely disabled people fought Birmingham City Council’s spending cuts decision and took their case to the High Court.

The council said it planned to reduce funding for care services for up to 4,000 people in the next three years.

It said it had identified £118m worth of cuts by 2014-15 from its adult and communities directorate and needed to save £308m in total in the next four years due to the central government cuts outlined in the Spending Review.

It said only people whose needs were judged to be “critical” would qualify for council-funded care.

The judges said the plan was unlawful as it failed to comply with Section 49a of the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 (c. 13) which relates to a public authority’s duties towards disabled people.

The full ruling will be explained by the High Court judges later.

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