‘Dozens of leading charities could face insolvency within weeks after the Government ruled they must pay millions of pounds in back payments to overnight carers.’
The Independent, 19th July 2017
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘Lawyers acting for mentally ill clients and dementia sufferers have been praised in surveys commissioned by the Legal Services Board (LSB) on the needs of vulnerable consumers, but some did find it hard to deal with solicitors.’
Legal Futures, 18th July 2017
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘The Legal Services Board has today launched research into the experiences of consumers in vulnerable circumstances when they use legal service.’
Legal Services Board, 14th July 2017
Source: www.legalservicesboard.org.uk
‘A county council has defended a High Court challenge to its decisions to reduce a severely disabled man’s personal budget and revise his care and support plan.’
Local Government Lawyer, 28th February 2017
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘More than 23,000 allegations of abuse by home care workers against elderly and vulnerable people were made in the last three years, yet just 15 people were prosecuted as a result, new figures show.’
Daily Telegraph, 28th February 2017
Source; www.telegraph.co.uk
‘In November 2016, the government commissioned a review of modern employment practices. It is being led by Matthew Taylor and will focus on what has become known as the “gig economy”. In this blog, we summarise our written evidence to that review. Our central plea was that our legislators provide certainty for all. In our view this can best be achieved by extending basic workers’ rights to all but the truly self-employed.’
Cloisters, 9th February 2017
Source: www.cloisters.com
‘A mother who killed a great-gradmother and left her own five-year-old daughter paralysed in a head-on horror crash has escaped jail.’
Daily Telegraph, 27th August 2016
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘A leading care provider has served notice on two North West councils over the “unacceptable” rates they are offering care workers.’
Local Government Lawyer, 7th July 2016
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The Care Act 2014 has made little difference to the lives of some 5.4m unpaid carers, a review has found.’
Local Government Lawyer, 6th July 2016
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The mother of a boy who was born with brain injuries after medical staff failed to notice his slowing heartbeat during labour has said she hopes she can provide a better quality of life for her son after receiving £11m in a high court settlement with the NHS.’
The Guardian, 6th July 2016
source: www.guardian.co.uk
Staffordshire County Council v K and others [2016] EWCOP 27
‘An incapacitated adult (“K”), who had been severely injured in a road traffic accident, was awarded substantial damages in court proceedings which were used by his property and affairs deputy, a private trust corporation, to provide a specially adapted residence and to fund the regime of care and support provided by private sector providers. The local authority, having been informed of the arrangements for K’s care and the arrangements having been registered with the Care Quality Commission, applied to the Court of Protection for a welfare order under section 16 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. The parties accepted that the arrangements constituted a deprivation of liberty satisfying two of three components of a deprivation of liberty within article 5 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, but the Secretary of State contended that the third component, namely the attribution of responsibility to the state, did not apply to the privately funded and arranged care regime (and to others in an equivalent position), so that the care regime could lawfully be put in place without a welfare order being made under the Act.’
WLR Daily, 25th May 2016
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
In re A (A Child) (Baby Relinquished for Adoption: Case Management) [2016] EWFC 25
‘A, a baby born in England to Latvian parents, was relinquished at birth for adoption and quickly placed with foster parents who were approved to adopt. On the understanding that there was no one within the extended natural family, either in England or in Latvia, in a position to care for A, and with the consent of the birth parents given in accordance with sections 19 and 20 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002, the local authority proceeded to convert A’s short-term arrangements to an adoptive placement and notified the Latvian central authority of A’s situation. The foster parents, with whom A had lived for much of his life, applied to adopt him. The Latvian central authority, having made its own enquiries of relatives in Latvia, identified the maternal grandmother as a potential long-term carer for A, had completed a favourable preliminary suitability assessment and commissioned a full suitability assessment. The central authority opposed the adoption of A in England and submitted its concerns that the approach of the English courts towards adoption cases placed insufficient weight on the rights of a child to grow up in his inherited culture and was therefore potentially contrary to articles 36 and 37 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963 and a breach of articles 8 and 20 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989. The birth mother, who had deliberately not informed her wider family in Latvia of the proposed adoption, continued to support adoption by the foster parents, maintaining her opinion that an education and upbringing in England would be in A’s best interests and that her mother would find it difficult physically and financially to care for A. At a case management hearing, the children’s guardian appointed for A recommended an adjournment to enable completion of the grandmother’s assessment. In circumstances where the prospective adopters, the birth parents and the local authority all supported the adoption, where factors from the welfare checklist in section 1(4) of the 2002 Act pointed towards adoption, and where a delay in making a decision was likely to prejudice A’s welfare, the issue before the judge was whether he should make an adoption order without having considered the substantial assessment of the suitability of the maternal grandmother in Latvia as A’s long-term carer.’
WLR Daily, 6th May 2016
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
‘Two carers who wrapped a pensioner in a towel to ensure they had a quiet night shift have been given suspended prison sentences.’
BBC News, 6th June 2016
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘One year after the act came into force, the momentum behind the changes risks being lost.’
The Guardian, 23rd May 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘A carer found guilty of murdering her MS-suffering father has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of four years.’
BBC News, 10th March 2016
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘The supreme court is to hear a legal challenge against the government’s bedroom tax from five people who argue it discriminates against the weak and vulnerable.’
The Guardian, 29th February 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘We are now bombarded with case reports by email and over the Internet. The reporting of 1st instance quantum decisions used to be a comparative rarity before 1992 and the PIQR. Even then there was a time lag in publication and many decisions were never covered. On one level, we are immensely fortunate now to be able to discern how the best counsel and 1st instance judges set about their respective tasks in serious personal injuries litigation; but with that opportunity comes the obligation on the serious practitioner to take the time really to get to grips with the lengthy judgments. It is not easy. This paper, evolving since the autumn of 2007, is an exercise in the on-going fulfilment of that obligation.’
Byrom Chambers, 7th December 2015
Source: www.byromstreet.com
‘A council has admitted wrongly using the Working Time Regulations to refuse the direct payments they assessed a young man as needing, following an investigation by the Local Government Ombudsman.’
Local Government Lawyer, 6th August 2015
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
Mathieson v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions: [2015] UKSC 47; [2015] WLR (D) 296
‘The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions violated the Convention rights of a severely disabled child when he suspended payment to him of disability living allowance once he had been an in-patient in an NHS hospital for more than 84 weeks.’
WLR Daily, 8th July 2015
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
© Inner Temple Library 2017