Supreme Court decides not to review key 1997 community care resources ruling

The Supreme Court decided earlier this month not to review the correctness of a 1997 House of Lords ruling which permits local authorities to take their resources into account when meeting assessed needs for social care, it has emerged.

The case of R (on the application of KM) v Cambridgeshire County Council had been hailed as potentially the “biggest community care case in 15 years” as it was expected to consider the ruling in R v Gloucestershire CC ex p Barry [1997] AC 584. The claimant’s appeal had the backing of four national charities – Sense, Guide Dogs, the National Autistic Society, and RNIB.

But the seven Supreme Court justices allocated to the KM case decided after hearing submissions that they did not want to hear arguments on the correctness of Barry.

As a result, the principles in Barry will still apply to community care decisions under s. 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970.

The KM case relates to the appropriate payment to meet the needs of a 26-year-old man with a range of serious physical and mental disabilities.

The Supreme Court did go on to consider – and has reserved judgment – on the issues of whether the level of explanation given by Cambridgeshire was adequate and whether the decision was irrational because the amount was manifestly insufficient to meet the appellant’s assessed eligible needs.

Cambridgeshire applied a Resource Allocation Scheme to work out the appropriate payment in KM’s case. It also made additional funding available through an Upper Banding Calculator, which it uses in severe cases.

The council calculated the direct payment required to meet KM’s assessed needs as £84,678 a year. This was just over half the amount an independent social worker estimated as the annual cost of supporting him (£157,060).

KM’s mother argued that Cambridgeshire’s amount was insufficient and had been irrationally arrived at.

The Court of Appeal found in the council’s favour in June 2011.

Richard McManus QC, Jonathan Auburn, and Benjamin Tankel of 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square acted as Cambridgeshire’s counsel before the Supreme Court.