County council facing judicial review challenge over cuts to adult day and respite services

A letter before claim has been served on Devon County Council by the Exeter and District Mencap Society over plans to “severely cut adult day and respite services”.

The charity has confirmed that a judicial review will be launched unless the council halts the consultation and takes “immediate steps to ensure retention of staff at the services”.

The proposals by Devon are:

• Day Services - closing all learning disability day services with the exception of Abbey Rise in Tavistock, Nicholls in Exeter and Rushbrook in Totnes. Opening of these remaining centres will be reduced from five to three days per week.
• Respite Services - close either New Treetops in Exeter or Pine Park House in Honiton and cap in-house nights to a maximum of 52 nights per user.

The county council stated in its Budget documents: “The successful delivery of the budget will require a reduction both in the numbers of people receiving care and amount of care they receive.”

The Exeter and District Mencap Society argue that the proposed changes have “not been discussed by DCC Cabinet or by the Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee, neither have they been part of a consultation or co-production with users of the services, their parents or carers”.

They added that staff jobs at the two respite centres may be “at risk” too.

The letter before action challenges “the failure of the local authority to carry out the public consultations in a lawful manner and failure to comply with section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 (the public sector equality duty) when formulating the proposals which are the subject of the consultations, and when deciding to consult on them”, the charity revealed.

Bob Gaiger, Trustee of the Exeter and District Mencap Society, said: "We are extremely concerned that the consultations appear to be designed to justify the proposals to cut in-house services. The consultations and proposals are seriously flawed and provide no evidence to support the decisions that Devon County Council have taken so far. Parents and carers are being asked to complete the consultation documents and make impossible choices without any supporting information to help them in their decisions."

Lottie Winson