Council halts plans to cut adult day and respite services following pre-action letter
Devon County Council has halted plans to cut services for disabled people after being served a letter before claim by the Exeter and District Mencap Society.
While welcoming the news, the Exeter and District Mencap Society said it is prepared to proceed to judicial review if “the need arises”.
Following pressure from the charity, as well as from parents and carers, Devon has halted the consultations on its proposals to cut in-house adult day and respite services which were described as "unlawful".
The letter before action, sent by law firm Rook Irwin Sweeney on behalf of the charity, challenged “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 proposals by Devon were:
- 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 argued that the consultation exercises appeared to show that DCC had not been supporting new referrals to in-house adult day and respite services “for some time” and that there could be “a hidden demand that is being ignored and was not taken into account in the information that led to the proposals”.
The charity also said the consultation exercises had shown that DCC had an "unlawful" policy of limiting the amount of respite available to service users, which it would “request is withdrawn”.
Bob Gaiger, Trustee of Exeter and District Mencap Society, said: "We welcome the decision by Devon County Council to call a halt to the consultations and hope that their review of the comments and representations so far lead them to cancel their distressing proposals for adult day and respite services. We value our working relationship with the council but would like to emphasise that we are ready to proceed to judicial review if the need arises."
Anne-Marie Irwin of Rook Irwin Sweeney, solicitor for Exeter Mencap, said: "On behalf of Exeter and District Mencap Society, we argued that the council had failed to comply with its legal duties to consult fairly, and to have regard to the needs of disabled people when formulating these proposals, which would have had a significantly detrimental impact on many disabled people in Devon. Our clients hope that legal action will not be necessary, but we continue to advise Exeter and District Mencap and will monitor the actions of the council in the coming months.”
Lottie Winson
