Post by nickd on Mar 11, 2011 22:06:02 GMT 1
Here's an article in the Law Society Gazette on how the cuts impact upon the disabled. The article focuses on how the disabled have a need of support and how legal challenge may be used to ensure they get it.
This is particularly topical at the moment given how the cuts are heavily impacting upon the availability of special needs education. Let's not forget how the legal aid reforms plan to remove help for anyone with an education based problem - often leading to the need to state a case before an independent tribunal.
Thanks to Jman for highlighting this one on the Ilegal site.
Here's some of the article....
".How the law can be used to fight cuts to services for disabled people Thursday 10 March 2011 by Steve Broach
Disabled children and disabled adults need significant support from public bodies to help them lead ordinary lives. These groups require both specialist and targeted services and flexible universal services which can be adapted to their needs.
The past decade has seen services for disabled children and disabled adults improve, albeit patchily, under a focused programme of investment. A key example of this is the Aiming High for Disabled Children programme, which led to over £800m being spent on improving disabled children’s services during the last spending review period.
However, it is precisely because of these large sums that disabled children and disabled adults are likely to be hit hardest by the coming cuts to public services.
This was made clear at last week’s National Autistic Society professional conference in Manchester, where hundreds of delegates from all over the country expressed serious concern about the future of services for children and adults with autism, from specialist education services to services helping adults with autism to enter employment.
I am concerned here with some of the general legal obligations which may be used by disabled children, disabled adults and their advocates to resist spending cuts. And it should also be remembered that where a duty arises to provide a service to an individual, compliance with this duty is likely to be necessary regardless of whether there is sufficient money in the budget. Decisions by public bodies that run contrary to their statutory duties, for example to slice a fixed percentage off the allocation of personal budgets in adult social care, are highly likely to be overturned by the High Court.
Legal duties
There are four key duties that can assist in fighting proposed cuts to services for disabled children and disabled adults:..."
find out more by using the link below :
www.lawgazette.co.uk/features/how....disabled-people
This is particularly topical at the moment given how the cuts are heavily impacting upon the availability of special needs education. Let's not forget how the legal aid reforms plan to remove help for anyone with an education based problem - often leading to the need to state a case before an independent tribunal.
Thanks to Jman for highlighting this one on the Ilegal site.
Here's some of the article....
".How the law can be used to fight cuts to services for disabled people Thursday 10 March 2011 by Steve Broach
Disabled children and disabled adults need significant support from public bodies to help them lead ordinary lives. These groups require both specialist and targeted services and flexible universal services which can be adapted to their needs.
The past decade has seen services for disabled children and disabled adults improve, albeit patchily, under a focused programme of investment. A key example of this is the Aiming High for Disabled Children programme, which led to over £800m being spent on improving disabled children’s services during the last spending review period.
However, it is precisely because of these large sums that disabled children and disabled adults are likely to be hit hardest by the coming cuts to public services.
This was made clear at last week’s National Autistic Society professional conference in Manchester, where hundreds of delegates from all over the country expressed serious concern about the future of services for children and adults with autism, from specialist education services to services helping adults with autism to enter employment.
I am concerned here with some of the general legal obligations which may be used by disabled children, disabled adults and their advocates to resist spending cuts. And it should also be remembered that where a duty arises to provide a service to an individual, compliance with this duty is likely to be necessary regardless of whether there is sufficient money in the budget. Decisions by public bodies that run contrary to their statutory duties, for example to slice a fixed percentage off the allocation of personal budgets in adult social care, are highly likely to be overturned by the High Court.
Legal duties
There are four key duties that can assist in fighting proposed cuts to services for disabled children and disabled adults:..."
find out more by using the link below :
www.lawgazette.co.uk/features/how....disabled-people