NHS, Health and Community Care

Overview

Our team advises individuals and families, local authorities, the Department for Health and Social Care, NHS bodies, NGOs (including Age UK, Mencap, Crisis and Shelter), social workers and economic operators.

Members of our team edit and write some of the leading practitioners’ texts in the community care field including the Community Care Law Reports, Adult Social Care Law and Children’s Social Care Law. Barristers have also been involved in writing DoH-published guidance on legal issues in community care.

Landmark counsel are experienced in both adult and children’s community care. Specific areas of expertise include:

• Complex care disputes under the Care Act, Children Act and the Mental Health Act, including urgent applications for interim relief,
• Discrimination and human rights challenges in the community care context,
• Advising on large scale re-shaping of social care provision including budget-setting, consultation, discharge of the PSED, implementation and challenges,
• Advice and representation on challenges to service closures and reductions, including consultation challenges,
• Advising central government on funding of social care provision,
• Safeguarding issues including serious case/safeguarding reviews,
• Re-housing for vulnerable families,
• Asylum support and provision under the Care Act 2014/Children Act 1989 for adults and children subject to immigration control, including age disputes and care leavers,
• Services and care planning for adults and children in custodial settings,
• Ordinary residence disputes and other disputes between commissioners, including as to the NHS/LA divide,
• Contractual disputes between commissioners and economic operators and procurement issues,
• Negligence and other breach of duty issues,
• Complaints, judicial review and mediation,
• All aspects of charging,
• Professional conduct issues,
• Settlement negotiations and ADR.

A great deal of our team’s work is advisory and does not result in litigation (or if it does, the case subsequently settles). Nevertheless, we have acted in many of the most significant reported community care cases in recent years.

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