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The Court of Appeal, gave judgment in Re Y (A Child) [2019] EWCA Civ 2209 in a dispute between local authorities about which of them should be the designated authority in care proceedings concerning a child with no ordinary place of residence. The Court emphasised yet again that the costs of litigating the issue was an unnecessary and avoidable drain on local authorities’ stretched social services budgets. In that case, as the Court observed that the costs incurred would almost certainly have covered the expenses of Y’s care for many months. But how could these local authorities have resolved their differences in a way that was quick, cost-effective and had sufficient authority that whichever authority that needed to back down could do so? The answer is to use the Landmark Who Pays? expert dispute resolution service. Landmark’s Who Pays? service is now available to resolve these disputes quickly, in a cost-effective way and will stop local authorities facing this type of stinging criticism from the courts. Local authorities and other public bodies are able to jointly instruct a barrister to determine which of them is responsible for meeting the cost of providing health, social care and/or education services to an individual, within an agreed timescale and for a fixed fee. The Court of Appeal says that local authority budgets should not be depleted by squabbles of this kind, and we agree! Full details of the service may be viewed here, or via Richard Bolton at rbolton@landmarkchambers.co.uk.
