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Lancashire County Council cuts in care to be challenged

Posted by Mark Buckley on Mon 21/03/11. Listed in Disability Equality NW news

You may have seen on the news recently that Disability Equality North West (DENW) are challenging the process by which Lancashire County Council are making decisions about changes to social care services.

Where are we up to ?

On the 7th March 2010, the solicitors acting on our behalf sent Lancs. County Council [LCC] a ‘formal letter before claim’ in accordance with the judicial review pre-action protocol - that’s the official legal way in which to say ‘we’re not happy with your proposals and the way in which you are carrying out the consultation" -they then had 7 days in which to respond.

Through their legal team, they responded with a rather lengthy letter saying they disputed our challenge and would "vigorously defend the Council's decision."

The next step..

The next step in the process is therefore to look at issuing legal proceedings. Which is where we are up to. However, the proceedings will be best issued by one of our members – and we are currently supporting a number of individuals who may wish to do this It is better for an individual to challenge as they are directly affected-although we will be listed as an ‘interested party’ and will submit a statement and evidence.

We don’t know for definite yet who will take this forward or when the court case will be issued, but we are hoping to issue a press release about it soon. Watch this home page for more updates as the case proceeds.

How can you help ?

If you, or anyone you know are directly affected by the proposed changes, forinstance if your care or support has already been cut or changed or if you are worried about any of these – We want to hear from you !

We are saying quite strongly that many people will be affected adversely by these changes, and the enquiries we have received to date confirm this. We want to ensure that in our statement, we take into account the views of as many of our members as possible, so do please give us your story. We may also be able to help as we have access to legal advice.

To view a short compilation of recent tv news reports click here

http://www.youtube.com/embed/jSSLIfHROI4