Challenge to cut in support service funding

A SCOTTISH council is facing the first legal challenge of its kind over a controversial move to withdraw funding from a support service for people with learning disabilities.

Argyll and Bute Council confirmed last week that it is to cut funding to the charity that runs the service as part of its attempt to save 10% from its housing support services for learning disability.

But Neighbourhood Networks, the charity involved, has said it will seek a judicial review of the decision on the basis that the council had not properly assessed the impact on people with learning disabilities when it decided it would only help those in priority need.

If the charity goes ahead with the challenge, it will be the first time councils’ responsibilities under the Disability Discrimination Act will have been tested in Scotland in this way. Any decision could have major repercussions for other councils across the country, who have been taking similar budget decisions and cutting back services for people with disabilities who are judged to have lower priority needs.

Last week, Birmingham City Council lost a landmark case at the High Court in England, when a judge ruled that the council had acted unlawfully by cutting provision to all but those assessed as being in “critical” need.

Argyll and Bute Council has not consulted with service users, but said it would begin consultation during a 90-day notice period, after the decision had been taken.

Michael Russell, who was last week re-appointed as Cabinet Secretary for Education in the Scottish Government, has written in support of the charity urging Argyll and Bute to reconsider its decision.

Mr Russell, writing in his capacity as Argyll and Bute MSP, as said he was “inclined to support” the plan to pursue a judicial inquiry and added: “The current service is a much valued community-based support.”

He said the council’s actions contravened Scottish Government guidance and guidance issued by the old social work inspectorate, SWIA, expressed concern that there had been no consultation with service users, and warned that people with relatively low need for support might quickly become “critical” cases without it.

Neighbourhood Networks run 11 schemes across Scotland linking small groups of people in supported networks for vulnerable people who would otherwise have no means of help.

The decision to withdraw funding has led to a furious row between the charity and the council which includes a dispute about when the charity was informed that its funding was not in fact at risk but had actually been cut.

The council now says the funding was actually cut in its February budget and Neighbourhood Networks had been told about this then.

John Dalrymple, Neighbourhood Networks’ director, said many councillors disagreed that any decision had been taken then and council officials had been telling the charity as recently as last Monday that a decision was yet to be taken.

He said: “Neighbourhood Networks notes with the utmost concern and regret that in its press release issued yesterday, Argyll and Bute Council is now adopting the position that the decision to withdraw 100% of its funding was taken by the full council in February this year; this despite the fact that few if any councillors understand that they took such a decision on that occasion.”

A spokeswoman for Argyll and Bute Council said: “The council’s requirement is for a contractor to provide services to those with category one and two needs. Council officers have held a number of meetings with managers from the Network over the last year to try to encourage them to change their service model, to improve their performance to allow them to compete for new service contracts.”