While people with learning disabilities on the Isle of Wightmay be celebrating their recent legal victory over the council,which overturned proposed social care cuts, the case begs questionsabout what will happen next – and elsewhere – as councils continueto grapple with the problems caused by their reduced funding. ForJM and NT – as they are known for legal reasons – two men withlearning disabilities who require 24-hour care, the High Court’s decision that cuts made to adultsocial care provision by Isle of Wight Council were unlawfuland should be quashed means that they will retain the services theyneed to be able to live their lives. On a human level, this is agreat decision for them and stops any potential suffering they mayhave incurred as a result of the cuts. Indeed, it is good news forthe 2,000 or so others on the Isle of Wight who were facingreductions in some or all of their care packages. Well, at least itis until the council comes back with a revised adult social carebudget. I assume that next time it will be lawful – I can’t imaginethe council’s lawyers would let the same mistakes happen twice -and I also presume that it will re-affirm significant cuts tothe available budget. Indeed, while this case sends a message toother people around the country that local authority social carecuts can be fought and overturned – following other similar cases, such as Birmingham CityCouncil – it does raise questions about what councils will donext. After all, the cuts have to be made somewhere. Just becausesome have been ruled unlawful doesn’t mean they are going to goaway. Local authorities are under pressure from central governmentto make significant cuts to their budgets. Not making them is notan option. The legal challenges don’t mean that service cuts won’tstill be made, they just mean they may come from other areas of thesocial care budget. So it could mean that other people end uplosing out; or that legal ways will be found to make the cuts forthe same groups of people which may result in them losing out indifferent ways. It could still mean that some people lose theservices they need to stay well and live independent lives. Thosein charge of the purse strings have to remember that they aredealing with people, rather than numbers on a spreadsheet, whenthey are working out adult social care budgets and where to makecuts. But this is easy to say. Local authority budgets arecomplicated and increasingly limited. I certainly wouldn’t want tobe the person/people charged with having to make these difficultdecisions. It seems a thankless task, because any cut they make isbound to adversely affect someone, somewhere. There is no way ofprotecting all of the people, all of the time… So, while the legalchallenges to unlawful and unfair cuts are to be welcomed – as isthe courts’ willingness to overturn council plans – it has to beremembered that the cuts will not go away, they will return inother forms, which could prove to be just as bad for serviceusers.
