“You are undertaking a community care assessment with a couple who have been married for forty years and have never spent any time apart. You have assessed their needs and consider residential care to be appropriate. They want to have a shared room but none are available in the homes which the local authority accesses. You have raised this in supervision with your line manager.”
“She commends you on the thoroughness of your assessment but lets you know that she thinks you are being unrealistic in advocating for a shared room in residential care for them as there are very few such rooms within the current contracted arrangements with residential homes in your fee band. In any event she tells you the local authority does not have to agree to provide what you as the assessor recommends. An alternative plan will be necessary”
Now you need to decide what to do in this situation, select from the options below:
- Do you accept that the local authority does not have the resources to provide what you have recommended and so you investigate an alternative care package?
- Do you argue that your recommendation is based on a thorough assessment conducted with the couple, and your conclusion that separation would be damaging to them?
- Do you remind your manager that the local authority’s intervention should not undermine the couple’s view of family life?
- Do you urge caution about resource-driven decision-making, arguing that to base the decision on resources alone could be challenged in law?
A. This answer shows that you have a tendency toward procedural orientation
B. This answer shows that you have a tendency toward needs orientation
C. This answer shows that you have a tendency toward rights orientation
D. This answer shows that you have a tendency toward technical orientation
Before you move on to the next situation, test your knowledge of key aspects of law that are relevant to this situation by answering the question below.
The local authority does not have to agree to the assessor’s recommended care package but must provide a care package that has a reasonable chance of meeting the needs identified. True or False?
The Correct answer is True
R v Staffordshire CC ex parte Farley [1997] 7 CL 186; R v Birmingham CC, ex parte Killigrew [2000] 3 CCLR 109; R (Goldsmith) v Wandsworth LBC [2004] 7 CCLR 472 – Cases that establish that care plans must analyse adequately the needs presented and must not be driven solely by resource considerations. Care plans, including when revised, must consider Article 8 rights and proportionality, choice and responsiveness, and all the facts in a balanced way.