Community Care

What Clients Say | What Other Solicitors Say: Community Care

Case studies

After a double leg amputation Mr Z was released from hospital to his council flat on the first floor without a lift. The council refused to move him and when he came to us he had been housebound for nearly a year and. Using community care as well as housing law, we persuaded the council to re-house him in a specially adapted ground floor flat.

The council had refused to re-house Mr and Mrs M although Mr M could not manoeuvre his wheelchair in the one room they occupied and had to use a bucket because he could not reach the upstairs bathroom/toilet the couple shared with 10 others. Using community care and housing law, we persuaded the council to re-house Mr and Mrs M as homeless, to provide carers for Mr M and a grant for the couple to furnish their new home.

J arrived in the UK aged 15 as an asylum seeker. When he reached18 the local authority refused to provide him with further support. We took this to the Administrative Court which ordered the local authority to support John until the Home Office decided on his application to remain.

Mrs R, an elderly lady, who only spoke Spanish, was kept in hospital although she had no need of treatment and wanted to go home to her daughter. The hospital and social services claimed that she did not have mental capacity to decide to leave and would only release her into residential care. Social services refused to provide her with carers at home. After a court battle we obtained the release of Mrs L from hospital and social services department agreed to provide carers. Mrs L is now back with her daughter.

Social Services refused help to A because she had no documents and they did not believe that she was a child. She had been raped in her own country and was destitute. We commissioned reports to show she was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and had learning difficulties. Social Services accepted that she was vulnerable and agreed to support her.

S was a 15 year old unaccompanied asylum seeker from Iran. Social Services said he was an adult and refused support. His ID card, showing his age had been lost by the Home Office. A complaint to the Home office produced his ID card and, after three age assessments, Social Services accepted that he was 15 and agreed to support him.

Social Services claimed that H, an unaccompanied asylum seeker from Afghanistan, was 17 years old despite a medical report obtained by this immigration solicitors stating that he was likely to be 14.5 years old. We obtained a translation of his ID and Social Services eventually agreed to support him as a 15 year old.

Social Services told Y, a 13 year old unaccompanied asylum seeker from Afghanistan, that he was really 15 and would be moved away from his foster parents because he was too old. He was put in the wrong year at school. Social Services claimed, untruthfully, that he Home Office agreed that Y was 15. We obtained evidence from Y's foster mother and obtained and had translated a copy of his ID. We obtained confirmation from the Home Office that they accepted that Y was only 13 years old. As a result Social Services agreed to continue to support Y in his foster placement as 13 year old.