Decisions ‘awash with legal errors’

Local authorities are breaking the law and social workers do not
know whether they are making legal errors when deciding community
care issues, according to a leading community rights lawyer.

Luke Clements told Oxfordshire Community Care Rights group last
week that social services departments were not equipping their
staff with the skills to make decisions about eligibility for, and
access to, services.

He said he knew no other area of public law where there is so many
breaches of the law by local authorities. “Social workers know they
are walking on thin ice but they don’t know how thin because
they’ve not had the training,” he added.