Court dismisses parents’ challenge

    The parents of two severely disabled boys who claimed they have
    received inadequate support from their local council have lost
    their High Court challenge.

    Michael and Henrietta Spink were challenging Wandsworth social
    services over the level of provision of aids and adaptations for
    the boys in their home in London.

    However, the judge ruled that the local authority was entitled to
    consider the financial resources of the parents in deciding whether
    it was necessary to make arrangements to meet the boys’ needs.

    The couple’s sons, aged 12 and 16, both need 24-hour care. Their
    current care package costs the council more than £60,000 a
    year.

    The judge said a local authority would have to look very carefully
    at the overall circumstances when parents had the financial
    resources to meet their children’s needs but had expressed an
    unwillingness to do so.

    But he could see no reason why a local authority should not be
    allowed, where appropriate, to conclude it was unnecessary to meet
    those needs.

    Afterwards the Spinks said they may have to sell their home in
    order to continue looking after their sons.

    They called it a “political judgement” that “reinforced the move
    away from local authority support for disabled children and their
    families”.

    Wandsworth’s director of social services, Peter West, said it was
    an important ruling for all local authorities.

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