AC-2025-LON-001008 - [2025] EWHC 2568 (Admin)

As no point turns on the detail of the statutory framework, I can set out the main provisions fairly shortly.

Section 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 provides in relevant part:

“(4)

Where a local authority have functions under Part 3 of the Children Act 1989 in relation to a disabled child and the child is ordinarily resident in their area, they must, in exercise of those functions, make any arrangements within subsection (6) that they are satisfied it is necessary for them to make in order to meet the needs of the child.

…

(6)

The arrangements mentioned in subsection (4) are arrangements for any of the following—

(a)

the provision of practical assistance for the child in the child’s home;

…

(c)

the provision for the child of lectures, games, outings or other recreational facilities outside the home …”

In Part 3 of the Children Act 1989, section 17 provides in relevant part:

“(1)

It shall be the general duty of every local authority (in addition to the other duties imposed on them by this Part)—

(a)

to safeguard and promote the welfare of children within their area who are in need; and

(b)

so far as is consistent with that duty, to promote the upbringing of such children by their families, by providing a range and level of services appropriate to those children’s needs.

(2)

For the purpose principally of facilitating the discharge of their general duty under this section, every local authority shall have the specific duties and powers set out in Part 1 of Schedule 2.

…

(10)

For the purposes of this Part a child shall be taken to be in need if—

(a)

he is unlikely to achieve or maintain, or to have the opportunity of achieving or maintaining, a reasonable standard of health or development without the provision for him of services by a local authority under this Part;

(b)

his health or development is likely to be significantly impaired, or further impaired, without the provision for him of such services; or

(c)

he is disabled, …

(11)

For the purposes of this Part, a child is disabled if he is blind, deaf or dumb or suffers from mental disorder of any kind or is substantially and permanently handicapped by illness, injury or congenital deformity or such other disability as may be prescribed; …”

The defendant accepts that, as the claimant has autism, she is disabled for the purpose of section 17. It is common ground that the claimant is ordinarily resident in the defendant’s area.

Section 17A provides in part:

“(1)

The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision for and in connection with requiring or authorising the responsible authority in the case of a person of a prescribed description who falls within subsection (2) to make, with that person’s consent, such payments to him as they may determine in accordance with the regulations in respect of his securing the provision of the service mentioned in that subsection.

(2)

A person falls within this subsection if he is—

(a)

a person with parental responsibility for a disabled child,

(b)

a disabled person with parental responsibility for a child, or

(c)

a disabled child aged 16 or 17,

and a local authority (‘the responsible authority’) have decided for the purposes of section 17 that the child’s needs (or, if he is such a disabled child, his needs) call for the provision by them of a service in exercise of functions conferred on them under that section.”

The regulations in question are the Community Care, Services for Carers and Children’s Services (Direct Payments) (England) Regulations 2009. I need not refer to their provisions.

Schedule 2 to the Children Act 1989 provides in part:

“3.

Where it appears to a local authority that a child within their area is in need, the authority may assess his needs for the purposes of this Act at the same time as any assessment of his needs is made under—

(a)

the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970; ...

6.

(1) Every local authority shall provide services designed—

(a)

to minimise the effect on disabled children within their area of their disabilities;

(b)

to give such children the opportunity to lead lives which are as normal as possible; and

(c)

to assist individuals who provide care for such children to continue to do so, or to do so more effectively, by giving them breaks from caring.”

In broad summary, therefore, the position is as follows. The defendant has a duty to assess the needs of the claimant as a disabled child within its area. It is for the defendant alone to decide what those needs are and what is required to meet them; in making that decision, however, it is subject to normal public law principles. If it is satisfied that arrangements within section 2(6) of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 are necessary to meet the claimant’s needs, it has a duty to make those arrangements.