Introduction
2.1Social and health care bodies assess individuals and make decisions about whether and how to meet their needs. They also make overarching decisions about strategy and policy: see below, at ‘Adult social care strategy and policy materials’ (para
2.5) and ‘Health care strategy and policy materials’ (para
2.13).
2.2In recent years, due to ‘financial austerity’, such ‘macro’ decisions have involved increases in charging and/or reductions in service provision, and have been subject to legal challenge by way of judicial review.
2.3The usual grounds of challenge have been:
•inadequate consultation (see below, chapter 3);
•failure to act under statutory guidance, or take into account non-statutory guidance (see below, chapter 4);
•breach of what is now the public sector equality duty (PSED) at section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 (see below, chapter 5).
2.4All these grounds of challenge are also available in the context of decisions about individual needs but have proven particularly suited to macro challenges.