Facts: DM’s needs had been met by his attendance at a day centre, paid for by joint funding. The joint funding ended and the Northern Health and Social Care Trust decided to pay DM £21 per day by way of direct payments; however, the day centre cost £47 per day. DM sought a judicial review of the Trust’s decision.

Judgment: Horner J held that the Trust had failed to follow the approach set out by Lord Wilson in R (KM) v Cambridgeshire CC.1[2012] UKSC 23, (2012) 15 CCLR 375 and above at para 9.97.It had failed to ask at the outset what DM’s needs were and appeared to have rolled up the question what services were necessary with the question what was the reasonable cost of making provision and, while it was legitimate to use a resource allocation scheme as a tool, to create a ‘ball park figure’, the Trust was then required to cost the services needed in reasonable detail.