Council defends High Court challenge from care home operators
Northumberland County Council has successfully defended a legal challenge brought by an unincorporated association of care home operators regarding the weekly fees paid by the local authority to care home operators.
In Care North East Northumberland, R (On the Application Of) v Northumberland County Council [2024] EWHC 1370 (Admin), Mr Justice Fordham dismissed the claim for judicial review on all grounds, and ordered the claimant to pay the council’s legal costs.
The case featured the interrelationship between a local authority's general statutory duty of promoting diversity and quality in the provision of services; central Government's statutory power to pay conditional local authority grants and Government documents relating to two such grants; provisions within an agreement ("the 2021 Agreement") between a local authority and a care home operator; and basic public law duties including legally sufficient enquiry and legally adequate reasons.
The claimant, Care North East Northumberland, is an unincorporated association of whom 24 of Northumberland's 70 care home operators are members.
The claimant launched various challenges to the council’s setting of weekly care home fees pursuant to an annual fee-uplift mechanism in the council’s contract with care home operators, and in the context of the council’s statutory duty under section 5 of the Care Act 2014 to promote diversity and quality in the provision of services.
It also sought to challenge the council’s allocation of grant funding from central Government.
Outlining the background to the case, Mr Justice Fordham noted that the ‘2021 Agreement’ was a contract between the council and each relevant care home operator.
He said: “It addresses the relationship between the council and the care home operator, as to placements of individuals in care homes. It came into effect on 1 April 2021 and governed a three-year relationship. It has now run its course.”
He added: “There were various banded categories of care home. The focus of this case is on what happened, across all banded categories, with the weekly fees for Year 3.”
The 2021 Agreement included an annual fee revision, applicable for Year 2 and Year 3. The impugned ‘Clause 17 Decision’ addressed the fee revision for Year 3 (2023/4), noted the judge.
Three grounds in relation to the clause 17 decision were advanced as follows:
- First, that the council failed to ask and answer the question posed by clause 17.4.
- Secondly, that the council failed to make a legally sufficient enquiry into the scale of inflationary pressures faced by care homes.
- Thirdly, that the council failed to give legally adequate reasons for the decision. In advancing these grounds for judicial review, reliance is placed on the express terms of clause 17 and on public law principles.
The judge dismissed the claim for judicial review on all grounds. He ordered the claimant to pay the council £50,000 on account of costs, to be paid within 28 days.
Northumberland County Council and Care North East Northumberland have been approached for comment.
Joanne Clement KC and Aliya Al-Yassin of barristers' chambers 11KBW appeared for the council.
11KBW said: “The case reiterates the principle that there is no duty to conduct any arithmetical assessment in the setting of care home fees. The case also provides important guidance on the availability of judicial review in relation to grants paid to local authorities under section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003.”
Lottie Winson
