Council agrees to pay £50,000 in damages after unlawfully issuing care proceedings in relation to disabled child

A County Court judge has issued a declaration that Northumberland Council breached the rights of a disabled child under Article 8 of the European Court of Human Rights (the right to private and family life) after it unlawfully issued care proceedings.

The local authority had required Ella Chapple’s mother and siblings to leave the family home while the care proceedings were ongoing, the claimant’s law firm, TV Edwards, said.

The order from His Honour Judge Freeman at Newcastle County Court also recorded that changes made to the child’s bespoke care and education package while care proceedings were ongoing had a negative impact on Ella and caused her significant distress.

Damages of £50,000 have been agreed.

Ella has complex disabilities and needs, including deafblindness, learning disabilities and WAGR syndrome.

Her lawyers, acting via Ella’s mother and litigation friend Elly Chapple, argued that the care proceedings, brought by Northumberland (NCC) in April 2020, were unnecessary and disproportionate for a variety of reasons, “including that:

• relevant professionals had agreed, at a meeting to discuss concerns, only two weeks before care proceedings were issued, that there was no cause to even place Ella on a child protection plan (a step often taken as a less intrusive alternative to care proceedings), let alone issue care proceedings;
• fresh allegations and concerns communicated to NCC after that meeting were simply accepted and not properly investigated or scrutinised, despite the individual who made those allegations having attended the meeting and stating they had no concerns;
• Ella’s parents were sent a letter prior to issuing care proceedings, stating that following the meeting, NCC had tried to work with them to improve matters, but that this had not been successful. However, NCC were unable to identify any work that had been attempted in the short space of time between the meeting and the decision to issue care proceedings.”

The claim also pleaded that changes made to the claimant’s care and education package while care proceedings were ongoing from April 2020 – December 2020 were inappropriate and caused her significant distress.

TV Edwards said Ella is entitled to a bespoke, wraparound package of education and care as ordered by the SEND Tribunal in 2017, comprising a “Waking Day Curriculum”, delivered by a dedicated team of trained intervenors, in a manner suited to her needs.

The law firm said that while the care proceedings were ongoing, Northumberland unilaterally arranged for its own in-house care service to oversee and implement Ella’s education and care package, “who in turn dictated radically different approaches to Ella’s care, with no appropriate expert input sought from Multi-Sensory Impairment (“MSI”) professionals as to whether such changes would be appropriate for Ella’s needs”.

The care service did not have any experience or expertise in deafblindness, but made a number of inappropriate changes, it added.

Civil proceedings were served in May 2022, with the parties reaching agreement in September this year that Ella’s human rights had been breached by the council.

TV Edwards said: “This was an important, and novel, case, which, it is hoped, will have ramifications for the community of parents with disabled children, who often experience significant challenges and difficulties in obtaining support, and subsequent disproportionate and unnecessary intrusion into their family and private lives."

It added that this trend was outlined in a major research report published in July 2021, and it was hoped that the case would help to continue to highlight the issues raised.

TV Edwards added that this might be of particular relevance in light of the ongoing review and consultation by the Law Commission regarding the legal framework governing social care for disabled children in England, which has a stated aim of helping children with disabilities to access the support they need.

Shaun Livingston, Ella Chapple’s solicitor, said “I am glad that we were able to secure some form of redress for Ella and her family – what happened to Ella should not have happened, and while this case cannot undo that, I am pleased that the local authority has at least recognised that things went wrong. I hope Ella’s case can help prevent repeat occurrences for other families”.

Livingston instructed Steve Broach KC and Victoria-Butler Cole KC of 39 Essex Chambers on the case.

Northumberland Council has been approached for comment.