Christine Cooper acted for the London Borough of Croydon in a challenge brought on behalf of a child with a tracheostomy against the responsible NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and the local authority. The 2-day hearing was heard by Mr Justice Mostyn via Zoom and concluded today. Judgment was reserved.
The claimant’s case against the local authority was that it could, and should, have stepped in to fill the gaps when the CCG reduced his night care. That care was required to manage his tracheostomy and the ventilator to which it was connected overnight.
Localism Act arguments
The claimant argued that the local authority had a freestanding power to provide healthcare under s. 1 of the Localism Act 2011.
The local authority’s case was that a local authority was able to provide healthcare under s. 75 of the NHS Act 2006 in partnership with the NHS and could not exercise the general power in s. 1 of the 2011 Act to circumvent the existing statutory scheme.