Stephen Cragg KC acts for Access Social Care in its successful case demanding Government transparency on adult social care funding

The social care sector, including local authorities and care providers, is broadly aligned that social care is critically underfunded – by £8.4bn to meet future demand, improve access to care and cover the full cost of care by 2024/25.  This means that older people and disabled people are not getting the vital social care they need and to which they are legally entitled.  

On 15 October 2024, the Information Rights Tribunal ordered HM Treasury and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (“MHCLG”, formerly known as the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities) to reveal important information requested by specialist legal rights charity Access Social Care around the decision-making processes which determine funding for adult social care. 

Access Social Care (ASC) has said this is ‘a landmark court case for government transparency and accountability in social care, as well as for the many families across the country who rely on adult social care’. The departments have been told to disclose the information within 35 days. The litigation derived from Freedom of Information requests made by ASC to reveal data available to and used by policymakers in relation to decision making on social care funding.

Stephen Cragg KC represented ASC in the case instructed by Niamh Grahame of Public Law Project.

Further information can be found on ASC’s website here.