Judicial reviews cost council £400,000 (From Western Telegraph)

Care home judicial reviews cost Pembrokeshire County Council £400,000

5:30pm Saturday 4th February 2012 in News

Two judicial reviews into care home payments are likely to cost Pembrokeshire County Council £400,000 in legal fees – but the full cost of the action has not yet been calculated.

At the council’s older person overview and scrutiny committee last week, head of legal service Huw Miller told councillors that the first judicial review into care home fees cost the authority around £200,000 in its own costs and a percentage of the claimants’ legal costs.

He added that the second review was likely to cost a similar amount.

However this does not include costs relating to the two accountancy firms involved in calculating the disputed care home fees, including the firm which the council says made an initial ‘mistake’ resulting in the first defeated case.

The possibility of legal action against that firm, RSM Tenon, is under consideration.

Mr Miller was responding to a question from Councillor Viv Stoddart, who also asked that the latest information on recalculated fees be given at the next committee meeting, which was agreed.

Director of social services Jon Skone, who will step down from the role in June, said: “People ask, ‘Why did you fight a judicial review?’ You fight a judicial review if your legal advice is there’s a case to do it.

“If that is the legal advice we have a responsibility to protect the public purse and that was the situation in both of them until we got into court or very close to court.”

Following this year’s setting of fees, a new model of calculation will be introduced to avoid similar issues in the future, members were told.

Anomalies relating to a lack of inflation increase and the lack of evidence of a strategic plan were explained by Mr Skone.

He said that the authority did have a strategic plan for the provision of care services but it was not included in court documents because it was not expected to be necessary, as Welsh Government guidance had only just been issued and no formal workshops held.

Mr Skone also said that an important letter detailing a fee decision was not sent by a colleague when he thought it had been.