Welfare Reform on the Web (August 2007): Services for the disabled - UK

No place like home: ordinary residence, discrimination and disabled people

R. Blunden and A. Ash

Voluntary Organisations Disability Group, 2007

This report claims that battles over funding responsibilities between councils and primary care trusts are blocking the transfer of people from residential care into more independent accommodation. The problems arise when the disabled person has been placed in a care home or hospital in another part of the country. These out-of-area placements are funded by the original placing local authority or primary care trust. However, if the individual then decides to leave the residential facility and move into independent accommodation, his or her 'place of ordinary residence' is deemed to have changed, and the new local authority becomes legally responsible for supplying support. In practice, this is leading to disputes over which authority pays for the needs assessment required before the person is able to move.