Worcestershire County Council, R (on the application of) v Essex County Council
2014
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
UK
CORAM
- HHJ DAVID COOKE
Areas of Law
- Administrative Law
- Health Law
2014
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
UK
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
VC, a young woman with a history of mental health issues post childhood brain injury, was detained under sections 2 and 3 of the Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA). Worcester contended Essex was responsible for her aftercare funding per section 117 of the MHA. The court referred to leading authorities and determined that residence is where a person was living immediately before detention. It concluded that Oaktree Manor was VC’s place of residence under section 117, regardless of whether her presence was voluntary or based on her own capacity to decide.
Judgment
HHJ David Cooke :
The claimant ("Worcester") seeks a decision that the defendant ("Essex") is the local authority responsible for funding care for services for VC, a young woman with a troubled mental health history following a childhood brain injury, pursuant to s 117 Mental Health Act 1983 ("MHA" or "the Act") in the period following VC's discharge from detention under s3 of that Act.
The legal issues have been considered by courts at first instance and at Court of Appeal level on a number of occasions and are set out in the judgment of Lloyd LJ in R (Sunderland CC) v South Tyneside Council [2012] EWCA Civ 1232 , to which both counsel referred me as the leading authority.
“2. MHA provides in section 3 for a patient to be admitted to a hospital and detained there for a period, upon conditions laid down in that and other provisions of the Act. This is what is sometimes referred to, in common parlance, as being "sectioned". Section 2 provides for a patient to be admitted to a hospital and detained for a limited period for assessment. Both of these provisions allow the patient to be admitted to hospital against his or her will. They can be applied to a patient who is already in hospital as an in-patient. None of the provisions of the Act as regards compulsory admission or detention precludes the admission of a patient who requires treatment for mental disorder from being admitted to hospital on a voluntary basis; this is sometimes called informal admission: see section 131.
3. The appeal is concerned with the situation that arises when a person who has been detained under section 3 ceases to be so detained and (whether or not immediately) leaves hospital: see section 117(1) . When that happens, a local authority becomes responsible for the after-care of the person so discharged. Section 117(2) provides, so far as material, that it is the duty of "the local social services authority", in cooperation with other agencies, to provide after-care services for such a person until they are satisfied that the person concerned is no longer in need of such services. So, one has to ask: which is the relevant local authority? As to that, section 117(3) says that, in the section, "the local social services authority" means the local social services authority "for the area in which the person concerned is resident or to which he is sent on discharge by the hospital in which he was detained"…
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