Public Law Expert Comments After Release Of New Study

Public law specialists at Irwin Mitchell have called for improvements to be made to disabled children’s services, following the release of a worrying new Care Quality Commission (CQC) report.

The study by the regulator revealed that children and their families can face a postcode lottery when it comes to waiting times for services and access to necessary equipment, citing the example that some have to wait up to a year for aids including wheelchairs.

In addition, the national report, which was released alongside over 150 local area studies, suggests that delays were impacting on access to other key treatments such as speech and language therapy and physiotherapy.

Irwin Mitchell’s Public Law team have recently been involved in a number of cases related to helping disabled people to gain access to the vital health and social care services that they need to get the most from their lives.

Yogi Amin, a Partner who specialises in the area, outlined: “We are being contacted regularly by families and some of the most vulnerable members of society who are seeing so many of the services they rely on being cut.

“However, this report raises significant concerns over whether existing services in many cases are both adequate and meeting demand.

“Following the release of this report, it is vital that efforts are made to ensure that everyone who needs such support is able to get access to what they need when they need it. Most importantly, this should be regardless of where they live. Delays in providing vital therapies or disability equipment is a cause of serious upset and distress or potential harm to the individual, not to mention a real sign of inefficiency in delivery of public services.”