Community Care Law: The Year in Overview - Free Webinar

A roundup of legislative, case law and policy developments from 2021-22 in the areas of adult and children’s social care, asylum and trafficking support and education law, delivered by a panel of specialists.

Programme

Adult social care – Tim Baldwin, Garden Court Chambers

Children’s social care – Maria Moodie, Garden Court Chambers

Asylum support – Connor Johnston, Garden Court Chambers

Trafficking support – Miranda Butler, Garden Court Chambers

Education – Ollie Persey, Garden Court Chambers


Recording

Speaker Profiles

Tim Baldwin, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Tim Baldwin is ranked as a leading junior in the Legal 500 for Court of Protection and Community Care, Social Housing and Civil Liberties and Human Rights. Tim is known for his fierce commitment to representing vulnerable, marginalised and disadvantaged clients. He has appeared in a number of reported cases in the Court of Appeal, High Court, and has significant experience in representing patients in the Mental Health Tribunal, in aftercare disputes and advising MIND on changes by Parliament to s 117 and safeguarding issues. Tim also specialises in Court of Protection proceedings concerning health and welfare decisions, specialist accommodation and DoLS issues for applicants and all respondents, including emergency applications and instruction by the OS. Recent cases have concerned disputes over residence, contact and care, together with DoLS and court authorisation of deprivation of liberty on discharge of patients from psychiatric care. Tim writes regularly for the Garden Court Chambers Social Welfare Updates Blog and was a contributing author to the LAG books Adult Social Care Law and Children’s Social Care Law by the late Stephen Knafler QC.

Connor Johnston, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Connor specialises in housing, homelessness, asylum support and community care law. The majority of his work is focused on ensuring that his clients, many of whom are vulnerable or destitute, are able to access the accommodation and support that they need. Connor often works on behalf of migrants who are not eligible for mainstream support and he was instructed on behalf of the intervener Shelter in the recent case of R (Ncube) v Brighton and Hove Council, dealing with the provision of accommodation by local authorities during the pandemic to persons with no recourse to public funds. He has been a volunteer advocate at the First-Tier Tribunal (Asylum Support) with the Asylum Support Appeals Project for a number of years, representing applicants who have been refused support under s4 or s95 Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. He is currently working on the forthcoming Migrant Support Handbook for the Legal Action Group.

Maria Moodie, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Maria has a specialist public law practice in the areas of community care (Adult and Children Act cases), human trafficking, migrant welfare, housing, and immigration and asylum law. Maria has particular experience with Children Act challenges, specifically advising and representing claimants in public law challenges relating to community care assessments, child in need assessments, the provision of services and support and the ongoing duties owed to care leavers. She is specifically engaged with issues that arise from the interface between immigration and the provision of community care and welfare support. Maria previously acted as a Duty Representative for the Asylum Support Appeals Project in the First-Tier Tribunal (Asylum Support), where she represented clients in s.4 and s.95 appeals. Maria has experience advising on judicial review actions arising from these appeals. 

Having mentored a number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors and child victims of trafficking whilst working in the charity sector, Maria has valuable insight into this client group and the particular issues they face. Maria is frequently instructed to advise and represent victims of trafficking in community care challenges. Maria has a particular specialism in age dispute judicial review challenges, which involve cross over issues of homelessness, dispersal, unlawful detention and removal. Maria is committed to the protection of the rights of these children, who are often experiencing mental health issues as a result of torture, trauma or trafficking experiences.

Miranda Butler, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Miranda works in a broad range of public law areas, including unlawful detention, community care, healthcare provision, trafficking, and strategic litigation. She is regularly instructed in judicial review challenges, including urgent matters and applications for interim relief.  Miranda is a member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Panel of Counsel and in 2020 she was a finalist in the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards. Miranda works on a broad range of challenges on behalf of those with no recourse to public funds, including claims concerning asylum accommodation, trafficking support and under the Children Act 1989. She was instructed in NN and LP v SSHD [2019] EWHC 1003 (Admin) and has a particular interest in the support provided to victims of trafficking. She has been involved in successful challenges to the level of financial support given to victims who are pregnant or new mothers and to the Home Office's cessation of trafficking support for those housed in initial accommodation. 

Ollie Persey, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Ollie is a public law barrister with a busy education law practice. He frequently appears in the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Tribunal in Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) appeals and disability discrimination claims under the Equality Act 2010. He is currently instructed in a number of appeals to the Upper Tribunal on complex questions of equality law. Ollie acts in education-related judicial review proceedings, including urgent cases, and has particular expertise in challenging discriminatory treatment of racialised and SEND children including unlawful school exclusions. 

Ollie is a former university lecturer and draws upon this experience when representing students in academic appeals and complaints before internal university panels and onward complaints to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA). Ollie is actively engaged in campaigning and policy work to address the discriminatory treatment of marginalised children in the education system. He is on the steering committee of the School Inclusion Project (SIP) and is a committee member of the Education Law Association. Ollie also writes for the Garden Court Chambers Social Welfare Updates Blog.

Tessa Buchanan, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers (Chair)
Tessa is a social welfare law practitioner with particular expertise in the fields of community care, housing, homelessness, Gypsy and Traveller Law, and public law. Her practice is primarily publicly funded. She regularly represents clients in a wide range of hearings in the County Court, High Court and Court of Appeal.  She is a co-author of Housing Allocation and Homelessness: Law and Practice (fifth edition, Lexis Nexis, 2018) and a contributing author to Gypsy and Traveller Law (third edition: Legal Action Group, 2019), the Housing Law Handbook (second edition: Law Society, 2020) and the Migrant Support Handbook (first edition: forthcoming). She is a member of the EHRC panel of preferred counsel.