Scottish Human Rights Law Group

In Crossan v South Lanarkshire Council [1] a father acting in his capacity as the legal representative of his thirteen year old son who suffered from Down’s Syndrome sought reduction of a decision by his local authority to refuse to pay the child’s fees in respect of after and out of school care together with a declarator that the local authority were under an obligation to fund such a place for the child and an order that such care be funded by them throughout the year.   The child’s needs after and out of school care had been identified in an assessment undertaken by the local authority’s social work department.   It was submitted that the local authority’s failure or refusal to fund this care would result in a breach of the child’s Article 8 rights.   In dismissing the judicial review petition the Lord Ordinary opined that Section 27(3) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 gave local authorities a discretionary power to make provision for after and out of school care for children in need but they were not obliged so to do, even after they had assessed an individual child as requiring such care.    Even if they did provide such services there was no indication within the legislation that such provision required to be free of charge either to the child in need or to his parents.

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