Administrative justice and austerity: The case of disputes about adult social care

Rhetoric on social care in the UK has changed in the last twenty years from one of ‘meeting needs’ to ‘enabling wellbeing’. However, despite this, resource constraints continue to underlie most decision making about social care services. This chapter explores how the concept of administrative justice may be helpful, by looking at the dispute mechanisms available to people who wish to challenge decisions about social care. The chapter considers two key impacts on social care in the last twenty years: human rights and austerity. The UK Human Rights Act was passed in 1998, whilst other human rights instruments such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities have been ratified by the UK Government but are not enforceable in UK courts. Although access to resources was at the heart of disputes about access to services in the early 2000s, financial crises and austerity policies in the UK and increased demand brought about by an ageing population have meant that resources for social care are even more constrained than they were twenty years ago. This leaves us with the question of whether greater procedural fairness, either in decision making or in redress, would really make a difference regarding fair access to social care. The chapter concludes that the principle of a right to challenge a decision may enable people to recognise their right to participate in the process. A participatory human rights approach may help to recognise people’s rights to dignity and humanity.