James specialises in the provision of legal advice and assistance to individuals, their representatives, and professionals in the field of community care law, which governs the provision of education, health and social care services.

James’ expertise and experience include a wide range of education, health and social care and mental capacity law matters. He prides himself on delivery of excellent client care which is tailored to meeting the needs of his clients. He has a passion for promoting and enhancing the rights, entitlements and protections available to individuals and their loved ones.

Currently, James is a Member of the Liberty Safeguards Protection Scheme Code of Practice Working Group led by the Association of Adult Social Services (ADASS) and the Department for Health & Social Care (DHSE). He is assisting the Working Group with the drafting and reviewing of the new Code of Practice which will support the implementation of the Amendment to the Mental Capacity Act.

James is actively involved in Lester Aldridge’s Equality & Diversity Committee, helping to drive forward the firm’s equality and diversity agenda. Currently, he is working with the Committee to launch and implement a 3-year equality and diversity strategy.

Recent examples of work

• Advising the mother of a child with cerebral palsy what education, health and social provision may be available to meet her child’s complex needs, including how to challenge a local authority’s decision not to provide services to a ‘child in need’.
• Reviewing the draft education, health and social care plan (EHCP) of a child with autism, assisting his mother to ensure the local authority amended the plan to ensure it complied with the statutory principles. The local authority had failed to ensure that sections of the plan linked appropriately. Of particular concern was the description of the provision required to meet the autistic child’s need for supervision during the school day, which was too general and did not specify how much support the child required. His requirement for access to an autism-specific curriculum as recommended by the educational psychologist had also not been specified.
• Acting for the attorneys of a man with an acquired brain injury following a motorbike accident, to negotiate a safe hospital discharge. In this case, the Hospital Discharge team were not aware of the obligation to consider providing an interim package of care until it was possible to assess his eligibility for NHS Continuing Healthcare in the community.
• Advising the executors of an estate in relation to how to challenge a clinical commissioning group’s refusal to award NHS Continuing Healthcare eligibility by escalating the dispute to NHS England.
• Helping the family of a man who had suffered a stroke to advocate to his treating clinicians their concerns about switching off his life support when doctors had assumed he lacked capacity and understanding, and steps had not been taken to ascertain what his past wishes and feelings with regard to serious medical treatment were.
• Assisting the solicitor acting for the mother of a disabled child in the context of a divorce to explore what statutory provision may be available to meet the child’s needs and what the costs of legal advice and assistance to both secure and maintain provision would be. This advice was then used to inform discussions surrounding the negotiation of a financial settlement.