Putting the cart before the horse: resource allocation systems and community care

The English Care Bill provides for all eligible community care service users to have a personal budget - and councils were required to ensure that 70013. Almost all English authorities are experimenting with Resource Allocation Systems (RASs) as a way of calculating these budgets. This paper describes and critically analyses the nature of the RASs being used and the increasing body of case law they are attracting - in particular the Supreme Court's 2012 judgment in R (KM) Cambridgeshire County Council. The paper draws on research involving 20 local authorities concerning their use of RASs and represents the first in-depth legal examination of the claims made by proponents of the use of RASs. It challenges many of the claims made concerning such systems- in particular that they are 'more transparent', 'more equitable', 'simpler' and less discretionary than the traditional social work led community care assessment process.