Hello, anyone aware of any cases where patients have appealed or disputed their discharge from S117 aftercare? Thanks 
Hi
I have seen it be done as full judicial review but this would require a procedural mistake to meet grounds for judicial review. The other option would be to pursue a tort claim for duty holders dereliction of duty in faling to meet a legal obligation to provide 117 aftercare. If it is an LA a well written and circulated demand letter can be surprisingly sesesfull. There are specialist solicitors in comunitu ceare law who deal with these cases as bread and butter however it is slow and expensive to tackle
Just to follow-on from Taylor’s point. I don’t think there’s a mechanism by which S.117 can be reinstated even if the Local Authority & ICB agree they were wrong to end it. You’d need a quashing order (although this can be done by agreement).
Great thanks both, don’t suppose you’ve come across any published examples?
Here’s a recent case where a patient complained to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman about being incorrectly discharged from section 117: Durham County Council (24 001 522) [2025] MHLO 4 (LGSCO) - Mental Health Law Online.
The complaint was upheld. Interestingly, part of the remedy was that a review be carried out of the patient’s s117 needs with a view to either properly providing for those needs or properly discharging from s117. Maybe the logic is that from a legal point of view he was never really discharged from s117 as the Trust had taken the decision unilaterally without local authority involvement.
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As luck would have it, I just found another one: Bath and North East Somerset Council (06/B/16774) [2007] MHLO 1 (LGO) - Mental Health Law Online.
Again, underlying the decision is an assumption that s117 discharge decisions can be revisited. Here’s an extract:
[T]he Council’s criteria for discharging people from Section 117 aftercare are maladministrative. Whether or not a person is ‘settled in a nursing or residential home’ is an irrelevant consideration. The key question must be, would removal of this person (settled or not) from this nursing or residential home mean that she is at risk of readmission to hospital. If the answer is yes then the person cannot be discharged from aftercare.
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And another! Poole Borough Council (06/B/7542) [2007] MHLO 2 (LGO) - Mental Health Law Online. In this case the council improperly discharged s117 (or thought it had!) when the husband/carer had a stroke and the patient had to move to a nursing home. The Ombudsman decided that the s117 continued and recommended it reimburse £33,455.58 of care home fees.
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