Judicial Review in Wales: Understanding the Low Numbers of Social Care Challenges

The overall aim of this study is to explore the reason(s) behind the low numbers of judicial reviews in social care in Wales, by identifying some socio-legal issues relating to access to justice in social welfare law in Wales. The key issues to assess are:

- Whether legal practitioners have a reasonable understanding of the Welsh social welfare law, and whether the legal advice available reflects this;
- The impact of the legal aid deserts in Welsh social care challenges;
- Could judicial review be a more useful way to tackle the challenges brought to the local Councils and/or Ombudsman?;
- Whether adult care recipients in Wales have a sound understanding of their legal rights and options, and what enforcing such rights can achieve; and
- If a potential correlation between adult care recipients of certain/a combination of certain protected characteristics and a lower understanding of rights could influence a further decrease in challenges brought by certain protected characteristics.

Allowing challenge of the lawfulness of administrative decisions is an element that is imperative to the public's access to justice ; so to identify any potential obstacles, such as the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 , and any social justice issues, such as discrimination, is crucial in order to ensure that those who are the most vulnerable (it can be argued that social care recipients fall into that category by default ) can enforce their rights. Ultimately, my understanding is that by exploring the above, it is possible to assess whether it is currently possible and beneficial for them to do so .