Disabled people who faced the prospect of being forced to move into care homes if the cost of supporting them at home was considered ‘too expensive’ are claiming a huge victory, after Bristol City Council told them it was dropping the proposal.

People who need care in their own homes have been fighting the proposal from Bristol City Council to put a cap on the amount that care would cost and, in certain circumstances, make the disabled person receiving the care move to a care home instead. Last week, disabled campaigners engaged barristers to help communicate their argument that doing so would unlawfully breach their human rights - and within days, it appears the council has caved in.

Social care chief Cllr Helen Holland has told disabled campaigners that the policy has been dropped, and that the council will work with disabled people in Bristol and across the country to come up with a new proposal.

Cllr Holland’s letter to Alun Davies, the chair of the Bristol Disability Equality Commission, acknowledges the ‘strong concerns that some disabled people in our city and nationally have raised’ during the consultation period. Cllr Holland asks Mr Davies to take on the task of ‘how to build a system to fairly allocate Adult Social Care funding within the agreed budget to meet the diverse needs of the population’, with a deadline of reporting back on October 1 this year.

But, for now, the ‘Fair and Affordable Care Policy’ is dropped, Cllr Holland confirmed. “In discussion with the Mayor, we have now agreed that the policy will not be taken forward at this time, and that officers will work on the basis that a future policy will come forward to a future administration for a decision,” she wrote.

“The work that individuals and organisations have put into responding to us in recent months will not be wasted, as we will share the consultation responses and the independent legal advice that was jointly requested to inform the ongoing work of your group.

“I hope that you view this letter as a positive contribution to a very difficult and challenging debate about the national crisis in social care, and local funding situation which we know that most local authorities share,” she added.

The leaders of Bristol Reclaiming Independent Living (BRIL) have welcomed the move, following almost a year of calling for the idea to be dropped. The proposal, which Bristol City Council said they had copied from an existing policy in Devon, sparked a massive backlash locally last year, and then nationally in January, with young disabled people fearing being made to live in nursing homes with people much older, and completely losing their independence.

The council opened a public consultation on the draft policy in September, and after Bristol Live reported in December that BRIL feared there were many disabled people who didn’t even know about it, the consultation was extended to the end of January.

In the last week of the consultation, top law firm Doughty Street Chambers’ lawyers, Oliver Lewis and Alice Irving, joined BRIL’s campaign and submitted the campaign group’s formal response to the council, warning council chiefs that it would probably be breaking the law.

“The presumption in favour of moving disabled people to care homes rides roughshod over BCC’s obligations under the Care Act 2014 including the obligation to promote well-being and to support people to live as independently as possible, for as long as possible, and Article 8 ECHR and Article 19 CRPD,” the two lawyers told the council. “Moreover, BCC has not complied with the PSED in preparation of the Draft Policy. BRIL asks BCC not to adopt the Draft Policy as it is fundamentally flawed, likely unlawful, and would cause misery to many disabled people and their family and friends in Bristol,” they added.