Challenges for organisations working with children are growing rapidly. Baby P and subsequent cases such as Daniel Pelka and Star Hobson have shone a bright light on safeguarding children generally, as well as leading to unprecedented levels of care applications and continuing structural reform. Our specialists understand the blurring of demarcation lines and responsibilities between professionals in health, education and social care and the issues these bring. We offer pragmatic, inclusive, sensitive and specialist advice through alignment of your resources and specialists.
We have:
We offer a full range of services spanning advisory matters on safeguarding and child protection, employment, public inquiries and investigations, contentious claims and court proceedings in the family and other courts.
We also have extensive experience in representing NHS bodies where it is necessary to intervene in care proceedings, including in cases of fabricated and induced illness matters, and to authorise a child’s deprivation of liberty. We’ve also been successful in seeking orders on behalf of an NHS Integrated Care Board via the Court’s inherent jurisdiction to seek passport surrender and port alerts to prevent a family taking their child out of the country.
Wigan BC v Y (Refusal to Authorise Deprivation of Liberty) [2021] EWHC 1982 (Fam) (14 July 2021) concerning the deprivation of liberty of a 12 year old child with mental health issues.
Representing the Trust in a parent’s application to reopen a finding of fact in relation to a fracture of a baby RL v Nottinghamshire CC & Anor (Rev1) [2022] EWFC 13 (08 March 2022).
In ‘failure to remove’ claims, the claimant alleges abuse in the family home and asserts that the local authority should have known about the abuse and/or that they should have removed the claimant from the family home and into care earlier.
Our immediate future shows a renewed focus on foster care. We’re going to see a new nationwide-drive to recruit foster carers and the implementation of a more robust, and potentially financially-generous system for encouraging friends and family to care for their relatives (both when extended families cannot cope or provide care for any reason).
This summer saw the publication of a report describing itself as a ‘once in a generation’ opportunity to reset children social care. Based on the current trajectory, the report concluded that 100,000 children would be held in care in the next decade.
Whilst Schools and Academies exist to educate and inspire young people, their primary obligation is their protection. Keeping Children Safe in Education (“KCSIE”) is at the heart of everything that educational institutions do and impacts on every decision, however big or small.
This webinar looks at the three key themes in the decision, and is aimed at sports & social clubs (including safeguarding officers).
Our speakers looked at Child Safeguarding in childcare proceedings.
The Department for Education published the draft 2022 version of Keeping Children Safe in Education. A few changes caught the eye and the one that most of us in education are discussing relates to a new set of text that suggested checking the online presence of job applicants.
Watch now on-demand our Child Abuse & Social Care Forum.
The High Court has considered the application of the Human Right Act to local authorities in cases where they are carrying out their statutory child protection functions after dismissing the latest ‘failure to remove’ claim against two local authorities.
We were delighted to be joined by Dr Nigel Sturrock, Regional Medical Director for the Midlands at NHS England and NHS Improvement. He gave an overview of the pressures placed on the NHS by the pandemic, including the impact on urgent and emergency care, elective procedures and staffing.
In this session, we look at how to manage and respond to current challenges, including interventions, service failures and serious incidents, and consider future models for long term transformation of services.
A recent judgment (8 November) has confirmed that the provision of s20 accommodation under the Children Act 1989, does not automatically fix a local authority with a general duty of care.
The judgment in YXA v Wolverhampton City Council [2021] is significant for several reasons.
Catch up on this year’s social care forum where we discussed developments on liability for friends and family foster placements, lessons learned from pursuing recoveries from abusers in child sex abuse cases and also the impact of the ABI Code of Practice for responding to civil claims for child sexual abuse following recommendations of the IICSA.
The Independent review of children’s social care in England describes itself as a ‘once in a generation opportunity to transform the children’s social care system’. Some might also see it as a poisoned chalice.
Local authorities now have the benefit of a flurry of recent judgments on the issue of the existence of a duty of care in children’s ‘failure to remove’ cases.
In this training video participants and their organisations will be starting to look beyond the immediate impact of Covid-19, now planning for the future of litigation including child abuse litigation.
The High Court decision of R (Cornerstone (North East) Adoption and Fostering Service Ltd) v The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills highlight the critical role that evidence plays in the Court’s assessment.
In June 2020 the University of Birmingham published a research briefing exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child protection practice.
The beginning of Spring 2020 saw the Supreme Court give judgment in two important cases concerning the principle of vicarious liability.
The Delay phase of the Government’s coronavirus response plan anticipated a need to take steps to support health and social care systems, including steps to preserve essential services by reducing some others.
Last week the Court of Appeal handed down a decision that has significant implications for all those organisations that may face historical abuse claims.
The Courts are slowly accepting that these cases are very much now in the mainstream of litigation, they still do have their quirks which many judges consider separate them from the pool of general personal injury litigation.
Last month the government published the latest annual update on the numbers of looked after children.
The Children Act 1989 imposes a statutory duty on Local Authorities for Looked After and certain other young people as they prepare for adulthood.
Almost every year the Fostering Network publishes a State of the Nation’s Foster Care Summary report after surveying foster carers.
Welcome to our social care newsletter for October 2019.
The Supreme Court decision in Poole Borough Council v GN and another [2019] UKSC 25 addresses key legal principles in relation to duty of care connected with the performance of statutory services by public bodies.
For anyone who has followed the evolving case law in the social care sector, this title is likely to raise some questions. Most notably, “What about the decision in Armes?”
Following an Ofsted investigation, it was found that Freiston Hall, an independent school in Lincolnshire, was operating illegally. The school was found to be unregistered and unsafe but had been accepting £1,200 per week per child.
This edition looks at CN & GN v Poole Borough Council, Kuoni, faith abuse cases, limitation in child abuse negligence claims, applications to strike out, and Human Rights Act experts.
With the recent report that the Church of England found a 50% rise in abuse claims and concerns, it is worth looking at current trends in this arena.
Public authorities have become familiar with the challenges of claims for non-recent abuse, often arising out of care and school environments.
Limitation law prevents a claim from being pursued after a certain period has elapsed from the date of events to which it relates.
Now that the Supreme Court has delivered its judgment in the case of CN & GN, many claimants’ solicitors are beginning to reawaken their files (where they have the funding and the will to do so); seeking disclosure from local authorities so that they can investigate and potentially issue claims.
In May 2016 an inquest into the charity’s care was opened following the death of Sophie Bennett.
This morning (6 June) the Supreme Court has handed down its decision in Poole Borough Council v GN and another. The court dismissed the appeal and upheld the decision in the lower court that the claim should be struck out. The claim addresses broad issues with the potential to impact on negligence claims against many public bodies including health and education.
This month includes freedom of information, housing regeneration, Alexander Kuznetsov and London Borough of Camden, EU regulation standard form public procurement notices, expert evidence, child care and immigration, conflicts of interest, information law update, and environmental law.
The IICSA has a number of investigative streams, and one of its areas of focus is Accountability and Reparations.
