FAMILY LAW AND PRACTICE
Unit 7
Guide
Children Public Law
Context
The aim of this Unit is to introduce you to the area of children public law as dealt with
by the family solicitor in practice. Local authorities become involved with children
and families when there are concerns about children’s welfare. These concerns can
arise from information given by professionals such as health visitors or teachers.
Alternatively, social services may already be involved with the family for other issues,
for example the parent may have mental health issues or learning disabilities.
The local authority has duties to children in their area, to prevent them from suffering
abuse and neglect and also to reduce the need for care proceedings which are
orders that may result in the permanent removal of a child from his parent.
In this Unit you will consider how the local authority’s duties and responsibilities are
put into practice and also what happens when concerns over the child’s
circumstances are so great that the local authority applies for a court order.
Outcomes
By the end of this Unit you should be able to:
1. Advise on the local authority’s duties and responsibilities to children in their
area.
2. Explain on the public law orders available to the court and the criteria for
making them.
Unit Workshop Tasks
In this Unit Workshop you will:
1. Review the Preparatory Task on local authority powers and duties.
2. Advise what steps a local authority should take in an emergency situation.
3. Discuss the appropriateness of a local authority applying for a care order and
consider the necessary application forms.
4. Negotiate at a first hearing on an application for a care order and interim care
order.
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Preparation
To prepare for this Unit workshop you should:
1. Read Chapter 14 of the Family Law and Practice Textbook.
2. View recorded lecture 5.
3. Locate and read and bring to the Unit Workshop the PLC Practice Note: Care
orders and supervision orders: threshold criteria
4. Locate on an electronic database the case of X Council v B (Emergency
Protection Orders) [2004] EWHC 2015 (Fam). Read the guidance given by
Munby J at para 57 of the judgment on applications for EPOs or the headnote
which sets out the guidance and bring a copy of the guidance in hard copy or
electronic form to the Unit Workshop.
5. Attempt the Preparatory Task attached to this Guide and bring your answers to
the Unit Workshop.
6. Complete Test & Feedback – Unit Workshop 7 (Preparation).
Materials required for the Unit Workshop
1. Your answers to the Preparatory Task.
2. Copies of the PLC Practice Note above and relevant summary from X Council
v B (Emergency Protection Orders) [2004] EWHC 2015 (Fam).
3. The Family Law and Practice Textbook.
Consolidation after Unit Workshop
It is important that you consolidate your learning. In particular you should:
1. Revise your answer to the Preparatory Task in the light of the feedback you
received in the Unit Workshop.
2. Repeat the unseen Task from the Unit Workshop to address any gaps in your
understanding.
3. Complete Test & Feedback – Unit Workshop 7 (Consolidation).
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FAMILY LAW AND PRACTICE
Unit 7
Preparatory Task
Social services receive an allegation from a neighbour of Mandy Belshaw that her
two children Kerry aged 10 and George aged 2 have been left out unsupervised late
at night and have been rummaging in bins for food.
1. What action should social services take?
A social worker makes an appointment to see Mandy Belshaw the following day.
When he visits he finds the house is filthy and the electricity has been cut off. The
children are dirty and he notices that Kerry’s teeth are brown and decayed. The
social worker is sure he can smell alcohol on Mandy’s breath Mandy becomes quite
tearful and says she cannot cope since her husband, the children’s father left six
months ago. She says he left her for another woman and has refused to have any
contact with her and the children since then.
The children are very withdrawn and do not answer the social worker when he tries
to speak to them.
The social worker then contacts Kerry’s school with Mandy’s agreement and the
head teacher says that there has been a deterioration in Kerry in the last few months.
Her attendance has been erratic and when she attends she is unkempt and dirty and
has very poor concentration.
There have also been concerns that often when Mandy comes to collect Kerry she is
drunk as she smells of alcohol and is unsteady.
2. What should social services do now? Give details.
You have been advising Mandy on her divorce. She tells you that social services are
not willing to offer her any help but the social worker has told Mandy that if she does
not pull herself together she will have to go to court and may lose her children.
3. What would you advise Mandy about the Local Authority’s duties?
4. What action would you consider if social services continued to refuse to
provide relevant services?
After the investigation social services decide to convene a Child Protection
Conference. Your client tells you it has been arranged for Thursday afternoon when
she has a hospital appointment. She says she has told the social worker this but he
says she should change the hospital appointment if she wants to come to the
conference even though she has explained to him that she will have to wait another 3
months for a new appointment.
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5. What would you advise her?
The conference is rescheduled and you are permitted to attend. The other people
present are the social worker and his team leader, Kerry’s school nurse and teacher,
George’s health visitor and someone from the play scheme he attends occasionally.
The meeting proceeds and information is presented about the family before a
decision is made whether Kerry and George should be the subject of child protection
plans.
6. If a decision is made that the children are at continuing risk of significant
harm, under which category of abuse or neglect is this most likely to be?
It is decided that the children are at continuing risk of significant harm and need to be
the subjects of child protection plans and the conference formulates an outline
protection plan. The details are further developed by the professionals working
closely with the family and the family members themselves. (These details include,
for example, that Kerry is taken to school regularly and on time; Kerry is given
immediate dental treatment; Mandy attends counselling/alcohol dependency therapy
regularly; a social worker is to meet weekly with the family, etc.)
A few weeks later Mandy rings you and says that her mother has just died and she
feels completely unable to cope. The children are upset as she cannot stop crying.
She feels she needs a bit of time to get herself together, just a few weeks without the
children but there is no-one else to ask.
7. What would you advise her as to social services’ duties?
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FAMILY LAW AND PRACTICE
Unit 7
Task
Liam and Jason Wilkinson Case Study
Lisa Wilkinson aged 26 and Gary Knight aged 28 have two children, Liam aged 3
(d.o.b 12.12.XX) and Jason aged 6 months (d.o.b 04.10.XX) (Gary does not have
parental responsibility for either child). Social services have been involved with the
family for a long time because of concerns over Gary’s violence to Lisa and the effect
of this on the children. On two previous occasions the police have taken the children
into police protection when called to the home for domestic violence incidents. Both
boys have been the subject of child protection plans since 10 days after Jason was
born under the category of emotional abuse as they clearly witness violence
regularly. Social services believe that Gary uses class A drugs regularly and that as
he is unemployed he uses crime to fund this (Lisa has told them this in the past).
Social services also suspect that Lisa misuses drugs. Although the family has been
offered services they have been reluctant to accept anything other than financial
assistance which has made it difficult to work constructively with the family.
Today (18 April) the police contact social services with the following information:
They had received a complaint from an alleged victim that he had accompanied a
prostitute to an address for the purposes of sex and that once there, he had been
attacked by a man who demanded all his money. He had resisted and a fight broke
out during which he sustained bruising. The fight spilled into another room where he
noticed two young children. He managed to leave and called the police who went to
the address, 7 Primrose Street, Weyford which is a tenancy in the names of Lisa
Wilkinson and Gary Knight and found Liam and Jason alone there, both in a very
distressed state.
Social services attend immediately and notice a large bruise on Liam’s cheek. He
tells the social worker “Daddy did it, he’s always fighting”. The social worker asks
immediate neighbours but no one has any idea where the parents are. The social
worker is John Ross based at NW Area Office, Viaduct Road, Weyford and the local
authority is Blankshire County Council, Shire Hall, Weyford.
What steps do you think Blankshire Local Authority social services might take
in this situation?
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This is a continuation of the Task
This is a continuation of Engage Task 1. The local authority has applied for a care
order. In its application it says refers to the grounds for the application as follows:
‘The local authority submits that the threshold criteria are satisfied as follows:
The children have suffered significant emotional harm evidenced by:
1. Frequent exposure to domestic abuse within the family home evidenced by
a) In December 20XX (3 years ago) the police were called to the parents’ home to
break up a domestic violence incident where Lisa sustained a black eye and
severe bruising. The police reported to social services that Liam had been present
and was in an extremely distressed state by the incident.
b) In September 20XX (2 years ago) the police were called to the home at 3am to
break up a fight between Gary, Lisa and another man. All three adults appeared to
be under the influence of drugs, were incoherent and unsteady. Liam was
cowering in the corner of the living room where the fight had taken place,
screaming and shaking. The adults were oblivious to his presence and not able to
care for him and the police took him into police protection.
c) In May last year Lisa asked social services for financial assistance following an
incident where she alleged Gary had attacked her and stolen her money from her
to buy drugs, Lisa had a broken finger and severe bruising to her arm and her jaw
as a result. She said she had been holding Liam when Gary had attacked her and
that Liam had become hysterical. Social services observed Liam to be very
distressed and clinging to his mother. Lisa expressed concern that her unborn
baby may have been damaged in the assault.
d) In August last year police were called to the parents’ home for an incident of
domestic violence. They found Liam alone on the communal stairwell outside the
flat. He was crying and distressed.
e) In January this year the police were called to the parents’ home during the night
following a complaint from a neighbour about an alleged incident of domestic
violence. Gary was at the home when they arrived and was in an agitated and
angry state and said Lisa had just left the flat, while the police were there Gary left
the flat saying he was ‘going to get her’. The police found Liam and Jason in the
bedroom, Liam was sobbing and shaking and Jason was crying. Neither parent
returned to the flat and the children were taken into police protection.
f) On 18th April this year the police were called to the parents’ home following an
allegation by an alleged victim who complained he had accompanied a prostitute
to the parents’ home to have sex and had been mugged there by another man.
The alleged victim said both the woman and the man had run off when he fought
back. The alleged incident took place in front of the children who were crying and
distressed when the police arrived. The parents were not at the flat.
2. The parents do not show any insight into their relationship difficulties and have
refused to attend any counselling or domestic violence intervention programmes. -
Since December 20XX (3 years ago) social services have repeatedly tried to engage
with the parents, offering advice, support and services including counselling for the
parents, anger management intervention, drug related services and daycare for the
children. All services and support have been refused with the exception of financial
assistance. The parents have not accepted advice about the need to change their
lifestyle and the damaging effect of domestic violence on the children.’
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