Care proceedings are issued by the local authority when they have reason/evidence to believe that the child is ‘suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm’ and that the harm or likelihood of harm is attributable to the parental care not being what it would be reasonable to expect a parent to give.
This is known as the threshold criteria that the local authority must prove in order to be successful with the application.
Cases of this sort usually have three stages to them:
1. Protection:
The Children Act 1989 is the law that allows local authorities to apply to the court for orders to protect children from suffering significant harm. Where the local authority suspects a non-accidental injury, they are able to apply to the court for emergency orders such as Emergency Protection orders and Interim care orders. Interim care orders grant the local authority ‘parental responsibility’ for the child, so they are able to place the child in the care of foster carers or alternative family members where appropriate for the duration of the proceedings.
2. Assessment:
Once a holding position has been established, full assessments are completed. The process of assessing is to find out:
- What happened
- Why it happened
- What harm, if any, it has done to the children; and
- Whether it is likely to happen again
It is likely that a lot of professional people will become involved in the case, including some or all of the following: the police, paediatricians and other doctors (depending on the nature of the injuries), psychologists and psychiatrists, lawyers, and judges.
In cases of this sort the children will be given two people to help them: a solicitor and a children’s guardian. The solicitor’s job is to represent the children in court and to advise the children’s guardian about the law. The children’s guardian is independent of social services but will have had a background in issues about children’s welfare and protection.
3. Decisions:
Firstly, the Judge must consider whether the injury caused was non-accidental or not and who caused the injury. This is likely to be considered at a Fact-finding hearing where the Judge will consider written and hear oral evidence from all the parties, including medical experts. The standard of proof in family cases is based ‘on the balance of probability’ and therefore the Judge must be more than 50% sure that the injury caused to the child was non-accidental.
If the Judge finds that the injury was non-accidental, then the matter will proceed to a final hearing upon further assessments taking place. It is only at this stage that long term decisions are made.