Latest tranche of child care law reports published

Allegations of serious sex abuse, court intervention in securing psychiatric services for troubled teenagers and praise for the dedication of social workers in certain cases all feature in the latest volume of 22 reports from the Child Care Law Reporting Project, published today.

They include five lengthy cases involving serious allegations of child sexual abuse and five detailed accounts over many months of cases involving the detention of troubled teenagers wending their way through the High Court.

The cases include an unsuccessful appeal of an earlier District Court Care Order for five children following allegations of serious neglect and sexual abuse by their parents. The children remain in care.

That case is one of a number where the proceedings were very protracted and where there were days of legal argument concerning the admissibility of hearsay evidence from children and the reliability of evidence from specialist sex abuse units.

As well as reporting cases, the CCLRP is conducting qualitative research into the reasons some cases become so protracted. A report on this research will be published at the end of 2017.

Project director Dr Carol Coulter said: “Some of the cases included in this volume are very lengthy and have taken up to 50 days in court, spread over many months or even years, during which time both parents and children live in uncertainty.

“All the cases demonstrate the fact that certain child protection matters are very complex indeed and require considerable legal and social work resources. There are no easy answers to the problems they raise.

“We hope that the reports and the research we are doing on such cases will contribute to the discussion on how such difficult cases can be dealt with in a timely way and that protects children while ensuring the rights of parents.”