‘A person who had been entitled to the provision of assistance by a local authority under the Children Act 1989 as a child in need, but to whom no assistance was in fact provided, did not fall within the definitions of “looked after” child, “relevant child” and “eligible child” in the 1989 Act and could not therefore, on attaining his majority, become a “former relevant child” for the purposes of section 23C of the 1989 Act, to whom the local authority owed continuing statutory duties for the provision of assistance. Where a local authority mistakenly but not unfairly or unlawfully concluded that a person was not a child and decided not to perform any duties towards him as a child in need under the 1989 Act, its failure to perform those duties was unlawful. The local authority could use its discretionary powers to provide services that it might have been obliged to provide if the person had been a former relevant child.’
WLR Daily, 20th November 2014
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
