Category: child abuse

Parent is owed no duty of care by children’s social workers

Lawrence v. Pembrokeshire County Council 

Court of Appeal

“The right to respect for family life, guaranteed by article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, did not outweigh the duty of a local authority to protect children at risk by placing them on the Child Protection Register.”

The Times, 29th May 2007

Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

Please note the Times Law Reports are only available free on Times Online for 21 days from the date of publication.

Lawrence v. Pembrokeshire County Council [2007] EWCA Civ 446

“The Human Rights Act 1998 did not give rise to a duty of care to the parent of a child on the part of a local authority when exercising, through social workers, its duty to protect children from abuse. The local authority’s principal duty was to the child in need of protection, and there were powerful public policy reasons for not having a duty of care to the parents. There was no reason to treat social workers in this context any differently from policemen or doctors who were not subject to such a duty of care.”

WLR Daily, 14th May 2007

Source: www.lawreports.co.uk

Please note once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.