Fears of neglect of Shannon Matthews

June 17th, 2010 by Malcolm

The BBC reports on a neighbour of Shannon Matthews, who says that prior to the little girl’s disappearance in 2008, she was concerned about the child’s neglect.

Shannon’s mother was later convicted of having a part in her abduction and was gaoled. However following the trial, it emerged the abuse and neglect of Shannon started long before she went missing. She was known to Kirklees social services and had been put on the “at-risk” register years before she disappeared.

Kirklees Council has published a long-awaited report looking at whether the kidnap could have been prevented.

Claims brought against social services for failure to take a child into care are difficult. The landmark case of D v East Berkshire Community Health NHS Trust and other cases [2003] EWCA Civ 1151 established that in principle, such a case might be possible if brought by a child. Later cases such as Pierce v Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council [2008] EWCA Civ 1416 established the standard of care expected of social workers in a “failure to take into care” case.

However such cases are not straighforward. First of all there is the argument that it would be “just and fair” to impose a duty of care on social services in these circumstances, and secondly according to the Children Act 1989, a child can only be taken into care if there is a real risk of “significant harm”. A few concerns about a child’s welfare may not be enough to trigger any kind of liability.

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