Article summary

Local Government analysis: The court held that Croydon owed no duties to a young person (YG) claiming to be a child where the Home Office had decided that she appeared to be significantly over 18 and processed her as an adult. Because YG had claimed to be a child, a social worker from Croydon had attended her initial interview as her ‘appropriate adult’ pursuant to a working protocol agreed between the Home Office and Croydon. However, the court found that this did not give rise to a duty upon Croydon to carry out its own age assessment as YG had not positively approached Croydon and asked for accommodation as a child or otherwise sought services from it. The case was therefore distinguishable from R v (S) v Croydon. Further R (S) is not authority for the proposition that a local authority is under a duty to provide support for every person in its area claiming to be a child pending an age assessment. Written by Christine Cooper, barrister at Field Court Chambers (who acted for Birmingham in the case). Sign in or take a trial to read the full analysis.