Failure to act negligence claims against local authorities (HXA v Surrey CC; YXA v Wolverhampton CC)

Article summary

Family analysis: The court considered the circumstances in which a local authority and/or its social workers, for whom it is vicariously liable, owe a duty of care to a child to whom the local authority is providing services and what amounts to an assumption of responsibility in the context of child protection. Lord Justice Baker delivered the lead judgment and decided that circumstances in which a local authority may assume responsibility for a child to give rise to a duty of care under the law of negligence are not confined to cases where it acquires parental responsibility under the Children Act 1989 (ChA 1989) and that it was arguable that other circumstances may amount to ‘something more’ so as to give rise to an assumption of responsibility. Yaa Dankwa Ampadu-Sackey, barrister at Lamb Building Chambers, considers the implications of the decision.