Children and Young Persons Act 1969
Children and Young PersonsAct 1969
1969 CHAPTER 54
An Act to amend the law relating to children and young persons; and for purposes connected therewith.
[22nd October 1969]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I
Care and other treatment of juveniles throughcourt proceedings
Care of children and young persons through juvenile courts
1 Care proceedings in juvenile courts.
(1) Any local authority, constable or authorised person who reasonably believes that there are grounds for making an order under this section in respect of a child or young person may, subject to section 2(3) and (8) of this Act, bring him before a juvenile court.
(2) If the court before which a child or young person is brought under this section is of opinion that any of the following conditions is satisfied with respect to him, that is to say—
(a ) his proper development is being avoidably prevented or neglected or his health is being avoidably impaired or neglected or he is being ill-treated; or
(b ) it is probable that the condition set out in the preceding paragraph will be satisfied in his case, having regard to the fact that the court or another court has found that that condition is or was satisfied in the case of another child or young person who is or was a member of the household to which he belongs; or
(c ) he is exposed to moral danger; or
(d ) he is beyond the control of his parent or guardian; or
(e ) he is of compulsory school age within the meaning of the Education Act 1944 and is not receiving efficient full-time education suitable to his age, ability and aptitude; or
(f ) he is guilty of an offence, excluding homicide,
and also that he is in need of care or control which he is unlikely to receive unless the court makes an order under this section in respect of him, then, subject to the following provisions of this section and sections 2 and 3 of this Act, the court may if it thinks fit make such an order.
(3) The order which a court may make under this section in respect of a child or young person is—
(a ) an order requiring his parent or guardian to enter into a recognisance to take proper care of him and exercise proper control over him; or
(b ) a supervision order; or
(c ) a care order (other than an interim order); or
(d ) a hospital order within the meaning of Part V of the Mental Health Act 1959 ; or
(e ) a guardianship order within the meaning of that Act.
(4) In any proceedings under this section the court may make orders in pursuance of paragraphs (c ) and (d ) of the preceding subsection but subject to that shall not make more than one of the orders mentioned in the preceding subsection, without prejudice to any power to make a further order in subsequent proceedings of any description; and if in proceedings under this section the court makes one of those orders and an order so mentioned is already in force in respect of the child or young person in question, the court may discharge the earlier order unless it is a hospital or guardianship order.
(5) An order under this section shall not be made in respect of a child or young person—
(a ) in pursuance of paragraph (a ) of subsection (3) of this section unless the parent or guardian in question consents;
(b ) in pursuance of paragraph (d ) or (e ) of that subsection unless the conditions which, under section 60 of the said Act of 1959, are required to be satisfied for the making of a hospital or guardianship order in respect of a person convicted as mentioned in that section are satisfied in his case so far as they are applicable;
(c ) if he has attained the age of sixteen and is or has been married.
(6) In this section ‘authorised person’ means a person authorised by order of the Secretary of State to bring proceedings in pursuance of this section and any officer of a society which is so authorised, and in sections 2 and 3 of this Act ‘care proceedings’ means proceedings in pursuance of this section and ‘relevant infant’ means the child or young person in respect of whom such proceedings are brought or proposed to be brought.
2 Provisions supplementary to s. 1.
(1) If a local authority receive information suggesting that there are grounds for bringing care proceedings in respect of a child or young person who resides or is found in their area, it shall be the duty of the authority to cause enquiries to be made into the case unless they are satisfied that such enquiries are unnecessary.
(2) If it appears to a local authority that there are grounds for bringing care proceedings in respect of a child or young person who resides or is found in their area, it shall be the duty of the authority to exercise their power under the preceding section to bring care proceedings in respect of him unless they are satisfied that it is neither in his interest nor the public interest to do so or that some other person is about to do so or to charge him with an offence.
(3) No care proceedings shall be begun by any person unless that person has given notice of the proceedings to the local authority for the area in which it appears to him that the relevant infant resides or, if it appears to him that the relevant infant does not reside in the area of a local authority, to the local authority for any area in which it appears to him that any circumstances giving rise to the proceedings arose; but the preceding provisions of this subsection shall not apply where the person by whom the notice would fall to be given is the local authority in question.
(4) Without prejudice to any power to issue a summons or warrant apart from this subsection, a justice may issue a summons or warrant for the purpose of securing the attendance of the relevant infant before the court in which care proceedings are brought or proposed to be brought in respect of him; but subsections (3) and (4) of section 47 of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1952 (which among other things restrict the circumstances in which a warrant may be issued) shall apply with the necessary modifications to a warrant under this subsection as they apply to a warrant under that section and as if in subsection (3) after the word ‘summons’ there were inserted the words ‘cannot be served or’.
(5) Where the relevant infant is arrested in pursuance of a warrant issued by virtue of the preceding subsection and cannot be brought immediately before the court aforesaid, the person in whose custody he is—
(a ) may make arrangements for his detention in a place of safety for a period of not more than seventy-two hours from the time of the arrest (and it shall be lawful for him to be detained in pursuance of the arrangements); and
(b ) shall within that period, unless within it the relevant infant is brought before the court aforesaid, bring him before a justice;
and the justice shall either make an interim order in respect of him or direct that he be released forthwith.
(6) Section 77 of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1952 (under which a summons or warrant may be issued to secure the attendance of a witness) shall apply to care proceedings as it applies to the hearing of a complaint.
(7) In determining whether the condition set out in subsection (2)(b ) of the preceding section is satisfied in respect of the relevant infant, it shall be assumed that no order under that section is to be made in respect of him.
(8) In relation to the condition set out in subsection (2)(e ) of the preceding section the references to a local authority in that section and subsections (1), (2) and (11) (b ) of this section shall be construed as references to a local education authority; and in any care proceedings—
(a ) the court shall not entertain an allegation that that condition is satisfied unless the proceedings are brought by a local education authority; and
(b ) the said condition shall be deemed to be satisfied if the relevant infant is of the age mentioned in that condition and it is proved that he—
(ii) is a registered pupil at a school which he is not attending regularly within the meaning of section 39 of that Act, or
(iii) is a person whom another person habitually wandering from place to place takes with him,
unless it is also proved that he is receiving the education mentioned in that condition;
but nothing in paragraph (a ) of this subsection shall prevent any evidence from being considered in care proceedings for any purpose other than that of determining whether that condition is satisfied in respect of the relevant infant.
(9) If on application under this subsection to the court in which it is proposed to bring care proceedings in respect of a relevant infant who is not present before the court it appears to the court that he is under the age of five and either—
(a ) it is proved to the satisfaction of the court, on oath or in such other manner as may be prescribed by rules under section 15 of the Justices of the Peace Act 1949 , that notice of the proposal to bring the proceedings at the time and place at which the application is made was served on the parent or guardian of the relevant infant at what appears to the court to be a reasonable time before the making of the application; or
(b ) it appears to the court that his parent or guardian is present before the court
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