W v Essex County Council
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 07 July 1997 |
| Date | 07 July 1997 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
Queen's Bench Division
Before Mr Justice Hooper
Children - foster care - duty to tell foster parents about child
A social worker placing a child with foster parents had a duty of care to provide to the foster parents, before and during the placement, such information about the child as a reasonable social worker would provide in all the circumstances.
A written agreement made between a local authority and foster parents did constitute a contract and it was not contrary to public policy to give it binding effect.
Mr Justice Hooper so held in the Queen's Bench Division when striking out claims for misfeasance in public office and breach of contract, and declining to strike out claims for negligence and negligent misstatement, made by the plaintiffs, Mr and Mrs W and their four children, against Essex County Council and Anthony Golden.
Mr Allan Levy, QC and Mr Arnold Cooper for the plaintiffs; Mr Edward Faulks, QC and Mr Andrew Warnock for the council; Mr Jeremy Simison for the second defendant.
MR JUSTICE HOOPER said that Mr and Mrs W became full time adolescent foster parents for the council in 1991. Before accepting their first placement they sought and were given assurances by the council that they would not have placed with them any child who was a known or suspected sexual abuser. In 1992 they signed a specialist foster carer agreement with the council.
For about one month in 1993 they fostered a boy aged 15 named G who allegedly abused each of their children during his stay. The plaintiffs claimed that the council and the second defendant, their social worker, knew that G was an active sexual abuser and that the second defendant had lied to them about that.
The defendants had argued that it was not just and reasonable to impose a common law duty of care on them.
His Lordship considered the judgment of Lord Browne-Wilkinson in X (Minors) v Bedfordshire County CouncilELR ([1995] 2 AC 633) as well as Stovin v WiseELR([1996] AC 923), H v Norfolk County CouncilFLR ((1997) 1 FLR 384) and Barrett v Enfield London Borough CouncilTLR (The Times April 22, 1997) and went on to analyse the relationship between a local authority and a foster parent, applying the public policy considerations set out in X v Bedfordshire (at pp749 to 751).
Although decisions concerning foster placements could be very delicate, his Lordship could not see, in fairness to the...
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