A Supreme Court ruling which has overturned previous precedent and made history, will now allow children abused whilst in foster care to sue the local authorities that placed them.
Those who have been abused, as well as child rights campaigners all over the country who have fought tirelessly to establish this duty of care which should have been acknowledged a long time ago, will be delighted by the ruling.
The case which came before the Supreme Court saw Natasha Armes, now 40, from Nottingham, win against Nottinghamshire County Council after Supreme Court justices ruled by a majority of four-to-one that it was liable for abuse she suffered as a child 30 years ago.
The Supreme Court justices found the local authority was vicariously liable for the abuse Natasha suffered at the hands of her foster parents, but bizarrely, concluded that the council was not negligent in choosing or supervising them, even though the local authority had recruited, selected and trained the foster parents, paid for their expenses and supervised the fostering.
Nevertheless, the decision now means that councils can be held liable for abuse committed by foster carers, whether recent or non recent.
The key part of the judgment connects foster parents with the local authority:
“Although the picture presented is not without complexity, nevertheless when considered as a whole it points toward the conclusion that the foster parents provided care to the child as an integral part of the local authority’s organisation of its child care services.”
An incredibly encouraging development, and hats off to the justices involved in this case, who had the courage to do what needed to be done. We can guess which judges were involved.
The legal relatiosnhip between local authorities and foster carers was always there. Today, the law has closed a terrible loophole that claimed the lives of far too many children, and took the childhoods of countless more. We very much hope local authorities will now be looking at their recruiting procedures and finding ways to make them much, much more secure.
You can read the judgment and press summary here.
Reblogged this on tummum's Blog.
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Reblogged this on Musings of a Penpusher and commented:
A landmark decision that has been long in coming, but will be welcomed by victims and all who have fought on their behalf.
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And not before time ! Excellent decision and now watch the gates of bedlam open as SO many people have had lives wrecked from being in care. You only need see the passion with SOSA who are remarkable in their tenacity to right the wrongs they endured. BUT sadly I fear little has changed. Where the vulnerable go ,abusers will follow
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Thanks Marilyn that message is exactly how as Sosa thriver we want too go forward as those who treated us badly under LAMBETH are all guilty from the social workers too the foster parents too.
These perpetrators need too be given the fitting punishment for their crimes.
As all Sosa thrivers walk a daily life sentence in the lives they damaged horrifically too.
As a Sosa thriver
Empowered with EA.UK my life now haso even more purpose too get JUSTICE too get the Apologies so deserved too
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Reblogged this on World4Justice : NOW! Lobby Forum..
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Hallelujah! May we dare hope that this will rein in some of the enthusiasm of Local Authorities to take children and place them in care, have them adopted or fostered. As you say, this is long overdue but nonetheless, very welcome
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Hard to believe going on what i uncovered cant see any change coming.
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Reblogged this on National Inquiry into Organised, Orchestrated & Historic Child Sexual Abuse and commented:
WOW! What a breakthrough at long last!
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Thank God for this ruling better late than never!
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end game
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I still think that this is a “one-off” to fool the public that Judges are impartial in Family Court. How many Families comes out “one top” against Council’s? huh! maybe 2 out of 100 is upheld. What about the other 98? {ask the LGO and CoA}
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Judges in English family are not impartial they display a heavy bias to protecting Local Authorities even when there is evidence of wrongdoing from Social Workers or doing less than the bare minimum by Social Workers
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Brilliant
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Reblogged this on cathy fox blog on child abuse and commented:
Useful decision for children brought up by foster parents and abused, as the Council can be sued.
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Does this ruling mean that things will change? I hope so but doubt it. The fact is that no action would be taken against a Local Authority, individual person or as a group,, even they were vacariously held responsible for abuses against children who are in their care. What will happen? Slap on the wrist? Lessons have been learnt? Fine, that the taxpayer pays?
They and they alone are the “Corporate Parent” not the foster carers. Parents are held responsible for their actions so “Corporate Parents” should be prosecuted if the employ a third party, foster carers, or a fourth party, agency foster carers, who abuse children in their care.
It goes without saying that regardless of who the actual abusers were they should be prosecuted as well but we rarely hear of prosecutions only loss of job.
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I ran away constantly to avoid all the abuse that was going on!
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I’m so sorry Paula x
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Paula so sorry but you have eased things a little by posting this, take care and sue them one day
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Local authorities should not be the only ones picking up the tab for this, its also their legal teams and individual staff who may have left to work at another LAs. its also child guardians, their legal team,Expert witnesses,Foster carers, the list goes on. individuals should be hit with this burden aswell. they caused it, they pay for it. no more letting people walk away scott free and letting the Tax payer foot the bill.
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Experts witnesses in Family Court have a slam-dunk win their testimony is never properly tested by second or third opinions and Family Court judges insist that Expert witnesses are treated with kit-gloves during cross examination
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Children abused local authorities, child care contactors’ including foster carers. Not every case is sexually abused. Many beaten with skippers, straps. Sticks, made to go hungry, emotional abuse. Physical abuse. Then you have the entire family broken their own lives abused by social services organization, its never ending but this news now is a very good start so we shall see if truthfulness is going to be the order of the day.
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“we shall see if truthfulness is going to be the order of the day.”
i very much doubt it Alan. the SS Lie as part of their job description.
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I could name many from companies house where they have changed name dates of birth and set up fostering adoption agencies. One even has the cheek to set up a large Charity as well, thats how corrupt the system is. Plus give you an exsample. A person can come out of prison after serving time for child sex abuse or abuse of any kind, open a adoption fostering company the day of release and no checks are done on that director.thats how bad the sydtem is.
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Social services lie day in day out been going on for many years, but I sense a stronger battle now , victims now realize their children were stolen because money big money is was being made out of children. Money attracts the corrupted in large numbers. Victims ate starting to show real fight so outlook must be taken as positive
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You’ll also find that when children are moved to new foster carers, they are not protected by whistleblowing legislation if they hear about abuse in a previous placement. The council keep it under wraps…. Sad but true.
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Councils are Notorious for keeping a lot of things under wraps that could have saved Children from all kinds of abuse if they had disclosed it. Corruption is widespread and its long overdue for investigations to take place.
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About time too , the local authority gets away with every thing. Once children are placed in care of any type the council and social workers forget about them no matter how much the children complain . Now the children have a voice
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Was it ever mentioned what damages Mrs Armes received from that Council ?
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Still cant believe children will now have a voice. Local authority bussiness directors have too much to lose if truth starts coming out. Far too many working in local councils have a lot to lose, ive been exsposing for many a year now only to recieve threats of court action from one particular what i call corrupt local authority. Lies at the moment are a winner it will take mountains to change that.
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I was molested in foster home social worker did nothing. I requested to be moved and other children were then removed.
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FINALLY! It’s a long time coming! And being an abuse and rape victim as a child in the system, I WILL DEFINITELY TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS!
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Lets hope the children are strong enough to recognise their trauma and sue. I will be watching this space closely as I don’t trust there wont be as many loopholes for the SW’s to get away with what they do… they get away with lying to take them, I am sure they will lie to get out of ever admitting their wrongdoing. I’d like to see every child in care compensated for emotional trauma. Very few are taken from abusive situations…most are taken from loving caring parents who would never have hurt them.
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Nothing is going to take away the hate that these families hold toward the system, The system has failed hundreds of thousands. Imagine a world where good people are punished and have to live with this hate the rest of their lives, like China…Good way to destroy America. DEMAND TRANSPARENCY< END 'un"QUALIFIED IMMUNITY.
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THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN ALLOWED BECAUSE TOO MANY FOSTER PARENTS ONLY CARE ABOUT WHAT THEY CAN GET AND MISAPPROPRIATE FUNDS, ALSO CHILDREN SHOULD FEEL LIKE THEY HAVE A VOICE BECAUSE ADULTS CAN INTIMIDATE THEM INTO NOT SPEAKING UP FOR THEMSELVES
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Would this include having grandchildren in care that resulted to murder ? My grandson was murdered 2weeks ago while in care ? Thank you
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I’m so sorry to hear about your grandson. You can reach out to lawyers through the Direct Access directory and speak to a barrister who may be able to offer you a free consultation. Do ask them before the call starts if the consultation is free. https://www.directaccessportal.co.uk/search/1/barrister
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My wife my wife’s mother me and my children have all been sexually molested at while in foster care it’s sad that we have this in common
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I’m so sorry.
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Please help,I’m in Brattleboro Vermont. WE are not on the abuse registry,not on drugs. DCF destroyed my family. WE have been shut out. I bought my children a house. Thier bio dad works all the time. They make us out to be degenerates.
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Thank you for your comment and I’m so sorry to hear about your experience. We are based in the UK, not the US, so I would recommend reaching out to support groups on Facebook operating in your country, or your area.
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Boy i was Sodomized often starting at 3 years old in MN foster care. Later moved often Placed with obviously insane abusive foster parents. I was a good, smart, nice, well behaved child. Given Garbage embarrassing cloths, little food at times, ran away at 8 and 10 from terrible homes. MN foster care messed me up terrible mean abusive foster parents .
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Rick, I’m so sorry.
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