Family

Children - care proceedings - disclosure of local authority reportRe R (A Child) (Care Proceedings: Disclosure): CA (Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, P, Thorpe LJ and Wright J): 28 June 2000

The guardian ad litem, in care proceedings relating to R, a child aged three, applied to see an overview report compiled under Part 8 of 'Working Together under the Children Act 1989' (1991) by the Area Child Protection Committee in relation to the death of R's half brother from serious head injuries.

The judge, finding that the report came within s.

42(1)(b) of the Children Act 1989, had ordered the local authority to make it available to the guardian.

The local authority, reluctant to disclose the report as a matter of policy on the grounds that to do so might inhibit candid assessment by the individual agencies, appealed.Julia Macur QC (instructed by Sharpe Pritchard as agents for Head of Legal Services, Worcestershire County Council) for the local authority; Jonathan Baker (instructed by Tyndallwoods, Birmingham) for R, by his guardian ad litem.Held, dismissing the appeal, that an overview report compiled by an Area Child Protection Committee was a record held by a local authority compiled in connection with any functions which stood referred to their social services committee under the Local Authorities Social Services Act 1970 within the terms of s.

42(1)(b) of the Children Act 1989; and that, particularly as the circumstances of the brother's death were of utmost significance to the child involved in the care proceedings, a guardian ad litem in related care proceedings was entitled to see that report.