With reference to Freedom of Information Act 2000 I would like to request all information and documents relating to Guidance for implementing Section 47, Children Act 1989, investigation by Children's Social Services.
Of particular relevance is the guidance used for determining threshold required for:
Children Act 1989, section 47, Local authority’s duty to investigate,
(1) Where a local authority—
(b) have reasonable cause to suspect that a child who lives, or is found, in their area is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm,
Reasonable cause is a term used in law to describe a situation where there is a good reason to believe. This belief must be based on facts and cannot be just a suspicion. Ref: Black’s Law Dictionary, https://thelawdictionary.org/reasonable-and-probable-cause/
If no guidance to establish “reasonable cause” exists please state, Herefordshire Council (Children and Families Directorate) have no guidance procedure for this.
CLARIFICATION:
Referrals to Herefordshire Council, (Children and Families Directorate) using MARF system result in a strategy discussion. A decision is made at this meeting and in the majority of cases you are assigned a social worker who will make an assessment and offer services.
In a few cases the decision made at this meeting is that section 47 enquiry is required under The Children Act 1989. This moves things up a significant level and allows statuary laws to be engaged.
So what guidance document is used to decide the escalation from your normal assessment processes to section 47 enquiry? What are the facts this must be based upon?
