Legal Updates

• Adoptive parents win damages

In A and another v Essex County Council (judgment 17 December 2003) the court of appeal dismissed the authority’s appeal against a high court order holding them liable for damages claimed by adopters for the authority’s failure to provide them with sufficient information about children placed with them.

The appeal court also rejected the adopters' appeal against that part of the ruling that limited their potential damages to the period leading up to the placement and not for the four years afterwards.

The court held: "There is in general no duty of care owed by an adoption agency or the staff whom it employs in relation to deciding what information is to be conveyed to prospective adopters. Only if they take a decision which no reasonable agency could take could there be liability.

"But once the agency has decided, either in general or in particular, what information should be given, then there is a duty to take reasonable care to ensure that that information is both given and received."

The court also held that on the findings of fact of the judge the agency had decided that the prospective adopters should have both the Form E and the medical reports about the children. The judge held that they had not received the written medical reports before the placement, nor did they receive a full oral explanation of the reports from the doctor when she visited them at home.

The case has significant implications for adoption practice. Obviously no agency could reasonably decide to provide adopters with no information about a child being placed with them. That raises questions about what information should be given, in what form and how it should be transmitted consistent with the Adoption Agencies Regulations 1983 and in the future with any new regulatory system. As the court of appeal noted each local authority is likely to have a policy, and it may be negligent and actionable not to comply with it.

The full report is available here

Richard White

White and Sherwin Solicitors