Much legal work in the UK has been done to promote the right to a child or young person to have their voices heard, from accepting the demands of the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child to the implementation of the Local Authority Social Services Department Children's Representation Procedure [England] Regulations, which required local authorities to feed information on advocacy to young people, as well as explaining the important issues around representation and the complaints procedure.

Taking this a step further, Iain Duncan Smith – chairman of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) – has been the figurehead for the demand that children in care be given the right to take legal action against a council that fails to deliver (seen as a progressive step from the child’s right to complain). Duncan Smith agrees that “councils are not subject to prosecution under the laws that hold parents accountable for the care of their children such as the Parenting Orders created by the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act” (Source: CSJ – Couldn’t Care Less p. 134). In light of this, the CSJ propose to remove the “practical and statutory limitations which stop children in care from taking legal action to enforce the obligations of the corporate parents and receiving compensation” (Source: ibid p. 27).

Among those who would support the call for a law clarifying a child’s right to take legal action against a council that they feel has been failing them, according to an article in Children and Young People Now, are Ian Johnston, former chief executive of the British Association of Social Workers, who said “where care falls below acceptable standards the children concerned should be entitled to seek redress and the process to secure compensation must be accessible and user friendly.”

Robert Tapsfield, however, disagreed with the call, saying that:

The Fostering Network supports the need for advocacy for children and young people in care ... but encouraging a more litigious culture is unlikely to benefit children and channels exist for children and young people to take legal action against a local council in exceptional circumstances.

The debate, thus, remains: does the logical extension of a child's rights include their right to take legal action against local authorities who they feel are failing them, or is this an area that a child has the right to avoid, providing their are existing channels for young people to complain in exceptional circumstances? Whatever the outcome, this issue is set to become the next hot debate on the timeless issue of a child's right.