Council’s Duty to Foster Carers

W v Essex County Council (H of L TLR 17 March)

The House of Lords reversed the decision of the Court of Appeal and held that a claim by parents for damages in negligence for their psychiatric injury arising from the placement with them of a foster child who was known to the placing authority as a sexual abuser and who subsequently abused the parents’ own children was not so clearly bad that it ought to be struck out. It could not be said that it was unarguable that there was a duty of care owed to the parents and a breach of that duty by the defendants was unarguable. On the contrary, whether it was right or wrong on the facts found at the end of the day, it was on the facts alleged plainly a claim which was arguable. The parents alleged that they had made it clear they were anxious not to put their children at risk by having a known sex abuser in their home and the council and the social worker knew that and they also knew that the boy placed had already committed an act or acts of sex abuse. The risk was obvious and the abuse happened.