The local authority lawyer in childcare

Tain, Paul Christopher (1980). The local authority lawyer in childcare. University of Birmingham. M.Jur.

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Abstract

This research project was designed to investigate the role played by Local Authority solicitors in the field of child care law. It is primarily concerned with the Local Authority solicitor as an advocate in Court in cases of a variety of types involving children, and was designed to obtain a quantity of factual information both relating to those solicitors and also the Departments which employed them. It vas also the intention to obtain information relating to the types of cases in which they were involved, and the Courts in which those cases were presented.

The origin of the study, apart from a general interest in matters relating to child care law, was a publicly made remark by an experienced Chairman of a busy Juvenile Court speaking about the problems facing the Juvenile Court in dealing with cases of non-accidental injury to children. He said that if only the cases were presented on behalf of the Local Authorities by experienced solicitors of long standing then at least some of the difficulties created by those cases might be avoided. There appeared to be no statistical data relating to the lawyers to whom that Magistrate referred, and it was in part with this absence of information in mind that they study was undertaken.

Chapter I of the study is a general introduction to the field of child care, setting out the framework within which child care lawyers in Local Government work. The background history and current statutory position is considered.

Chapter II of the study considers a number of qualitative aspects of the Local Authority lawyer’s role, by setting out some of the author’s own experiences in a particular authority, considering the role of the case conference and then considering a series of cases which have caused public concern, and resulted in inquiries of various sorts.

Chapter III of the study constitutes the majority of the substantive research undertaken and incorporates the findings of a study made of a particular regional group of lawyers in a variety of different types and sizes of local authorities. The findings of a national survey are then analysed and the whole drawn together to an extent in Chapter IV, which forms the assessment and conclusion.

It was never the intention that the study should be a comprehensive analysis of the field of child care law, but the responses to both parts of the inquiry provided significantly interesting information relating to the lawyers operating in the field of child care, the departments for which they worked and their attitudes to the law relating to children.

Type of Work:	Thesis (Masters by Research > M.Jur.)
Award Type:	Masters by Research > M.Jur.
Licence:	All rights reserved
College/Faculty:	Faculties (to 1997) > Faculty of Law
School or Department:	Faculty of Law
Funders:	None/not applicable
Subjects:	K Law > KD England and Wales
URI:	http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/17035

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