Kirsten Maclean, Elizabeth Hall - The Standard of Proof in Children Cases: Re B

Kirsten Maclean Lawyer Cafcass Legal and Elizabeth Hall Head of Safeguarding Cafcass.
There can be little doubt about it - the frisson caused by the decision of the House of Lords in Re H and R (Minors) (Sexual Abuse: Standard of Proof) [1996] 1 FLR 80 has continued to reverberate over the intervening 12 years or so both with social workers and with other professionals working in the field of child protection. On 11 June 2008 the House of Lords took the opportunity to review it when the case of Re B (Children) [2008] UKHL 35 [2008] FLR (forthcoming) came before them. The decision is a very welcome one.

Since 1996 it has been generally accepted that in children's cases serious allegations are to be tested by an enhanced standard of proof. This has given rise to the question of whether when children have been placed on the child protection register or removed from home it has been for reasons which may not necessarily be the prime concern of social workers. Instead it has been suspected that although protective...

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