Social Services

Public authorities have responsibilities towards vulnerable individuals, and are accorded powers to protect such individuals from harm. This includes the power to provide care for children, the elderly and those suffering from mental illnesses. This chapter examines the potential liabilities of such authorities in relation to harm suffered because of failures in the provision of social services, for example, where claimants were abused while in the care of the authority, or where the authority failed to protect children from abuse by their family. We also examine harm which can arise where an authority has been over-zealous, as opposed to insufficiently attentive, for example where an authority erroneously suspects that children are being abused by their parents and unnecessarily removes children from their family.