Claims Against Social Services

You generally have to make a compensation claim within three years of the date of abuse taking place. If you were a child at the time, then you have until the date of your 21st birthday to make a claim.

However, there's often a case for making a claim after these dates – we have helped clients to claim for abuse that happened decades ago. Whether or not you'll be able to make a non-recent abuse claim is judged on a case-by-case basis by the courts

It's possible that you might have to appear in court as part of your claim. But in our experience, the vast majority of claims are settled out of court, following a negotiation between us and your opponent.

If you do have to appear in court, we'll be there to represent and support you at every step of the way.

You may be able to claim against social services if you were under the organisation's care when the abuse happened, or if neglect on the part of a social worker put you in a situation where you were abused. The abuser doesn't have to be someone employed by social services - it could have been a parent, siblings, a family member, a foster carer or a visitor to your family home that social services failed to protect you from.

Cases of abuse involving social services negligence can take place in a variety of settings:

• The family home
• At school
• Foster homes
• Children’s homes.

If it can be shown that social services did not provide you with adequate care or failed to take reasonable steps that could have prevented the abuse from taking place, you may be able to make a claim. Any claim will normally be made against the local authority responsible for the department or service that should have prevented the abuse. 

There are a number of warning signs that social services should pick up on in order to reduce the risk of abuse or neglect. In many of the abuse claims we've investigated, we've been able to establish that social workers failed to:

• Respond to referrals from schools, medical professionals, midwives, health visitors, family members or anonymous sources
• Identify the signs of abuse and neglect in children from their behaviour and appearance
• Investigate appropriately the history of a family to determine whether they are involved with dangerous individuals
• Deal appropriately with disclosures made by young children
• Adequately supervise children under their care.

We can help to determine whether the Local Authority failed in its duty to provide care to children who were at risk of abuse.

Whether you're a survivor of abuse yourself, or the parent or guardian of a child who has been abused, our specialist team of child abuse solicitors can help. We have years of experience in helping people to claim compensation settlements that can fund the therapy and counselling you need to help you move on with your life.

We work in total confidentiality with our clients, and our lawyers are highly trained in working with abuse survivors. We understand how difficult and painful it can be to bring up the details of past abuse, and at every step of the way we aim to make sure you're comfortable discussing your case with us.

Some of the social services abuse cases we've worked on include:

• A £20,000 settlement for a woman who was sexually abused by clients of her mother, a prostitute, after she had been returned to her mother's care despite social services being aware of the risks – find out more about this case.
• A compensation package for a Camden woman who suffered years of sexual, physical and emotional abuse from her own mother. Social services failed to protect her or monitor her wellbeing, even after numerous concerns were raised by neighbours – find out more about this case.

If you want to find out more about making a child abuse claim, or just to talk with an expert in a free initial consultation on your case