Disclosure by children and family reporter to local authority

In Re M (a Child) (Disclosure: Children and Family Reporter) (CA TLR 23 August)

Section 12 of the Administration of Justice Act 1960 provides: ‘(1) The publication of information relating to proceedings before any court sitting in private shall not of itself be contempt of court except… (a) where the proceedings… (ii) are brought under the Children Act 1989.’ Where a children and family reporter encountered concerns about child abuse in private law proceedings, did he expose himself to the risk of contempt of court by reporting his concerns to the relevant statutory authority? There is no statutory provision on the discretionary communication from child reporter to social worker, neither is there one in common law or in the inherent nature of the function of the child reporter or in the inherent relationship between the child reporter and the court. When a children and family reporter reported concerns to the relevant authority charged with the investigation of material suggestive of child abuse this was not publishing information within the terms of the 1969 Act. If in the course of inquiries in private law proceedings the reporter was alerted to the positive abuse of a child he should consider whether this was a discovery or direct report, or if the reporter was listening to an account of someone else’s discovery or to a second-hand report. It would seldom be necessary for a reporter to relay second-hand reports to social services. Where the reporter made a discovery or received a direct report, an immediate report to social services or to the police might be indicated. Here the reporter had to exercise an unfettered independent discretion. The only rule was that he must inform the judge of the steps he had taken at the earliest convenient opportunity to enable the judge, who controlled the proceedings, to consider the impact of the development and the need for consequential directions.