Failure to apply for compensation

VL (a child) suing by her Litigation Friend the Official Solicitor) v Oxfordshire County Council [2010] EWHC 2091 (QB); SJ 17 August p29

The claimant had suffered a serious injury as a result of being violently shaken by her father when she was aged 14. An interim care order was made and the local authority acquired parental responsibility with the mother retaining shared responsibility. The local authority strategy was to keep the family together, which it eventually achieved. The social worker had obtained from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board (CICB) an application form but put it to one side until the process of rehabilitating the father into the family had been completed. The claimant claimed that the local authority was negligent in failing to make an application to the CICB before the old scheme was replaced by a new one which was markedly less favourable.