Please join us at our annual webinar covering key developments in safeguarding and social care.
These key areas of our practice continue to see significant change. Whether you are a social worker, an in-house solicitor, a safeguarding lead, or you are involved in defending claims against social care providers, this webinar is for you. Six engaging 25-minute talks from experts at Weightmans will help you keep up to date with the key developments.
Session 1 - Age Assessments of UASC (unaccompanied asylum-seeking children) – tales from the front line. This has been a very active area for Weightmans over the last 12 months. This session will review the typical features of these claims that we have seen, and the approaches we have devised to ensure the best outcomes. Speaker – Marion Robinson.
Session 2 – Special education needs - what are the obvious and often less obvious risks? This session will focus on the risks that arise for the public sector from the field of special educational needs. It will look at the scale of the problem, and both the immediate risks and the delayed risks. It will also look at future developments. Speaker – John Roberts.
Session 3 – Disclosure of social care records in social care cases – adopting the correct approach to the disclosure of records is essential. If too much is disclosed, costs can be incurred unnecessarily, and the risk of Data Protection Act infringements increases. If too little is disclosed, defendants risk early court applications, losing control of the process, and adverse costs orders. Weightmans has taken an increasingly proactive approach in this area, including testing key issues in court. This session will highlight what we have learned. Speaker – Henry Bermingham.
Session 4 – Vicarious liability – most social care claims we face currently are based on allegations of vicarious liability for assault. The current legal test for vicarious liability has been in place for a few years now, but it is deceptively tricky. This session will take a close look at the test, and show how it would operate in different factual scenarios that we encounter commonly. Speaker – Helen Brown
Session 5 – Recoveries – a defendant that has to pay damages to a claimant may be entitled to reimbursement from individuals whose wrongful acts led to the claim. Over the last year Weightmans has helped several defendants recover significant payments from the individual wrongdoers. This session will look at the rules covering recovery actions, and and highlight the strategies that have, literally, paid dividends. Speaker – Peppy Marshall
Session 6 – Implementation of IICSA recommendations – where are we? The Independent Inquiry in Child Sexual Abuse was the largest public inquiry that the UK has ever held. Its final recommendations were published in October 2022. In January 2025 the government declared a commitment to implement all 20 recommendations. These have the potential to alter the safeguarding landscape fundamentally. This session will look at the progress made so far, and what we can expect top see over the next year. Speaker – Chris Webb-Jenkins.
Sessions 1 to 3 will run from 11am to 12.30pm. Sessions 4 to 6 will run from 2pm to 3.30pm. You can register for the morning and afternoon sessions individually.
If you'd like to attend, please fill in your details below.
