Significant Harm
The threshold for state intervention under s.31 Children Act 1989. 'Harm' means ill-treatment or impairment of health or development. 'Significant' is assessed by comparing the child's health or development with that which could reasonably be expected of a similar child.
Independent editorial summary — not the official statute text. Read the official version on legislation.gov.uk.
Before a court can make a care order or supervision order under the Children Act 1989, it must be satisfied of a statutory threshold. Section 31 requires the court to be satisfied that the child concerned is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm, and that the harm, or likelihood of harm, is attributable to the care given to the child, or likely to be given to him if the order were not made, not being what it would be reasonable to expect a parent to give to him.
'Significant harm' is the gateway the whole of Part IV of the Act is built around: without it being met, the court has no power to make a care or supervision order, however desirable such an order might otherwise seem — it is deliberately set as a threshold, separate from the welfare principle that then governs what order, if any, the court should actually make.
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Official sources
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