In a Nutshell: Public Law Outline ?aids care practitioners

What is the Public Law Outline: Guide to Case Management in Public Law Proceedings (PLO)?
The PLO is the practice direction applicable to care and supervision proceedings. It is aimed at improving the process of such proceedings. All practitioners working in the field of child protection should have a basic understanding of the PLO. The overriding objective of the PLO is to enable the court “to deal with cases justly, having regard to the welfare issues involved.” This includes factors such as fairness, timeliness, proportionality, cost effectiveness, and ensuring that the parties involved in a case are on an equal footing. The PLO is divided into two stages: pre-proceedings and post-issuing of proceedings, and places much emphasis on the former.

Why was the PLO issued?
The PLO came into force in April 2008, and further amendments were made in April 2010. It is again under review within the context of the Family Justice Review. An impetus for the issuing of the PLO was to reduce delay in care cases and ensure that they proceed according to the developmental needs of the child, known as the timetable of the child. The PLO is structured on the assumption that proceedings can be completed within six months. However, cases are often subject to delays and in at least some, this is due to failure to implement the PLO.

What guidance does the PLO provide for pre-proceedings?
The PLO introduced a series of steps that the local authority should take prior to issuing proceedings. For example, applications for a care or supervision order should be accompanied by a social work chronology, the initial social work statement, initial and core assessments, letters before proceedings, schedule of proposed findings, and the care plan. The emphasis on pre-proceedings is to ensure that local authority care and supervision cases are appropriately assessed prior to a court application being made. Unfortunately, this is not always the case in practice.

What else does it provide?
The PLO also provides a template for court proceedings, setting out four stages of the process and timescales for each: Issue and First Appointment in the Family Proceeding Court to allocate and give initial case management directions (by day 6); Advocates Discussion and Case Management Conference to identify issues and give full case management directions (by day 45); Advocates Discussion and Issues Resolution Hearing to resolve and narrow issues and identify outstanding issues (between 16-25 weeks); Hearing to determine any outstanding issues/final hearing.

Overall, the PLO brought in important changes to the management of care and supervision proceedings. However, many of the problems it sought to remedy are ongoing, such as delay and lack of adequate preparation by social workers in the pre-proceedings stage, largely because it is often not followed in practice. The ongoing review of the family justice system has already addressed this, and it is hoped that these issues will be dealt with in this reform context.