Age assessments are widely considered to be one of the most complex of social work assessments. They arise where an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child arrives in the UK claiming to be a child, but often without documentation to support their age, and where their age is disputed by either the Home Office or a local authority. The age of a young person in the UK is important for three separate but interlinking reasons, namely that their treatment in the UK asylum system will differ if they are a child or an adult; the support with which they will be provided will fall under the Children Act 1989 if they are a child but under adult asylum support provisions if they are not; and finally, the right to preserve one’s identity, including age and date of birth, is preserved by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
Prior to the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, there has not been a statutory framework governing the conduct of age assessments. Over a period of around 20 years, however, the Courts have considered age assessments and set out minimum standards of inquiry and fairness that are required in assessments of this kind. It is against this substantial body of case law that this book will address: the relevant statutory framework; the procedure for conducting age assessments; the requirements of a lawful and procedurally fair assessment as well as lateral issues including the law on the detention of children who are age disputed; statutory support to which they are entitled and the legal procedure in this niche area of law.
.jpg?1680780797)
