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The SIHIS Pilot Scheme: read John Vater KC MCIArb’s compelling and detailed analysis ‘The Suspected Inflicted Head Injury Service: Mixed Messages and the Price of Justice’– online now in Family Law on Lexis+
Few would argue against any initiative designed to improve the clinical management of infants with head injuries but the suggestion, made in some of the Department for Education’s explanatory material, that the SIHIS Report could stand ‘in lieu’ of independent expert reports in care proceedings is fundamentally misconceived, on various levels, Vater asserts.
The SIHIS Report cannot meet the Mantovanelli test. Nor can that failure be remedied adequately by any attempt to ‘convert’ the Report into a Part 25 compliant document, or by dispensing with the Part 25 regime (part of the point of which must surely be to ensure compliance with Article 6 ECHR and natural justice tests). Even if such an attempt were to be made, it would be impossible, bearing in mind the basic requirements of fairness and natural justice, to contradict any protest from the parents or the child that the justice of the case instead required an entirely independent report from an entirely independent expert.
All who are interested in, or involved with, the SIHIS pilot need to read this important article urgently. It can be found on Lexis+ here
An updated version of the article will also be in November Family Law.
