The 1996 Hague Convention - Departmental Advice: Section 1

About this advice

This is advice from the Department for Education. The advice is non-statutory, and is designed to help local authorities when dealing with cross-border child protection cases under the 1996 Hague Convention^1.

The 1996 Hague Convention ('the Convention') will be implemented in the UK on 1 November 2012. It provides an agreed set of legal provisions and cooperation arrangements to cover the handling of cross-border cases where children’s safety or welfare may be an issue. This advice sets out the key steps that local authorities can take to:

(a) ask for help or essential information from authorities abroad when dealing, for example, with a child from this country who is in need of support or protection; and  

(b) respond to similar requests put to them by authorities abroad.

Expiry/review date

This advice will be reviewed by 1 April 2014.

Who is this advice for?

This advice is primarily for local authority staff working with children and families, frontline social workers, their team managers, service managers, and children’s services lawyers.
 
It may also be useful for other agencies involved in decisions about children’s welfare, including staff from Cafcass and voluntary sector organisations.

Key points

The Convention applies to situations where contracting states need to cooperate over child protection and welfare cases when there is an international dimension. This can include care proceedings, contact cases and foster placements abroad.

• The aim of the Convention is to bring about better co-operation between countries so that the handling of cases and protections put in place is more efficient, avoids delays and delivers better outcomes for the children involved.
• This advice is distinct from Department guidance that already exists on the other main types of cross-border cases – inter-country adoption and child abduction. It is not intended as a definitive legal interpretation of the Convention – local authorities should seek their own legal advice on individual cases as required.
• The Convention’s provisions do not mean major change for local authorities – in a number of respects they mirror arrangements already in place governing co-operation arrangements between EU member states on these types of children’s cases.
• The Convention does, however, extend these arrangements in some situations, and will mean that similar co-operation processes will now also apply between this country and countries outside the EU which have implemented the Convention.  It will not apply between England and the other juristictions of the UK. 

¹1996 Hague Convention on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Co-operation in respect of Parental Responsibility and measures for the Protection of Children.