Threshold in Care Proceedings - Principles, Practice & Caselaw

Introduction

Those of you involved in public children law cases will be faced with needing to address the issue of threshold, often at the commencement of proceedings and then throughout the proceedings.

You need to be familiar with the concept of the ‘Threshold Criteria’ and, in particular, how it operates, evidence used to establish it, and the complexities surrounding 'past' and 'future' harm.

This webinar will cover these concepts, so as to enable you to become more familiar and confident when tackling threshold issues in care proceedings.

Some of the recent and leading case law authority will be covered, including the significance and practical application of the decision in Re H (Final Care Orders at IRH) [2025].

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• Threshold Criteria - Nuts and bolts
• Threshold and links with the Court Protocol - The Public Law Outline
• Different type of Harm - Consideration of Working Together Guidelines
• Effective drafting of a Threshold Document
• Responding to a Threshold Document
• Practical application of the decision in Re H (Final Care Orders at IRH) [2025] regarding non-compliance with orders
• Causation, evidence, proof and diverse standards of parenting - Consideration of Re A (A Child)
• Threshold from previous proceedings - Implications of Re J (A Child)
• Threshold and fact - Finding Hearings - Implications of Re S (A Child)
• Linking threshold with other aspects of an interim care/care application
• Timing of Threshold - When is the effective date? Consideration of Re W (A Minor)

This pre-recorded webinar will be available to view from Tuesday 8th September 2026

Alternatively, you can gain access to this webinar and 2,300+ others via the MBL Webinar Subscription. Please email webinarsubscription@mblseminars.com for more details.