Children in care can be vaccinated against parents’ wishes without court action

Local authorities will be allowed to get children in care vaccinated despite opposition from their parents without asking for court approval, three senior judges have ruled.1

Councils have a shared parental responsibility under the Children Act 1989 for children in their care and the power to take decisions about them, provided they are acting to safeguard or promote the child’s welfare. But decisions on whether to vaccinate have traditionally been treated as so serious that, if the child’s parents opposed it, a High Court judge was asked to decide.

In February Mr Justice Hayden ruled that the Children Act gave the London Borough of Tower …