Public Body Abuse

Public Body Abuse refers to abuse that is committed by a person who is employed by a public body, or the negligence of someone who works for a public body that results in abuse taking place. 

There are many different types of public bodies that could result in abuse taking place as they are typically deemed a person who can be trusted and this trust can be violated for their own gain. 

Types of public bodies include local authorities or foster carers, those who have been trusted to help the vulnerable and abuse that trust for their own personal gain. 

Public Body Abuse types

Public body abuse can manifest in many ways, including: 

Child abuse, whether they are in a care home, or they visit an organisation which offers activities for children, they may visit here regularly. 

Neglect, this can be failure to properly care for a child that is in the care of a public body. When a child is put into the care of a local authority, they have a duty of care to ensure that the child has everything they need, if they don’t receive basic needs such as food and shelter this can be deemed as neglect. Also if a child is put into care by a local authority and then abuse takes place, it can be possible to claim negligence against the public body for not removing the child from that care place if they had not acted quickly enough. 

Wrongful use of power by a local authority, this could be the way that they make a decision of the welfare services for the community that they serve. An example of this could be the placement of a disabled adult in a wrong setting for their needs, if they’re placed in a setting that doesn’t properly support them then the local authorities are failing in their duty of care.