DUTY OF CARE

The Court of Appeal has handed down a very important decision which anticipates extending the duty of care in negligence. The claimant was a social worker who was badly injured by a mental patient.She asserted that not only her employer owed her a duty of care but also that 2 NHS Trusts did as well.Plainly , she was not an employee of either trust.Her case against them was that they knew the patient had uttered threats of violence and so to release him from care was culpable as was the failure to warn her of the risk he posed.Caparo was distinguished; this was not an argument about owing a duty to the world at large but rather a clearly identifiable potential victim.Thorpe LJ made the point that in care work it is very much about inter-disciplinary skills being applied and co-ordinated. Social workers are vulnerable and deserve protection.The attempt by Beachcroft to have the claim , brought by Thompsons , failed.