6. Age assessments are provisional decisions. Local authorities have a duty to reassess if new material evidence emerges. Where an authenticated identity document is provided, the Upper Tribunal has found a young person's age ought to be accepted.
4. Full age assessments must comply with the Merton requirements: two social workers, an effective interpreter, an appropriate adult, and an opportunity for the young person to respond to any adverse points. Adequate reasons must also be provided.
5. Substantively, full assessments must be holistic. Social workers should consider background, educational history, journey to the UK and input from other professionals such as foster carers and teachers. Failure to seek material evidence can ground a challenge.
3. The High Court has found that physical appearance is an unreliable basis for assessing age. Where social workers have any doubt about whether someone could be a child, the benefit of the doubt must be applied and the young person taken into care.
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1. How can a young person challenge a negative age assessment decision? We've published a practical guide covering the grounds for challenge, the distinction between initial and full assessments, and the judicial review process.
7. The only available remedy remains judicial review. The time limit is three months from the date the decision was made. In England, challenges to NAAB decisions go to the Upper Tribunal; local authority decisions go to the Administrative Court.
2. Francesca Sella takes us through the key issues here. Initial age assessments are brief, visual checks to determine whether someone is obviously over 18. Courts have found these must still be procedurally fair despite their brevity.
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8. In Scotland the position is less settled. Both judicial reviews and declarators of age may be competent for challenging local authority assessments, but if a young person wants the court to determine their age directly, a declarator should be pursued.
A negative age assessment can affect everything from care entitlements to how the Home Office handles an asylum claim. Francesca Sella walks through the practical options for challenging these decisions, including judicial review and the role of the First-tier Tribunal.