What are the ‘threshold criteria’?

The threshold criteria means the test which must be satisfied before the court can make a care or supervision order in favour of the local authority.  The local authority has to prove that: the child is suffering or is  likely to suffer significant harm and that this is because of the care being given or likely to be given by the parent falling below a reasonable standard or that the child is beyond parental control.  Even if the court decides that the local authority has crossed this threshold it does not have to make a care or supervision order.  It will only do so if that will be in the best interests of the child.  For example, the local authority might become involved in a family because the father is violent towards the mother.  By the time the court comes to make a final decision, mother & father have separated so that there is no longer any risk to the child.  The court should not make a care order although a supervision order might be justified if the family still needed some help and support, for example, in organising contact so that mother & father do not themselves come into contact with each other or to support the mother to make sure that she stays separated from father.