What the RMCC's February 2026 briefing records about recent judgments The Refugee and Migrant Children's Consortium (RMCC) published a briefing on the National Age Assessment Board (NAAB) in February 2026. Much of it addresses policy and structure. For practitioners, though, the more immediately useful section is its summary of recent judgments, because the errors identified there are ones any assessing social worker can guard against, whoever employs them. Reading across the cases the...

The National Age Assessment Board (NAAB) now plays a significant role in how Merton-compliant age assessments are conducted across England. As a social worker with over 25 years' experience in children's services, including nine years managing a specialist UASC team, I think the sector needs to ask some honest questions about whether this model best serves young people — and whether the resource could be deployed more effectively elsewhere. The establishment of the National Age Assessment...

Few phrases appear more frequently in age assessment practice — and few are more consistently misunderstood. "Benefit of the doubt." Solicitors invoke it in instructions. Social workers apply it in reports. Courts scrutinise whether it has been properly understood. And yet, in my experience of conducting and reviewing Merton-compliant age assessments, it remains one of the most misapplied principles in the entire field. This post sets out what the principle actually means, what the case law...