PART I – INTRODUCTORY

SECTION 1 - WELFARE OF THE CHILD
This section requires the courts to approach various proceedings involving children in a certain way. Some of the obligations are general, in that they apply to any proceedings and others apply only to particular proceedings under the Children Act 1989.

General obligations
Subsection (1) provides that a child’s welfare shall be the court’s “paramount consideration” when it is determining any question with respect to:

(i) the upbringing of a child;

(ii) the administration of a child’s property;

(iii) the application of any income arising from a child’s property.

This is commonly referred to as the “paramountcy principle”.

Subsection (2) is concerned with the conduct of court proceedings in which any question with respect to the upbringing of a child arises.