Appealing a care order

[Mossie20]

Hi, we had the final hearing last week, we don't know the outcome until Thursday, as the judge wanted to read everything.

We don't know if this is because she isn't convinced of a care order or whether she is making sure we have no grounds to appeal.

We are assuming she will grant the 6 month care order as we don't want to get our hopes up.

However, she has been quite bullying at times, and we are not convinced she has been following procedure. For example we were made to give in a questions for her to approve yet the other parties were not. She claims this is normal for litigant parties.

She has also rushed the hearing, from evidence being filed (delays caused on the judges part) and instead of the 3 days it was done in two. We were not given the standard 3 days to file submissions, we had less than 24 hours after a long stressful 2 days.

A lot of questions could not be answered as the social worker giving the local authorities answers has never been the allocated SW only team and service manger. our son is now on the 4th SW (2 have left LA) and none were questioned. It was the same with the guardian, she is the 4th and could not answer for previous guardians which is understandable.

The judge even tried to say the legislation used in submissions was wrong, we checked it there and then it was word for word correct and so was the number.

Does any of this breach Article 6?

It is accepted our parenting is not an issue and the guardians barrister said herself it is an very unusual case. It mainly comes down to the relationship with my sister who my son is with. She has told numerous lies throughout proceedings some of which I have proven.

I do not want to exclude her from our sons life and have never said this, my concern has always been if she were to supervise contact or be relied upon to say how transition was going she would lie.

The LA go on about how she has cared for him etc, I stated no one has ever questioned her care. They asked what her motivation would be to lie, which even the guardian barrister backed me up on as the SW was twisting what I was saying and making out she didn't understand. That after caring for a child a relationship develops and she would struggle with him coming home which could be the motivation to lie.

the proposed transition is not supervised, it is simply she is in the property for the first 2 weeks but does not need to be in the room and if our son struggles we repeat the week. I can 99% say he would be fine he has been at home for longer periods without her there and been very happy, he knows I'm his mummy. She will be the one they ask about how it went. Contact supervisors have said they could do transition, which would be better. I would be happy if there was simply someone neutral like contact as well as my sister.

They believe I would stop my sister from seeing my son after which while it is my choice who he saw after I would not do so. The fear of her running and telling the LA lies would be gone. I have never pretended we ever had a close relationship, we will help each other if needed but we have never been the first person the other would go to for support, but I would do anything for my nieces and nephew and have done so much for them. Just as I have never doubted she loves my son, but she can be a spiteful and quite an ungrateful person and part of her while loving my son will be doing this not out of love but to feel like she has the upper hand. This is something other family who know what she is like feel. They feel it would have been better if he hadn't gone there.

Is the difficulty with transition a good enough reason in law to grant the care order? would it breach Article 8?
I know of cases where there has been no transition has happened, unfortunately they are not published case studies.

Also the longer it goes on the harder transition will be for my son as he gets older, he is 2 so if it happens now he is unlikely to remember any of it and would adapt very quickly with or without transition. Unfortunately children this age lose parents overnight and adapt as there is no other choice.

Our son was ripped away from all he knew based on lies. He has barely been away from me, just an hour here and there.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Mossie20

Thank you for your further post.

I can see that you are still working hard to try to ensure that your son comes home to your care. You have had the final hearing and are awaiting the final decision. From what you say, this could be with no order made. Alternatively, it could be under a care order and under Placement of Children with Parents regulations. You don’t mention a Supervision Order which may be another option.

The proposed care plan allows for a planned transition for at least two weeks. This will involve your sister, your son’s current kinship foster carer. Your relationship with your sister continues to be very fraught. You accept that she loves your son but you view her negatively. You indicate that if your son’s return home is successful the plan is to return to court to discharge any care (or other) order in approximately 6 months. You are worried your sister may negatively influence the transition.

I am sorry to hear that there has been a significant turn around of both local authority social workers and Children’s Guardians in your son’s case. This must make this difficult situation even more challenging.

You raise a number of concerns about the judge’s management of your son’s case and whether they are applying the court procedures and law properly. These are matters for you to discuss with your solicitor urgently and certainly when you have their judgement. You may already have this by now as you said you would know the outcome by Thursday.

As you are aware there is a tight timescale for appeal. Please see here for more details about this.

You are also querying whether your family’s human rights are being breached in the situations you describe. The judge is responsible for ensuring that your rights and your son’s are upheld throughout and in making their decision. So you should make sure your worries with your solicitor and obtain their specific legal advice on this.

If you need to post back following the court’s decision, then please do. I know that other parents will want to support you and hear how your case concluded. I hope that everything works out.

Best wishes

Suzie