A new born baby was placed with foster carers on discharge from hospital. Both parents had learning difficulties and agreed to the baby being placed with a particular couple. At that stage the local authority considered this an informal arrangement rather than section 20 accommodation. Only five months later did they decide to seek the parents’ retrospective consent to section 20 accommodation. Care proceedings were not issued until the child was nearly a year old. The local authority accepted that they had breached the rights of both parents under articles 6 and 8 of the ECHR in a variety of ways – mainly by failing to involve them properly in the decision-making process, by seeking consent in the way that they did, by placing insufficient weight on the parents’ clearly expressed wish to care for the child, and by delaying both the assessment of the parents and the issue of proceedings.
Clifford Bellamy HHJ
[2014] EWFC 38
Bailii
Children Act 1989 20
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Williams and Another v London Borough of Hackney SC 18-Jul-2018
On arrest for shoplifting a 12 year old said he had been doing so to get food, and that he had been hit with a belt by his father. Investigation revealed the home to be dangerous, and all eight children were removed to the care of the LA. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 07 August 2021; Ref: scu.538181