Warwickshire County Council v M and others: CA 1 Nov 2007

The judge had granted the mother leave to apply for revocation of placement orders. The authority appealed. The mother argued that once a change of circumstances was shown, the court was obliged to give leave to apply.
Held: The judge was not so obliged, but instead had a discretion whether to grant leave to apply. In exercising that discretion, for some reason unknown, parliament had provided that the child’s interests were not paramount. Nevertheless, because of his mistake the judge had not investigated whether to grant leave. The Court now did so, and allowing the authority’s appeal, refused the mother leave.
Wilson LJ said: ‘The judge went on to observe, however, that, were an application for leave to have been issued but not to have been disposed of, it would normally be good practice for a local authority either to agree not to place the child until its disposal or at least to agree to give notice, say of 14 days, to the applicant of any proposed placement. In this regard I also agree with him. Given such notice, the applicant might perhaps be able either to take steps to challenge the lawfulness of the decision to place at that juncture or, probably more easily, to seek an expedited hearing of the application for leave, from which might flow, in the fine, developing tradition of collaboration between local authorities and courts, a short further agreed moratorium on placement until the hearing.’

Thorpe LJ, Dyson LJ, Wilson LJ
[2007] EWCA Civ 1084, Times 21-Dec-2007, [2008] 1 WLR 991, [2008] 1 FLR 1093, [2007] WLR (D) 286
Bailii
Adoption and Children Act 2002 24
England and Wales
Cited by:
CitedIn re F (A Child) (Placement Order); C v East Sussex County Council (Adoption) CA 1-May-2008
The father sought to revoke a freeing order. He said that the social workers had conspired to exclude him from the process. The child was born of a casual relationship, and at first he was unaware of the proceedings. On learning of them he sought to . .
CitedIn re G (A Child) (Special guardianship order: Application to discharge) CA 10-Feb-2010
The mother had failed in her application to have set aside a special guardianship order made in favour of the child’s grandmother. The judge had held that the change in her circumstances was not significant.
Held: Her appeal succeeded. The . .
CitedRe A (A Minor), Re TL v Coventry City Council; CC v A, by her Children’s Guardian CA 21-Dec-2007
The foster mother of a baby promptly indicated a wish to adopt her. Following four months of assessment Coventry informed her that, for reasons which she wished to challenge, her adoption of the baby would be unsuitable. Three days prior to so . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Adoption

Updated: 01 November 2021; Ref: scu.260143