Sheffield City Council v A Mother & Ors

In this matter, I am asked to make a care and placement order in respect of two children: Annie (not her name), born in June 2019 and Simon (not his real name), born in August 2021.

The application by the Local Authority which is supported by the Guardian is that the children should be made subject to care and placement orders. The parents’ position has been that whilst they do not oppose the making of care orders, they would ideally like their children to not be adopted and they invited me to consider alternative options for the children as, of course, I must do. If the children are to be placed for adoption, then, there was an issue in respect of whether any post-adoption contact should be promoted. That issue has now been addressed by the Local Authority.

At the previous IRH or early final hearing, the Local Authority’s evidence and analysis as to the reasons for promoting indirect contact only was absent. That has now been addressed as being amended and the Local Authority set out a plan as to how any post-adoption contact would be promoted.

These parents both have their own individual difficulties and, on 29 January, I approved an order in which the parents accepted the crossing of the threshold criteria for the making of any final orders. That threshold criteria records that the father, had been a respondent in care proceedings twice and that he was not supposed to have been left alone with a child but that he was left alone by the mother with Annie. The children were also recorded as having suffered from neglect due to poor school attendance for Annie and a failure by the father to enrol Simon in nursery. Simon’s developmental needs were neglected as were Annie’s medical needs.

The children’s basic hygiene needs were neglected. The home conditions were observed to be smelly and dirty and the mother had moved away from the children prioritising, as she did at the time, her relationship with her new partner. What is also recorded in the threshold is that the children have been exposed to inappropriate adults who may pose a risk to them and have been placed at risk of physical harm due to inappropriate living conditions and have sustained a large number of bruises that were unexplained. The parents accepted that, on a factual basis, the threshold criteria were crossed.

However, the fact that the threshold criteria were crossed is merely the gateway to the making of a public law order. It does and, I am clear in my mind, it should not lead automatically to the making of a care order or the making of a placement order.

During the course of these proceedings, the parents have been assessed using the ParentAssess models to take into account their individual needs. Sadly, for both parents, those assessments have concluded negatively. The parents have not sought to challenge the author of those assessments and have accepted that evidence, the outcomes of those parenting assessments. Assessment of wider family members, particularly, a great-aunt was, also negative and no other potential carers have been identified for these children.

What then are the options for the children? The evidence is clear that both parents would require a significant amount of support to be able to care for the children and it is unlikely that any support package would be able to adequately address the difficulties that the parents have demonstrated in terms of meeting the children’s needs. They each individually have a number of their own difficulties. However, if the children were placed with either of their parents, it is clear that they would be loved and the parents would very much wish to be given the opportunity to care for them notwithstanding their own difficulties. They are children who are well-loved.

An alternative is for the children to remain in long-term foster care. The difficulty with foster care for children as young as this is that it will involve social workers being involved in their lives for the rest of their childhoods. Placements with foster carers are insecure by their very nature and can and often do come to an end sometimes at very short notice. The reality is that foster carers cannot give the same level of commitment to children as adoptive placements can. However, I am conscious that if the children were to remain in foster care, they would remain a part of their birth family and would be able to maintain contact with each of their parents on a relatively regular basis.

The final option and the option which I am invited to approve by the Local Authority and the Guardian is that the children should be placed for adoption. There are obvious difficulties in placing these children for adoption given their ages, and the Local Authority have acknowledged that and they have confirmed that a time-limited search could be undertaken for an adoptive placement. The advantages of an adoptive placement are that adopters can confidently be expected to commit to these children for the rest of their childhoods and into adulthood. The children would become a part of a forever family and a family that would be committed to them. They would become a legal part of that family and should feel an equal part. However, adoption orders would sever the legal relationship that the children have with their birth parents. Adopted people sometimes have questions about the reasons for their adoption and why they were separated from their birth family. It may be that at some future point, they would need therapeutic input to help them to understand the reasons for that.

When I look at all of the available options and look at the children’s welfare throughout their lives, I am satisfied that these children should be given the opportunity to settle with a permanent family in which they can feel a proper and integral part of that family. It is an opportunity that I think the Local Authority should be granted to try to identify a family that can best meet these children’s needs through into adulthood. I am conscious that it is the welfare of the children throughout their lives that is my paramount consideration. Again, an adoptive family is the family that gives them the best opportunity to be parented well into early adulthood and beyond.

For all of those reasons, I am satisfied on the basis of what I have read and heard that the Local Authority should now place these children for adoption and search for a respective adoptive placement. Given the difficulties that the Local Authority had in addressing the needs for contact in the original care plans, I agree with the proposed section 26 order setting out the proposals for ongoing contact post the making of a placement order.

I should add, however, that one matter that has not been determined but remains a relevant feature within this case is that the children have now, apparently, made allegations against the father relating to the time that they were in his care. Those allegations have only very recently been made and need further exploration. I understand that Annie is being interviewed today. It has not been suggested that I should try to determine those allegations within these proceedings and, indeed, I would not have agreed to adjourn these proceedings for the purpose of investigating those allegations. They remain allegations but, for now, the father is subject to bail conditions which prevent him from having any direct contact with the children and the plans will have to be looked at and reviewed in the light of the criminal investigation as it progresses.

Other than that, I approve the plans for contact with the children and their parents and the section 26 order. I should add that any interference with the right to family life for these children and their parents must be proportionate and necessary in terms with the aims of the order. I recognise, as I do, that this is an order of last resort and should only be made where nothing else will do. I have come to the conclusion that a placement order is an order that is necessary for these children and, in this case, sadly, nothing else will do at this stage. I very much hope that the Local Authority are able to identify a suitable placement for the children.