R (children), Re

Long-term placement decisions must address whether a proposed placement will meet the needs of all the children within their timescales. A child's wishes and feelings are important but are not determinative, particularly where the child lacks appropriate therapy, support or explanation. An appellate court should respect a welfare-based discretionary assessment where the judge has considered the relevant factors, excluded impermissible considerations and allowed no single factor inappropriate predominance. A further assessment may properly be refused where the proposed placement remains remote and uncertain.

The maternal grandmother appealed from the Portsmouth County Court’s order of 22 January 2007, which dismissed her applications for residence or special guardianship orders concerning three siblings and refused permission to appeal. The proceedings arose from local-authority care proceedings under Part IV of the Children Act 1989, with placement orders also sought under section 21 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002. The judge had previously directed further assessments but later rejected an adjournment and found that placement with the grandmother was unlikely to meet the children’s needs within their timescales. The central issue was whether she had given undue weight to D’s wishes and insufficient weight to the proposed family placement, sibling relationship and uncertainties in adoption and fostering plans.

Permission to appeal was granted, but the appeal was dismissed.

1. The challenge depended principally on the contention that the judge had allowed D’s wishes not to live with his grandmother to become determinative. If paragraph 107 of the judge’s judgment stood alone, that criticism might have succeeded. Read as a whole, however, the judgment showed a careful and comprehensive welfare assessment.
2. D’s wishes and feelings were relevant but were not treated as decisive. Heavy reliance on them would have been unsafe because D had not received the therapy and support needed to prepare him for the proposed placement, and the local authority had not explained the changed plan to him. The judge nevertheless considered other significant matters, including the relationship between the grandmother and the mother, the mother’s unpredictability and continuing relationship with DB, the risks surrounding contact, the lack of support from the second local authority and the absence of appropriate therapy locally.
3. The judge was entitled to conclude that placement with the grandmother would not meet the needs of all three children within D’s timescale. Since it was accepted that the siblings should remain together, the fact that the placement was unlikely to work for D was highly significant for the proposed placement of the group. The judge had properly balanced the advantages of family placement against the risks of instability, breakdown and continuing family conflict.
4. A further assessment by Dr Bradford was not justified. The prospects of a secure placement were remote, distant and uncertain, and the children should not wait further for that uncertain prospect. The lack of resources in the second local authority’s area was relevant but was not the determining factor.
5. The court gave guidance for the continuing care proceedings under Part IV of the Children Act 1989. D should receive the focused therapy identified by Dr Bradford. Any adoptive or long-term foster placement should, so far as consistent with the children’s needs, sustain their important relationship with the grandmother. Her future role would be that of grandmother rather than carer, but she could remain a fixed and important point in the children’s lives.

• Court of Appeal (Civil Division): Permission to appeal granted; appeal dismissed. Judgment dated 27 February 2007, [2007] EWCA Civ 139.
• Portsmouth County Court: On 22 January 2007, dismissed the maternal grandmother’s applications for residence and special guardianship orders and refused permission to appeal. The underlying substantive judgment was given on 19 December 2006.