Judge says mother was treated unfairly by council over her child’s adoption

A SENIOR judge has ruled a “thwarted” mother was treated unfairly and unlawfully when she was not given a proper chance to challenge a local authority’s plans to place her child with prospective adopters.

The judge ruled Essex County Council social workers “deliberately for welfare reasons sought to prevent (the mother) from making an application to revoke the placement order”.

Mr Justice Charles, sitting at the High Court in London, called for official guidance in such cases to be reviewed and condemned “races” to put children with adopters before legal challenges could be brought by parents.

His ruling opens the way for the mother, who cannot be named, to claim compensation at a future date for breaches to her human rights.

The local authority placed child “EL” for adoption in October 2016 before the mother could issue an application for leave to challenge the decision.

Quashing the decision, the judge ruled the local authority had acted contrary to statutory guidance on adoption “to thwart an application to revoke the placement order”.

Fairness and justice had required the local authority to give the mother a deadline date and a reasonable amount of time to apply to revoke the placement order, the judge said.

He added: “I suggest that not only is a race between an underinformed parent and the adoption agency likely to be unfair it is also likely to create significant risks to the achievement of a result that best promotes the welfare of the child and the timely completion of a plan for adoption.”

Lawyers for the county council argued the welfare of the child justified the adoption decision.

The mother’s attempt to appeal against the Family Court order in respect of EL was dismissed in August 2016, and the actual placement went ahead the following October.