A Judge in Wales has been highly critical of a local authority which failed to return a nine year old boy to his mother’s care after she withdrew her consent to him being in foster care.
The boy had been accommodated while his mother had treatment in a psychiatric unit. Although it is not clear from reports at the moment, presumably she was deemed unable to consent to this during her illness. In cases like this local authorities often step in where there are no friends or family members able to help and this service can be a great help to families during difficult times. However, when the mother was well again and asked the authority to return her son they should have done so straight away.
Local authorities do not have the right to keep children in their care unless they have the consent of everyone with parental responsibility or an order from the court. In this case, if the local authority had concerns about the child’s welfare, it should have applied for an emergency protection order or an interim care order but it failed to do this. As such, the boy was kept from his mother illegally. Judge Gareth Jones was quite clear that “social services are not above the law and they, like everybody else, are subject to it”.
Hopefully lessons will be learnt from the media attention around this case but sadly it is likely that people will still find themselves in situations where the local authority acts outside the law and it can be hard to stand up to a local authority which could ultimately ask the court to remove your children. Fortunately legal aid is still available in situations like this and the care team at Taylor&Emmet is ready to advise.
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