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No presumption or right of a child to be brought up by their natural family
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Laura Vickers Barrister No 5 ChambersYou may be aware that the recent Court of Appeal case of
Re W [2016] EWCA Civ 793 has been causing some head scratching among commentators.
There is no doubt that this was a difficult case. The CoA heard an appeal from prospective adopters (with whom the 2-year-old child had already been placed for 18 months and their application for an adoption order was over a year old) against a decision of Bodey J to dismiss the adoption order application and instead make a Special Guardianship Order (SGO) in favour of the child's paternal grandparents.
At the time of the original care proceedings the parents were quickly ruled out. They did not co-operate with the local authority to identify the paternal family members; therefore no assessment ever took place. The child was made subject to a placement order in October 2014 and she was placed with adopters shortly thereafter in December 2014. They applied for an adoption order in April 2015.
While awaiting the hearing of the adoption application the parents had a second baby....
Read the full article here.
