Cumbria County Council v M, F, The Children (by their Children's Guardian)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Mr Justice Peter Jackson |
| Judgment Date | 28 July 2014 |
| Neutral Citation | [2014] EWHC 2596 (Fam) |
| Court | Family Division |
| Date | 28 July 2014 |
| Docket Number | Case No: CA13C000119 |
[2014] EWHC 2596 (Fam)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
FAMILY DIVISION
CARLISLE DISTRICT REGISTRY
The Honourable Mr Justice Peter Jackson
Case No: CA13C000119
and
and
Peter Rothery (instructed by Cumbria County Council) for the Applicant
Gillian Irving QC (instructed by Denby Co Solicitors) for the Mother
Jenny Scully (instructed by Livingstons Solicitors) for the Father
Carly Henley (instructed by Bendles Solicitors) for the Children's Guardian
Zoe Norden, In-house Lawyer, making written submissions on behalf Guardian News and Media Ltd, Associated Newpapers Ltd, The BBC, CN Group, Independent Print Ltd, The Press Association, Telegraph Media Group and Times Newspapers Ltd
Hearing date 11 July 2014
Judgment date 28 July 2014
This judgment was delivered in private. The judge has given leave for this version of the judgment to be published on condition that (irrespective of what is contained in the judgment) in any published version of the judgment the anonymity of the persons concerned must be strictly preserved. All persons, including representatives of the media, must ensure that this condition is strictly complied with. Failure to do so will be a contempt of court.
Issues arise within continuing care proceedings concerning five children aged 10 and under that began in October 2013. In March 2014, a fact-finding hearing took place and I gave judgment on 28 March. A final hearing to settle the children's future will take place in October.
The proceedings arose from the death of a sixth child, P, in December 2012 at the age of 13 months. My findings in relation to her death have not been made public to avoid prejudice to any criminal proceedings that may be brought.
The fact-finding judgment also records, but does not make findings about, alleged shortcomings in the investigation into P's death. The judgment has been disclosed to the following agencies:
• The Chief Executive of Cumbria County Council
• The Statutory Lead Member for Children's Services, Cumbria County Council
• The Chair of Cumbria County Council's Scrutiny Advisory Board — Children and Young People
• The IRO service manager for Cumbria
• Ofsted
• The Independent Chair of the Cumbria Local Safeguarding Children's Board
• The Department of Education (for the attention of the national panel of independent experts of Serious Case Reviews)
• The Chief Constable of Cumbria Constabulary
• The Police and Crime Commissioner for Cumbria
• The Independent Police Complaints Commission
• The Crown Prosecution Service
• The Chair of the relevant NHS Foundation Trust
• The Care Quality Commission
• HM Coroner
• The Chief Coroner for England and Wales
During the hearing, the legal team representing the children produced a Schedule of Failings in which the investigation is analysed in greater detail. That document has been disclosed to some, but not all, of the above agencies.
This summer, HM Coroner will reopen the inquest into P's death. The parents are currently on bail and a charging decision will not be made for some months.
The five children are in foster care. Mindful of the inquest and possible criminal proceedings, the local authority applied for a reporting restriction order in very wide terms. I heard the application on 11 July and made an order in narrower terms. My reasons are contained in a formal note of the judgment given that day.
In the wake of that hearing, the media has applied for disclosure of the fact-finding judgment and the Schedule of Failings.
In this judgment, I will not repeat matters relating to the facts of the case. I will however, at the request of the media, record two practice issues that arose during the reporting restrictions hearing and give my decision in relation to the disclosure application. I have received oral and written submissions from the parties to the proceedings and written submissions from Ms Zoe Norden, In-house Lawyer for Guardian News & Media on behalf of all the media organisations.
Reporting restrictions
The local authority's application was robustly opposed by eight media organisations representing a wide cross-section of the serious print and broadcast media. Essentially they argued that what was being asked for was far too wide.
I comment on two aspects of the matter.
The first is that none of the parties within the family proceedings presented their arguments in a timely fashion. By an earlier order, I allowed for the application to be made and served in accordance with the Practice Direction, and for the arguments of the parties to be in the hands of the media in advance. As it happened, the parties' submissions were lodged on the eve of the hearing and even on the morning itself. So late were the documents that the arguments of the media arrived before those of the parties. I remedied this by making a provisional ruling and allowing the media the final word about the scope and drafting of the order before it came into effect. This led to a productive dialogue and an agreed draft reflecting my overall ruling.
The other issue concerns the breadth of the order originally sought. It would have had the effect of concealing for...
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