N and N (by their litigation friend and father, CBN) v London Borough of Newham (First Defendant) Essex County Council (Second Defendant)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | The Honourable Mrs Justice Swift Dbe,Mrs Justice Swift Dbe |
| Judgment Date | 09 August 2013 |
| Neutral Citation | [2013] EWHC 2475 (Admin) |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Administrative Court) |
| Date | 09 August 2013 |
| Docket Number | Case No: CO/12740/2011 |
[2013] EWHC 2475 (Admin)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
The Honourable Mrs Justice Swift Dbe
Case No: CO/12740/2011
and
Mr Alexander Campbell (instructed by Edwards Duthie, Solicitors) for the Claimant
Mr Hilton Harrop-Griffiths (instructed by London Borough of Newham Legal Services) for the First Defendant
Mr Thomas Amraoui (instructed by Essex Legal Services) for the Second Defendant
Hearing date: 2 July 2013
Approved Judgment
I direct that pursuant to CPR PD 39A para 6.1 no official shorthand note shall be taken of this Judgment and that copies of this version as handed down may be treated as authentic.
THE PROCEEDINGS
The claimants are two children, who were aged six and four years old at the time of the relevant events. In order to protect their anonymity, the court has ordered that they be called N and N. They bring these proceedings by their father and litigation friend, CBN.
On 23 December 2011, the claimants made an application for interim relief pending issue of an application for judicial review. Lindblom J ordered that the first defendant should provide the claimants with accommodation and support forthwith and until further order of the court. On 30 December 2011, the claimants issued an application for judicial review in which they challenged decisions made by the first and second defendants not to provide them and their parents with accommodation and support pursuant to section 17 of the Children Act 1989 ("the 1989 Act").
On 27 February 2012, Mr Michael Kent QC, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, gave permission to the claimants to apply for judicial review. On 22 January 2013, Miss Belinda Bucknall QC, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, gave the claimants permission to amend their Grounds in order to reflect the events which had happened over the previous year. Since 23 December 2011, the first defendant has continued to provide the claimants and their parents with bed and breakfast accommodation in Newham and with financial support pursuant to the order of Lindblom J.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND
The claimants' family history
The claimants' parents are Nigerian nationals. Both are well educated and hold degrees. The claimants' father entered the UK illegally in 1984 (having absconded from the airport when the plane on which he was travelling was impounded) and has remained in the UK ever since. Their mother entered the UK as a visitor in 1995 and stayed over when her visa expired. She and the claimants' father met in 2004 and married in 2005. The claimants were born in 2007 and 2009. Previous applications by the claimants' parents for leave to remain in the UK were unsuccessful. In October 2011, they came to the attention of the immigration services and, in November 2011, their temporary admission was authorised, with a requirement of regular reporting. On 9 August 2012, the UK Border Agency ("UKBA") informed the claimant's parents' immigration solicitors that it intended to reconsider their applications for leave to remain. No decision has yet been made on those applications. Meanwhile, neither of them has the right to work in the UK, nor any recourse to public funds.
It appears that, from the time of his entry into the UK until his marriage in 2005, the claimants' father worked illegally whilst living either in private rented accommodation or with friends. Between 2005 and 2009, he and the claimants' mother (and, for the later part of this period, the claimants) continued to live in private accommodation in Ilford, Essex, both working illegally. In 2009, the claimants' father lost his job as a security guard because his immigration status made it impossible for him to obtain the required licence. After that time, he did various "cash in hand" jobs and received financial assistance from friends and the church at which the family worships. In April 2010, the claimants' mother was arrested; subsequently, she was sentenced to a period of imprisonment for an offence of using false identity papers to obtain employment. Whilst she was in prison, the first claimant lived with a private foster carer, who was a close friend of the family from Nigeria and the first claimant's godmother. The claimants' mother was released from prison in late May 2010 and, shortly afterwards, the family moved to private rented accommodation in Harlow, Essex, having been threatened with eviction from their previous home because of rent arrears. The first claimant attended a nursery in Harlow for six months in 2011 and the family was registered with a GP in Harlow. In August 2011, they were again evicted from their accommodation because of rent arrears.
From that time until 17 December 2011, the family stayed in various bed and breakfast establishments in Ilford, Harlow and Walthamstow and, on occasion, on church premises or in the family car. Meanwhile, in September 2011, the first claimant had begun primary school in Harlow. When the family moved to Walthamstow, he was taken to and from school by car. Even after the car was sold in November 2011, the claimants' parents continued to take the first claimant to and from Harlow each day until the end of the Christmas term, 2011.
On 18 December 2011, the claimants and their parents were evicted from the bed and breakfast accommodation where they had been sleeping without the knowledge or permission of the owner. The family spent that night in Whipps Cross Hospital where they had taken the second claimant, who is asthmatic and was suffering from a cold, for medical advice.
The involvement of the second defendant
The events of 19 December 2011
On 19 December 2011, the family was in Waltham Forest, East London, where the claimants' parents made contact with solicitors who sought help on their behalf from the London Borough of Waltham Forest ("Waltham Forest LBC"). Waltham Forest LBC referred them to the second defendant and paid for a taxi for them to travel to Essex. The claimants and their father arrived in Harlow in the late afternoon of 19 December 2011 and met the second defendant's social worker, Ms Maureen Conroy-Brown. The claimant's mother was reported to have stayed in London in order to see whether other members of her family could give them assistance. She intended to travel to Essex later that evening by train. The claimant's father told Ms Conroy-Brown that his wife's family would give her the money for the train fare. Ms Conroy-Brown noted that the children were dirty and unkempt and had little food. She took the decision to provide them (and because of the claimants' young age, their parents also) with one night's bed and breakfast accommodation in Harlow and a voucher to buy food. She also decided that an initial assessment of the claimants' needs should be undertaken, pursuant to section 17 of the 1989 Act, and that the immigration status of the claimants' parents should be ascertained.
The events of 20 December 2011
On 20 December 2011, Ms Conroy-Brown proceeded with the initial assessment. She obtained information from the London Borough of Hackney ("Hackney LBC"), who had carried out an assessment of the family whilst the claimants' mother was in prison. She made further enquiries of Ilford Social Care ("Ilford") which had also been involved with the family. Ilford had previously offered the family transitional arrangements to return to Nigeria which they had declined. It was reported that the claimants' parents had told Ilford Social Care that they had friends and extended family who had been supporting them.
On 20 December 2011, Ms Conroy-Brown spoke to the claimants' mother who told her that her husband had gone to London to see his family, paying for his fare with money that her aunt had given to her. The claimants' mother said that her brother, a doctor who lived in the North of England, was travelling south that day and was going to help her. She told Ms Conroy-Brown that her family had been helping them but, in the previous month, she had been trying to manage without their assistance. She said that she was going to ask her family for support again. She said that her husband had "made wrong decisions" and "needed to change ways that things are done". She spoke about staying at the bed and breakfast accommodation where they had spent the previous night and financing it herself. Following that conversation, Ms Conroy-Brown told the family that the second defendant would not be providing them with accommodation that night.
Subsequently, the claimants' solicitors contacted the second defendant's legal department, renewing the request for accommodation. In the event, it does not appear that this request was pursued further since the claimants and their parents travelled to London later that day, where they were provided with money by a church. They used the money to pay for board and lodging in bed and breakfast accommodation in the first defendant's area.
The initial assessment
Ms Conroy-Brown completed her initial assessment of the claimants on 22 December 2011. It was based on her meeting with them and their father on 19 December 2011 and on the information she had subsequently obtained about their past history. In her assessment report, she observed that the children were well behaved and responded appropriately to their father who displayed affection towards them. However, she...
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