Re A-W (A Child) and C (Children)

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 children and members of the family 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.

THE JUDGE: I have been concerned with the welfare of three children in this case.

The children with whom I am concerned are:-

K, a boy, who is three years and three months old (born on 19 ^th July 2010),

N, a girl, who is 18 months old (born on 17 ^th April 2012) and

A, also a girl, who is eight months old (born on 14 ^th February 2013).

The local authority, represented by Mr Buchan, has made applications in respect of each of those children for care orders and placement orders. The mother, represented by Mr Firbank, has courageously conceded she does not have the capacity to care for the children herself within their timescales and she neither consents to nor opposes the local authority applications for K and N.

The father of A, who was represented by Mr Thomas of counsel during the hearing and by his solicitor Miss Rees this morning, seeks to care for A or, in the alternative, have his parents care for her.

His case is in very large measure supported by the children's guardian, Dawn Whittaker who was represented by Mr. Rothery of counsel during the hearing before me and who is represented today by Miss Bentley of counsel. The children's guardian supports the local authority case in respect of K and N namely the making of final care orders and placement orders in respect of them. The threshold criteria have been conceded by the parents to be made out in accordance with a document dated 20 ^th February 2013 that was prepared for an interim hearing by counsel for the local authority. The evidence supporting the schedule of facts is filed in the court bundle and not challenged. I am therefore able to find that the threshold criteria are made out in accordance with that document save for one issue which I will deal with later.

The mother's application for declaratory relief in respect of alleged breaches of her rights under the Human Rights Act 1998

The mother, who I am going to refer to as CC, seeks declarations pursuant to section 7 of the Human Rights Act 1998 that her rights pursuant to Article 6 and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights have, by reason of the conduct of the social work team employed by Lancashire County Council on 18 ^th February 2013, been breached. Lancashire County Council is the defendant to that claim. Her claim was initially issued on 19 ^th February by way of Part 8 procedure and has been treated as consolidated within the care proceedings. That seems to me to be in accordance with the practice approved by the Court of Appeal in the case of Re S [2010] EWCA CIV 1383. I first dealt with this case on 18 ^th February 2013 in the county court, on a first appointment in respect of A's case, and I transferred the matter to the High Court. Mr. Justice Cobb, therefore, dealt initially with the contested interim care order, gave directions for the declaratory proceedings) and conducted two hearings on 7 ^th March and 21 ^st March 2013. The case was thereafter released back to be heard by me sitting as a Deputy Judge of the High Court to deal with both the care proceedings and the consolidated Human Rights Act declaratory proceedings.

At an early stage of the Human Rights Act proceedings it became clear that the local authority's case was that officers of the Lancashire Constabulary of Police had acted independently of the local authority in carrying out the acts complained of by the mother as the basis of her Human Rights Act action, and that raised serious criticism of those officers as well as of the social work team. Thus the Lancashire Police have attended and been represented and participated at relevant hearings both in front of Mr Justice Cobb and in front of me, although they have not been made defendants in the Human Rights Act proceedings and are not parties to either set of proceedings. No declaration has been sought against them. However, any survey of the events which form the basis of the mother's action under the Human Rights Act necessarily involved the scrutiny of the conduct of the officers involved and it was therefore appropriate and proper for the police to be invited to attend and to be represented. They have had the advantage of representation by Mr Dalal of counsel during the hearing before me.

As I have already set out, the approach of Lancashire County Council during the hearing which I have conducted has been to accept responsibility in general for the completely inappropriate procedures adopted on 18 ^th February 2013 and to concede that declarations should be made and to apologise to the mother. It was the account of the Local Authority witness that the instigator of A being received into police protection on that day was DC K. DC K was the instigating officer of the section 46 process, to use the language of Home Office Circular 017/2008 which provides guidance to officers as to the proper use of that process.

Originally the mother's human rights action incorporated a claim for damages. This was compromised and withdrawn at the first hearing when Lancashire County Council made concessions as to the unlawfulness of their procedure and reimbursed the mother's solicitor the monies she had expended upon a modest hotel for the mother to stay at in order to remain close to A after the mother was discharged from hospital and before A was removed to foster care. I was concerned, therefore, only to consider whether to make declarations setting out that the local authority acted in breach of the mother's rights under the European Convention and how they had done so. The local authority conceded that such declarations could and should be made, and in very large measure conceded the terms of such declarations. They would not concede any declaration that the local authority should have sought an emergency protection order pursuant to section 44 of the Children Act 1989 when they erroneously believed that a contested ICO could not take place. The police have made no concessions at all as to the process adopted by their officers on that day.

The mother's case was, therefore, not brought to pursue monetary compensation but rather to achieve a scrutiny of what went on that day, and the hearing proceeded with evidence about the events which led to A being placed in police protection on 18 ^th February in order for me to determine what had happened that day. This was despite the substantial concessions of the local authority at the suggestion and with the agreement of all parties before me with the possible exception of the police who, in any event, raised no objection to the evidence being heard. Indeed Mr. Dalal of counsel was enthusiastic that I should hear the evidence of their witness, DC K.

The background to the proceedings

CC is the mother of the children and is herself only just 18 years of age (born on 10 ^th May 1995). The fathers of K and N have not participated in these proceedings. They are named by the mother as LP, a Sri Lankan national who is now deported and who is said to be K's father, and SA, an Indian national who is said to be N's father who is also now deported. The father of A is AAMW and he is also a Sri Lankan national. He has participated fully in these proceedings. He was in a relationship with the mother from about the time of her pregnancy with N until June 2013. The maternal grandmother is CHC, who became a party to the proceedings in order to pursue an application for a residence order in respect of the children. She applied and was granted permission to withdraw that application earlier this week and ceased to be a party at that point, although she remained in court to support the mother during the hearing. I reserved my judgment until this afternoon. The hearing was conducted last week. The mother and the grandmother have felt unable to attend this final day of the proceedings. Each of them has written heartfelt letters to me setting out their feelings about what has gone on and why they are not here today.

The local authority brought care proceedings in respect of K and N on 2 ^nd January 2013, they having been accommodated in foster care since 18 ^th December 2012 after being removed from their mother's care on 18 ^th December by being taken into police protection, and then on 20 ^th December 2012 being made subject to emergency protection orders. The mother was just 15 when she gave birth to K, just 17 when she gave birth to N and was still only 17 when A was born. Her family have been known to social services for a number of years and the mother's childhood itself was problematic in the extreme. She demonstrated severe difficulties with her own conduct, including self-harming, antisocial and criminal behaviour and other risky behaviour, including relationships with much older men. It is unlikely the mother was given, during her own...