I have just finished a week in court on behalf of grandparents who wanted to have their grandson placed with them rather than go for Adoption. There were 3 negative assessments of them by the local authority and the Childrens Guardian was against them. Initially it appeared that the judge also thought that the mountain for them to climb was simply too high. On Thursday he stopped the hearing describing the LA as smacking of Social Engineering and their case as shambolic. He said that the SWs evidence was unreliable. He pointed in the direction of an SGO but after we went to court on Friday it was quite clear that neither the LA or the CG had listened. They wanted their own SW to do the SGO Assessment. We are now going for a Child Arrangement Order (Residence Order). The case emphasised that LAs and CGs can sometimes lose all sense of proportion and fighting the Grandparents appeared to become all they wanted to do. But thankfully my clients never gave up! Whether wed get the same result under the strict 26 weeks will be tested in the future.
Posted on: Sun, 11 May 2014 11:44:57 +0000
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