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Judgment
Lord Justice Wall :
The mother of a child whom I propose to identify only by the initial R, seeks permission to appeal from a order made by Her Honour Judge Katharine Marshall sitting in the Portsmouth County Court on 1 April 2009 whereby she refused the mother’s application for permission to instruct Mr. Colin Luger of an organisation called Resolutions to carry out a risk assessment relating to the mother’s capacity safely to parent R.
I saw the application on paper on 12 July 2009, and directed that it be listed before a three judge court on notice to the other parties in the long vacation with the appeal to follow if permission was granted. I described the case as urgent, and invited the parties to consider carefully who needed to be represented. Pursuant to that invitation, only the mother, the local authority and the guardian appeared by counsel, the latter being jointly represented by Mr Simon Miller. The father, who is represented by the Official Solicitor (the OS) did not appear, although the OS had filed a statement supporting the mother’s appeal. R’s paternal grandparents, who are parties to the proceedings, and whose application for an independent assessment of themselves as carers for R was also refused by the judge on 1 April 2009, did not appear, although they put in a position statement also supporting the appeal and in which they state that, if the appeal is allowed, they would “instantly renew their own application for independent assessment by an independent social worker and within the same timescales”.
I am extremely grateful to counsel for the submissions we received, and in particular to Mr Miller who, on the joint instruction of the local authority and the guardian, made submissions which were both well-judged and realistic.
On 27 August 2009, we made the following order in this case:
we granted permission to appeal;
we allowed the appeal and set aside the order made by the judge on 1 April 2009;
we vacated the final hearing of the care proceedings fixed by the judge for 1-4 September 2009 and directed the parties forthwith to find a date for the final hearing, that hearing to take place as soon as practicable after the hearing of the criminal trial of the mother and the father currently fixed for November 2009;
we directed that the care proceedings be listed for final directions before the designated family judge for Portsmouth (the DFJ) as soon as practicable after the conclusion of the criminal proceedings;
we