L (Children) (Rev 1)

Judgment Approved

Lord Justice McFarlane :

The present appeal, which relates to a boy, R, now aged 11, and a girl, A, now aged 7, arises from sad, but not uncommon, circumstances where, despite the undoubted love shown to both children by their parents, it is said that innate intellectual and personality deficits will cause the children to suffer significant harm if they remain in parental care.

Despite the difficulties that she has, the children have remained living in their mother’s care throughout their lives. Progressively the mother has been supported by increasing amounts of care provided by social workers and an independent support agency known as “SAY” (Same As You) and her own mother, with whom she lives. The father lives separately from the mother but has regular contact with the children.

On 23 January 2017 HHJ Melville QC made final care orders with respect to both children, the effect of which was that the children would be removed from their mother’s care and placed in a long-term foster placement. As a result of a stay placed on the order, the children remained living in their mother’s care pending the full hearing before this court.

The grounds of appeal, in addition to a more conventional challenge to the judge’s judgment, asserted that both the local authority and the court were in breach of duties under the Equality Act 2010 in pursuing a plan for the removal of the children, rather than making “reasonable adjustments” to support this learning-disabled mother in the continued care of her children.

As it was by no means clear from the judgment that any point under the Equality Act had been raised before the judge, on 2 March 2017 I directed that the permission for appeal application should be heard on notice before the full court with the appeal to follow at the same hearing if permission were granted. At the conclusion of that hearing, which took place on 4 July 2017, we announced our decision which was to grant permission to appeal, but dismiss the appeal. This judgment now seeks to explain the reasoning behind that decision.

Background

As the focus of the appeal has been largely upon the adequacy of the judge’s reasons, it is not necessary to describe the background to the proceedings in any great detail.

Each of the two parents has a very significant learning disability. In addition, the father is a Schedule 1 offender, having been convicted of sexual offences against young girls; he is, however, thought to be at low risk of