S (A Child)

Judgment

LORD JUSTICE McFARLANE:

This is an appeal brought by the mother of a young child following the making of a care order and an order authorising the child to be placed for adoption by HHJ Davies on 2 December 2016. The case has a substantial history before the family court. The child is now aged 16 months and from a time prior to the birth of the baby the local authority were concerned that the mother may not be able to cope with her new born child or provide good enough and safe parenting. The local authority's grounds for concern sadly arose not through any malevolent past behaviour on the part of the mother but entirely because of the internal difficulties that she has and has had throughout her life. The judge describes the cognitive assessment of the mother that was undertaken at the beginning of the proceedings which indicate that her level of functioning was at a very modest level indeed. In addition, the mother has been diagnosed as having an emotionally unstable personality disorder. This cocktail of difficulties was behind the local authority's concern and indeed came to be confirmed by the experts instructed in the case as providing hurdles that might prevent the mother from being an effective parent to her child.

And so, proceedings were commenced effectively at the time of the child's birth. Most fortunately the local authority were able to engage foster carers who were willing and able to take the mother and baby into their home to provide care for the interim period, no doubt intended to be relatively short, before a final hearing. Because of a sequence of events, including, tragically, the death of HHJ Arthur who was to have been the trial judge, the case did not come on for hearing until December 2016, some 14 months or so after it had commenced. It is not the function of this court in the course of our consideration of this appeal to look in any way as to the reasons for that delay but it must be agreed by all that for the system to fail to achieve a final determination for a young baby who comes in to the family justice system at day one of his or her life at a time well before the age of one year, is a disaster in procedural terms.

The good news for the mother and the child is that through the generosity of spirit and commitment of the foster carers, the foster placement has been maintained throughout the long period that I have just described. Indeed, even following the judge's order in early December as a result of an order