Adoption
Re M (a child) [2024] EWCA Civ 1000, [2024] All ER (D) 55 (Aug)
The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, ruled on the appellant’s appeal against the order of the previous judge who had refused the local authority’s (LA) application for a placement order in respect of a four-year-old child, ‘M’. The judge said he considered of the fact that M as a child in care could have been stigmatised and at increased risk of breakdown of long-term fostering placements. However, the fact that there was such a close bond between mother and daughter, it would have helped to make the foster placement stronger, and less likely to break down. The LA advanced three grounds of appeal and argued that the judge: (i) erred in peremptorily dismissing adoption as a realistic option for M; (ii) failed to sufficiently evaluate the realistic options; and (iii) his reasons were inadequate. The court held that it was difficult to comprehend how the judge so unhesitatingly reached the decision he did. The judgment lacked a rigorous and unsentimental assessment of the viability of that
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