CA-2025-001313 & CA-2025-001318 - [2025] EWCA Civ 1044

It is necessary to set out the sad family background in broad detail. This is not by way of a ‘mini-trial’ of the kind deprecated in H-W (Care Proceedings: Further Fact-Finding Hearing) [2023] EWCA Civ 149; [2023] 4 WLR 19, but so that the extent of the information available to the judge can be appreciated.

The mother had a very difficult childhood and the local authority was sporadically involved from the time she was aged 5. In the following decade she was made subject to child protection plans for a range of reasons: neglect, substance abuse, family dysfunction, historic domestic violence, challenging behaviour at school, truancy and childhood sexual exploitation. When she was aged 8, her baby brother died in his cot, aged 6 months.

A child and family assessment in May 2018 described the mother, then aged 15, as:

“an individual, who finds it hard to regulate her own emotions, and can be aggressive and verbally abusive when upset. [She] is seen to be unpredictable and erratic in her behaviour which includes her acting aggressively toward others.”

In April 2018, the mother and her sister were made the subject of interim care orders and placed in foster care. Later that month it was discovered that the mother was pregnant, and in May 2018 she and her sister moved to live with their grandmother, who was also looking after three young cousins. The mother turned 16 in July 2018, and a week later she gave birth to Z, a baby boy. In October 2018, the mother and her sister became the subject of final care orders.

After his birth, Z was made the subject of a child protection plan, and to the PLO process, but care proceedings were never issued.

The mother and her boyfriend Mr A, who she had named as Z’s father, were assessed in a residential setting for 12 weeks. The assessment began positively but it deteriorated when DNA testing carried out by Mr A’s family established that he was not Z’s father. Escalating concern was felt about Z’s safety and wellbeing arising from the mother’s dysregulated behaviour and emotions. Further concerns included her drug use and her ability to meet and prioritise Z’s needs. The final assessment report (full names removed) recorded:

“99.

Given these indications of potential, it was with considerable sadness that we observed her functioning and parenting capacity to decrease over the course of this assessment. The trigger for this was the result of the DNA test which showed that in all likelihood Mr A was not Z’s biological father. This appeared to represent a profound loss for her in terms of the emotional support which she believed would have been ongoing from Mr A and his family, as well as in terms of how she viewed herself and her situation. Also significant at this time for her is likely to be her unconscious fears about Z’s wellbeing, due to her little brother dying of cot death and her possible unsolved feelings about this.”

The assessment was terminated and it was recommended that the mother and Z return to live with the mother’s grandmother, who would be Z’s primary carer with a view to becoming his special guardian. The mother and Z accordingly moved there on 20 November 2018. Z slept in a cot in the mother’s bedroom.

The mother’s family nurse had visited at least fortnightly since Z’s birth. On 11 December 2018, she noted a marked change in the mother’s behaviour towards him. She was not engaging with him and she expressed her upset at the behaviour of Mr A and his family. The nurse recorded:

“I would describe her as strong willed feisty character when I first met her and during the initial visits and early stages, she was doing incredibly well and was acting more mature than her age. Unfortunately, after the result of the DNA test I could see she became less focused on Z and more focused on Mr A and her standards that she had set early on were not being achieved any more.”

Just a week later, the mother reported finding Z not breathing in his cot. He was taken to hospital. On the next day, life support treatment was withdrawn and he died, aged 5 months.