Who is everybody?
3.The lawyer for the Council is Mr McCall. The social worker is Jeanette Midgley4.X and Y’s mum is N. I am told she prefers to be called N than Ms […….]. Her lawyer is Ms Kaur. N has a learning disability which makes things difficult for her. N was in care herself and has an Advocate, a Tenancy Support Worker and a personal adviser. N also has some mental health issues and in the past she has been in an abusive relationship with the father. N finds reading and writing difficult. Dr Aslam and Sue Atlass have previously spoken to N and they wrote reports. N also has had support from Rachel Dando who is an intermediary and has written a report. This has helped everybody to make this hearing fair. 5.Y’s dad is called M. X’s dad is not known. M’s lawyer was Miss Edwards but as M has not contacted anyone about the case for a long time she did not stay at court after the first morning. M has not taken part in the hearing and not seen the children for a long time.6.X and Y’s Guardian is Steve Hornby. Their lawyer is Paul Webb.7.I want to thank everybody who has helped at court this week. I think that the lawyers have given sensible advice and have done their best for their clients. I know this has been very difficult for N. She did not come to court for 10am on the second day when we were due to have the Social Worker speak and she could not be contacted despite people trying. We waited and then decided to start the hearing at 2pm. Just as we were about to start, N phoned and she explained that she had been unable to attend as she had lost her purse. She still opposed the local authority plans and wanted to come to court to give evidence.8.I was not able to list the matter on the Friday when the Intermediary was available due to having a completely full diary and so we either had to deal with the case the next day or in a few months time. The Council, the Guardian and I were worried about delay and delay is not good for the girls so I decided it would have to be the next day. Instead of an intermediary, N would have her advocate, her barrister and her solicitor/paralegal and I said that we would make sure that she was able to understand by going slowly. I would make sure that the hearing was fair. I did this by letting N have breaks whenever she wanted and allowing as much time as she needed. Miss Jones and Miss Cropper came to court with her and they were able to speak to her and take notes during the hearing.9.I will not write about the law in here as it is complicated and can be hard for people to understand. Everybody agrees on what the law says and I have thought about it when making up my mind. The lawyers agreed that I did not need to talk about the law any more in this judgment. It was agreed that I would write my judgment down in simple words so that it was easier for N to understand.10.I have read all the papers in the case and I have listened to what everyone has said to me this week.11.I heard evidence from N, the social worker and the Guardian.12.I have very carefully read the excellent document provided by Ms Kaur called “written submissions” which set out lots of things about N’s position. I have thought about everything she said when I was writing this judgment even if I don’t repeat it all here.