Case No. EWFC-156

113The realistic options for P’s placement are that she remains with her mother, she moves into foster care, or that I adjourn for a further assessment of the father. I am fully aware that I am required to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of each option side by side and that I must not fall into the trap, as the local authority have done, of conducting a linear analysis. 114That said, I have come to the clear conclusion, having had all options in mind throughout this hearing, that of the three options before the court a placement with the father in his home country, either now or in the near future, is one which carries enormous and ultimately probably insurmountable problems. The father himself accepts that it would be very difficult to place P with him now. His case is that there should be a further assessment of him by an independent social worker who can carry out the work in person in his home country. I have to ask myself whether this assessment is necessary and what further information it would provide. A face to face assessment would give the court a fuller and more detailed picture of the home that the father is able to offer P but it would not change the fundamental difficulty with this placement, which is that P would be required to move to a home with family members she does not yet have an established relationship with, in a country where she does not speak the language and in circumstances where her contact with her mother would necessarily be infrequent and limited. These problems are not of the father’s making but they are profound.115In my judgment, there are currently no gaps in the evidence which a further Part 25 assessment undertaken now could fulfil. The only way in which these issues could be resolved, in my judgment, is through time. If the father maintains virtual contact with P and continues to improve his English so that he can communicate meaningfully with her, and is able to travel to visit her so that a full and rich relationship can be established, then it is not impossible that she might be able to make the transition to live with him in his home country at some unspecified point in the future. But that time, in my view, is still some way off and there is much that would need to be done before the court could contemplate a move.116In my view, the real balancing exercise, and the task which I have found extremely difficult, lies in the evaluation and comparison of the two options of P remaining with her mother and a removal into foster care. If P remains with her mother there is a risk that management of her condition will deteriorate once more, with consequences of the utmost seriousness for her long-term physical care and development. There is also the less dramatic but still significant risk that she will be under-stimulated and that her mother will not support her to achieve her full potential. And there is a risk, albeit speculative and probably manageable, that she will be exposed to unsafe strangers through the mother’s own vulnerability and needs. The Guardian expressed the view, which I take very seriously, that if P remains in her mother’s care she is likely to suffer significant harm.117If a care order is granted, P will be caused significant distress, if not trauma, by the separation from her mother. Whether she can recover from that and form meaningful relationships with a foster family is highly uncertain. It will depend on a number of factors, most of which are impossible to predict. If she does not settle swiftly, the prospects of her carers being able to manage her treatment needs will be reduced. Even if P appears to settle and adjust, I consider it likely that she will experience a sense of loss and dislocation that will resonate throughout her life. Her own developmental delay is likely to make it harder for her to come to terms with what has happened to her. From what I have heard and read about P, I find it extremely difficult to see how she would be able to make sense of a move. The only way in which I can conceive of it working is if she has extensive contact with her family, particularly her mother, so that the relationship survives in a meaningful way. I note that the Guardian at one stage in these proceedings was contemplating an arrangement in which P would remain with her mother but spend extended respite periods with carers who could provide high quality care and support.118I have power to make an order for weekly contact between P and her mother, which, in my view, is the minimum level she would need, but I am very conscious that that would be a high level of contact for a long-term foster placement and that it has been difficult enough to find a placement which will accept P without imposing a condition that would risk the carers withdrawing or the placement coming under unacceptable strain.119Although ordinarily the court will assume that a foster placement will meet most of a child’s needs to an acceptable standard, there are some cases where a move into foster care is likely to cause a particular child real, non-speculative, enduring and significant harm. In my judgment, this is one of them.120The advantage to P of remaining in her mother’s care is that she will remain at the heart of the family where she knows she belongs, where she is loved and cherished and where all of her important relationships are located. That advantage is not contingent on anything but is as close to a certainty as the court is ever able to come. The value of that to a child like P, who may not be able to live independently in the future and may well need, as her mother does, to share her home with family members into the long-term, cannot be overestimated. 121The advantage to P of a move to foster care is that it is possible, at least, that her health condition will be better managed than it has been in the past, although that is contingent on her carers being able to build a relationship of trust with her relatively swiftly after the move so that she is compliant with her treatment regime, and therefore is far from being guaranteed. It is likely that her need for stimulation and educational support will be met, probably to a higher standard than the mother will be able to manage. 122That is the stark decision facing the court.