Case No. LV21C01158

247.I accept the Local Authority submission that A’s physical and emotional needs are being met within his current foster placement where it is anticipated that A will stay if a care order is made, subject to further consideration of his needs to preserve his heritage. The foster carer meets his emotional needs, and I accept that contact with F and C is an important factor in those needs being met. 248.Contact with F is progressing extremely well, and the mother must do more to ensure that she begins to meet his emotional needs for a wholesome relationship with her. Somehow, some way she must develop the insight to realise that her ongoing refusal to sign the undertaking or contract of expectations and to abandon these pernicious allegations against F, the foster carer, various members of staff at after-school clubs, which will cause significant emotional harm for A insofar as he is aware of them. 249.I have made allowances for the lack of experience that K had in working with a Gabonese family, although I note the steps that she took to improve her own knowledge base and to consider matters from the mother’s perspective. I also make allowances for the difficult process that this will have been for the mother, which is compounded by language barrier and cultural differences. However, in my judgment, the assessments made of her by the Local Authority do withstand scrutiny and, in my judgment, if A were placed with his mother, he would be likely to suffer significant emotional and physical harm. 250.There is no proper and sufficient acknowledgment by the mother of those matters set out in the threshold and found by me that have, in my judgment, led to significant physical and emotional harm for A. She has developed no proper or sufficient insight into his welfare needs, and she presents very little to enable me to have confidence in her ability to change sufficiently.