FD24P00634 - [2025] EWHC 900 (Fam)

When X was 15 years old she became pregnant following a brief encounter with a boy who she understood to be 16 years of age. According to X she met the boy on the social media app, Snapchat, and communicated with him for a short period before they agreed to meet up. They met in person on one occasion during which time they had sexual intercourse. Later the same day he blocked her on Snapchat and they have had no further contact thereafter.

X first came to the attention of the Local Authority in January 2024 when a referral was made from a safeguarding midwife who raised concerns that X was not registered in mainstream education, had a history of self-harm, had a pregnancy which presented as concealed and was also showing signs of social isolation. X concealed her pregnancy from her parents until it was in its 29th week. Thereafter only her parents knew about the pregnancy which was not disclosed to any other family members or friends. X’s mother requested maternity care be provided from outside their local authority area as they didn’t want local services or others to know about the pregnancy given their own profession.

X was clear that she did not want to see Y following his birth and that she wanted him to be adopted. On 2 April 2024 Y was born by caesarean section and X was discharged without having sight of Y. After some encouragement from her parents X did name Y and, when he was 7 weeks old, she met him for the first (and final) time in the presence of a Social Worker and Y’s foster carers.

On 10 July 2024 X gave advance consent for Y to be made the subject of an adoption order under section 20 of the Adoption and Children’s Act 2002 (‘the ACA 2002’). The signing of advanced consent was witnessed by Cafcass. It remains the case that X’s parents are the only people in their family or support network who know about Y’s birth.

Since his birth Y has been in foster care. A search for foster-to-adopt carers commenced in August 2024 and in November 2024 a good cultural match was identified with carers who had elements of South African and Indian cultures. Y was placed with those carers in February 2025 and the placement has been very successful with Y developing well. The current plan is for an Adoption Approval Panel to meet on 23 April 2025 to discuss approval of the adoption plan in principle with the placement to be considered by the matching panel on 17 June 2025.