FD24P00634 - [2025] EWHC 900 (Fam)

As I have already outlined at paragraph 29 above there are no doubts about X’s credibility in this case and she is unable to provide any further details which would help to identify the father in circumstances where the association with him was fleeting and he cut off communication very quickly. At the oral hearing I pressed Mr Liebrecht on whether there was any more the local authority could, in fact, do to try to trace the father if further steps were thought necessary and appropriate, but in circumstances where the father had blocked the mother from further contact, I am told that there was nothing further which could be done in the absence of any identifying information about him.

As Arden LJ made clear in Re C v XYZ County Council there is no duty to make enquiries which it is not in the interests of the child to make, and enquiries are not in the interests of the child simply because they might provide more information about the child's background: they must genuinely further the prospect of finding a long-term carer for the child without delay. Given how little is known about the father and the short-lived nature of the relationship with X, I do not consider that there are realistic enquiries which could be made which might genuinely further the prospect of finding a long-term carer for Y.

As to the extended family in South Africa there are also a lot of unknowns about their situation and I am doubtful that further enquiries in that jurisdiction would genuinely further the prospect of finding a long-term carer for Y.