FD25F00014 - [2025] EWHC 2483 (Fam)

My final task in this judgment is to record the Court’s thanks to a number of bodies and individuals. The international element in this case has inevitably made the task of notifying and assessing the suitability of wider members of YV’s family longer and more complex than would have been the case if everyone had been located in England and Wales, and I am extremely grateful for the considerable assistance that has been provided by the Kazakh authorities, both on the ground in Kazakhstan and also through the offices of their embassy in London. In particular, I should mention that the embassy provided assistance in ensuring that the social work assessment ordered by this Court could lawfully take place in Kazakhstan, and has committed to ensuring that a Kazakh passport and travel documents will be available for YV as swiftly as possible.

I must acknowledge the Court’s thanks to the local authority for the steps that it has taken in this case. I recognise that these proceedings have not been straightforward and have had considerable resource implications for the local authority. They are to be commended for the care and effort that has been put into seeking and implementing the Court’s directions to secure YV’s welfare. I am grateful also to the Guardian and to all the counsel who have appeared for both the local authority and Guardian at various hearings during the course of these proceedings, who have provided helpful submissions at every stage; in particular to Ms Cabeza and Ms Cheetham who appeared at the most recent hearing.

I also wish to place on record the Court’s thanks to YV’s current carers for the love and support that they have clearly provided to YV over the past months. I am extremely conscious that the outcome of these proceedings will be profoundly disappointing for them and thank them for all that they have done for YV whilst these proceedings have been ongoing.

Finally, it remains to me to thank YV’s grandmother for the selfless manner in which she has committed herself to take on the care of YV at a time when the responsibilities of parenthood might have been thought to be behind her, and to wish her and YV well as YV embarks on this new stage of life in Kazakhstan.