England and Wales County Court (Family)

I am dealing today with an application by X Local Authority for a care order and a placement order in respect of a little boy called HOB who is 10 months old. H’s parents are DS and JB.

The parents come to Court today represented by their solicitors, indicating to the Court that they do not actively oppose the making of the orders which the Local Authority seeks. That is an exceptionally brave decision to make, and one can only commend them for that and acknowledge that it must have been very, very difficult for them to have come to that conclusion, but both have realistically accepted that, given their circumstances and given the assessments that have been carried out both in these proceedings and previous proceedings relating to older children, they are not in a position to care for H themselves.

The mother in her statement says that H is a “beautiful little boy” and that she hopes he is cared for in a loving family. The Local Authority’s plan is that H should be found an adoptive family to meet his needs and I, too, share the hope that that family can be found for him who will give him the loving home that he deserves.

I am told that some video recordings are to be made of the contact sessions which are to take place before H is placed for adoption. Hopefully that will give the parents some good memories of him. Of course, there is also a plan that there should be indirect contact between the parents and H and that they will, therefore, hear about his progress.

So I make the orders sought by the Local Authority. I make a care order placing H in the care of X Local Authority. I endorse the Local Authority’s care plan for adoption and, in order for them to implement that care plan, I make a placement order in respect of H and I dispense with the parents’ consent to that order on the basis that H’s welfare demands that I do so.

Finally, in both the care and placement applications, I make no order for costs save public funding assessment.