K (Children: Placement Orders) (2020) EWCA (Civ) 1503
Appeal on behalf of mother – Main grounds of appeal was that the court did not properly identify the risk of future harm to the children and that in consequence the welfare decision was flawed.
Decision: Taking all matters in to account, Peter Jackson LJ, giving the leading judgment, concluded that the decision to make care and placement orders for the children could not be sustained on the basis of Judge’s reasoning.
That whilst the findings of fact and decision that the threshold was found to be crossed could not be criticised, the trial Judge, did not sufficiently examine the reality of the risks to these children if placed with their parents and why those risks were so bad that it outweighed a placement with them.
Furthermore, a relevant consideration was the likely availability of a single adoptive placement for all three children for which there was a gap in the evidence