Re C (A Child)(Adoption: Local Authority’s Duty) [2007] EWCA Civ 1206, [2007] All ER (D) 368 (Nov)
When a decision has to be made about the long-term care of a child, whom a mother wishes to make enquiries which it is not in the interests of the child to make. Enquiries are not in the interests of the child simply because they will 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.
Section 1 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 does not establish any preference for any particular result or prescribe any particular conclusion. It does not express a preference for following the wishes of the birth family or placing a child with the child’s birth family, though this will often be in the best interests of the child. In some cases, the birth tie will be very important, especially where the child is of an age to understand what is happening or where there are ethnic or cultural or religious reasons for keeping the child in the birth family.
Where a child has never lived with the birth family, and is too young to understand what is going on, that argument must be weaker. In such a case, it is (absent any application by any member of the family, which succeeds) overtaken by the need to find the child a permanent home as soon as that can be done.
