Girl to be placed for adoption after council wins appeal

It had previously been agreed the toddler cannot live with her parents

A one-year-old girl will be placed for adoption after a council won a case at the Court of Appeal.

Slough Borough Council appealed a verdict made in the spring that ordered that she stayed in foster care.

The toddler's parents have learning disabilities and are unable to look after her but wanted her to stay in foster care, the court heard.

But three Court of Appeal judges agreed the girl, referred to in legal papers as C, "needs a lifelong family where she can feel that she belongs".

Family Court judge Robin Tolson KC refused the application to put C up for adoption in April but the three judges said he had erred in law.

Lord Justice Peter Jackson said he was wrong to say a professional assessment by council staff had "fallen short".

He added the Family Court judge did not make an "all-round assessment" of the girl's welfare and that his explanation was "hard to follow".

The appeal judge said "spending a whole childhood in foster care is absolutely not the same" as adoption, "even if good and permanent carers could be found".

Her parents wanting to keep her in their family unit was "understandable", but those relationships "are not of such importance that they can outweigh the predominant need for her to have a family of her own," he said.

The view, which was published on Wednesday, was supported by Lord Justice Williams Davis and Lord Justice Snowden.