Plan to relocate two children in care will go ahead

The Child and Family Agency told the Dublin District Family Court yesterday it would go ahead with a plan to move two children in care to a new location despite concerns raised by the children's court-appointed guardian and parents.

Judge Colin Daly was told the guardian was particularly anxious about the impact on one of the children who was due to face State examinations next year.

A solicitor for the father in the case said the move was “ill-considered”. A psychiatric report had found the boy benefited from stability and was doing well at the local school. A move away from the local area would be “a major reversal” for him in terms of his friendships and the progress he had made since going into care, the solicitor said.

He also said there had not been a “critical breakdown” in the children’s current placement and the agency should have tried harder since March, when it was aware of the need to move, to find an alternative placement in the locality.

The children’s mother, who was unrepresented, said the younger child would go wherever her brother was, but the upheaval would have a “major impact” on her son and “really set him back”.

The solicitor for the guardian said his client was “very, very concerned”, particularly about the impact on the boy. The current local placement had been supported by family involvement and this had “somewhat softened” the impact of being in care. But a move to the suggested rural location would cause difficulties.

He said he had written to the agency requesting details of the chronology of the search for the new placement.

The solicitor for the agency said the case was before the court to notify it of the move.

There was a “transition plan” in place and there were good reasons why the move was happening, he said.

As part of the plan, the children would be told of their relocation “today or tomorrow”, and would be moving in two week’s time. Efforts to find a local foster placement had not been successful.

The judge asked the agency to note the positions of the parents and the guardian and to provide information to them about the search for an alternative placement. He listed the case again for next week.

“We will proceed with the plan from today,” the solicitor said.

The judge said he noted that, and the other parties could make a formal application to oppose it.

Separately, Judge Daly extended an interim care order for three boys whose father had travelled out of the country.

The children’s court-appointed guardian gave evidence their primary wish was to be with their father and they had a fantasy he would come back and bring them travelling on adventures, but they were happy to remain with the foster carers if he did not.

She said the youngest child had asked for a mobile phone so that if his father returned, if he needed to he could call the foster carers to rescue him. The solicitor for the agency said they had not been able to talk to the father since he left Ireland, and he had not responded to emails, though they were aware he had received them. They were not sure what European country he was living in.

Asked by the judge whether they had been able to source birth certificates for the children, the social worker said the authority in the children’s birth country had stipulated access to certificates was a complex legal procedure and it did not believe the Child and Family Agency had the power to obtain them. The agency was “pursuing the matter”, she said.

In a separate case, a supervision order for a young girl was granted to the agency as part of a reunification plan.

The court heard the child had been returned to her parents this week after being in foster care for more than a year. The parents agreed to be supervised for six months and also agreed to engage with a family treatment centre.