Designated local authority: parent a child in care.

Harris, Alexandra Conroy

D (A Child) [2012]

Court of Appeal Ward, Stanley Burnton & Elias LJJ

14 May 2012 EWCA Civ 627

D's mother was a teenage girl who had been taken into care by Surrey County Council and was being housed by them with foster carers in Kent. When D was born, the mother remained in a mother and baby foster placement in Kent with the baby, funded by Surrey. Kent became concerned about the mother's neglect of the baby and took emergency protective proceedings, placing the child in foster care in Kent. The issue was whether the baby was ordinarily resident in Kent or whether her ordinary residence was dependent on her mother's ordinary residence, which, in accordance with section 105(6) of the Children Act 1989, took no account of any time she spent in local authority-provided accommodation in Kent.

Held

(Stanley Burnton LJ dissenting) D had not been provided with accommodation by Surrey while she was in the care of her mother and so the disregard pro vision of section 105(6) did not apply to her. Her mother, using the ordinary meaning of the words and not the interpretation of section 105, was ordinarily resident in Kent and it was in Kent that the circumstances had arisen that led to the making of an interim care order. Kent would therefore be the responsible authority in respect of D, while Surrey would remain responsible for the care of her mother.

Alexandra Conroy Harris, BAAF's Legal Consultant, prepared these notes