Boy can continue to live with grandparents despite social services concerns

By Brian Farmer31st May 2019News EnglandChild Protection, Childrens Services, Courts / Justice, Families, News England, Oxfordshire

A couple have won a family court fight over the care of a six-year-old grandson who has lived with them for almost all of his life.

Council social services bosses said the boy’s grandmother was suspected of injuring another child in the family.

They said he should move to live with another relative until investigations were complete.

But a judge has ruled that the boy should continue to be cared for by his grandparents, his mother’s parents.

Judge Joanna Vincent says she is not satisfied that the boy faces any immediate risk at his grandparents’ home.

She said the evidence against the boy’s grandmother was “at best equivocal”.

The judge has outlined detail of the case in a written ruling published following a private family court hearing in Oxford.

She has not named anyone involved.

Judge Vincent said council social services bosses had begun family court proceedings late last year when the other child suffered serious injuries.

Social services bosses said the boy’s grandmother was a possible “perpetrator” of those injuries.

They said the boy should be taken from his grandparents’ care until the cause of the other child’s injuries had been fully investigated and family court proceedings had ended.

But Judge Vincent said she was not persuaded that it was in the boy’s interests to be separated from the grandparents who had brought him up.

She added: “I am not satisfied that there are any reasonable grounds to believe that either of (the boy’s) grandparents present as a risk of harm to him.”