Grandparents criticise social services staff who were unable to trace them

A couple who have lost a High Court fight over the care of their granddaughter criticised council social services staff who were unable to find them when the youngster was born.

They did not discover the youngster, now two, existed until she was more than a year old but by that stage she had been placed with a couple who want to adopt her.

Judges, who have been told the girl’s parents are unable to care for her, were then asked to decide where she should grow up.

Mr Justice Cobb has ruled she should be brought up by the couple who want to adopt her – after a private hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in Newcastle upon Tyne.

He said the girl had been born in May 2014.

Shortly after the birth, a family court judge ruled she should be placed with foster carers pending long-term decisions about her future.

Council social services staff had not traced any relatives who might be able to care for her, and in October 2014 a judge ruled she should be placed for adoption.

She was placed with the couple who want to adopt her in December 2014.

In June 2015, the girl’s parents – who were then living in a different area – had a son.

Social services staff from a second council searched for relatives who might be able to look after the boy, and traced the grandparents.

The boy was placed in the grandparents’ care, and they then learned of the existence of their granddaughter. Litigation was then started.

Mr Justice Cobb said the grandparents – the parents of the girl’s father – were critical of social services staff at the first council.

“I should record that the paternal grandparents express anger at the (first) local authority for failing to take the relevant steps to trace them when… proceedings were on foot in relation to (the girl) in 2014,” said the judge in a ruling on the case.

“They feel, understandably, that things could have been so different had rudimentary steps been taken.”

He said the grandparents had seen little of their son for more than a decade and had never met their grandchildren’s mother.

The judge said no-one involved could be identified and did not name either council.

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