Test for removal of children

In re K and H CA SJ 5 January

During the course of care proceedings, the local authority maintained that children needed to be removed urgently from their father because of his drug use and its associated dangers. The judge was wrong in saying that it was not necessary to find an immediate and significant risk to the children before approving the local authority’s application because that was too high a standard and reasonable grounds for believing that harm was likely was a sufficient test. At an interim stage, the removal of children from their parents is not to be sanctioned unless it was in the interest of the child’s safety, and a high standard has to be met. The judge’s discretionary decision rested upon the application of an incorrect test and it manifestly could not stand. An order was substituted to the effect that the children would reside with their father and could not be removed without an application to the court, save in emergencies.