Court of Appeal allows appeal by council in case where fact-finding process in care proceedings “went wrong”

The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal by a local authority and remitted for rehearing a case concerning findings of fact in care proceedings.

In S (Children: Findings of Fact) [2023] EWCA Civ 1113 Lord Justice Peter Jackson said: “The advantages possessed by a judge making findings of fact after hearing evidence are well understood. This court will not intervene unless there has been some clearly demonstrated error of approach.

“When a court is considering a body of evidence in order to reach findings of fact it must take into account all the evidence and consider each piece of evidence in the context of the other evidence when reaching overall conclusions.

“These principles are so well known that they do not require the citation of authority.”

Lord Justice Peter Jackson said said: “In the present case, the court was faced with evidence of a sequence of injuries to a small child over time, some minor in themselves, some serious. It found that the child's father had injured the child on one occasion and that he and the mother had covered it up. It also found that other injuries were the result of accidents and that some were in any case insufficiently serious to amount to significant harm: these conclusions are challenged by the local authority in an appeal supported by the Children's Guardian.

“I have reached the reluctant conclusion that the fact-finding process in this case went wrong. The judge made findings against the parents in one respect concerning their treatment of the child and their credibility, but he did not take account of the implications of those findings when considering the other allegations of mistreatment.”

The appeal was allowed and the judge's findings set aside.