Granting Supervision, Interim and full Care Orders and reviewing previous Care Orders were among the proceedings in a child care law day in a District Court in a provincial city.
A Care Order was granted for six months with a review to take place after three months where a counsellor was of the view that the mother needed to stabilise her life.
In another case an Interim Care Order was extended so that a full assessment could be carried out and the possibility explored of securing a place in a unit where the child and the mother could live together.
A review took place of a care order of a child whose mother was in prison and whose grandmother was caring for him. The judge noted in that case that the grandmother had a chance to make the lives of her grandchildren different to the lives of her own children. The case was to be reviewed again in six months said the judge and he directed that the guardian ad litem (GAL) remain involved.
In another review of a Care Order the court was told that the mother had relapsed and had begun drinking again and there had been no contact with her for a number of weeks. The mother, however, was present in court. The court was told by the mother’s solicitor that the mother was very vulnerable and that she was questioning the benefit of having a proper relationship with her children and wanted to consider the option of adoption.
The solicitor for the mother said that the mother wanted what was best for her children and believed that at one point she could have provided for them but that she believed that certain actions of the CFA had been deliberately taken to undermine her. The CFA denied this allegation.
In another case an application to extend an Interim Care Order for one child was heard and the court was told that access was going well and that access would be moved to the parents’ apartment and would include five hours’ unsupervised access. The court was told that there was a good and trustful relationship between the parents and the social work department and that there was an openness and willingness to work. The extension of the Interim Care Order was granted on consent so that a parenting capacity assessment could be completed and it was hoped this would be enough time to ensure the parents were ready to take care of the child again.
