To ward or not to ward: the curious case of the deceased parent

Oliver Latham Park Square Barristers

Those in practice before the introduction of the Children Act 1989 of which this author is not one will recall the relative prevalence of the wardship jurisdiction now relegated to an ‘ancient concept’ by Peel J in his recent decision in A Local Authority v The child C (by her Guardian) [2024] EWFC 336. For the first time in a reported judgment Peel J tackles head on the question of whether the death of a parent before the relevant date for threshold purposes where significant harm is undoubtedly attributable to the dead parent’s unreasonable parenting affects the ability of the court to find that threshold is crossed.

In this article the author considers the implications of Peel J’s “purposive” interpretation of threshold both in terms of future difficult cases where there is query as to whether the threshold criteria are met and also in terms of its implications where there is a choice available to the family court to proceed under s 31 proceedings or via wardship proceedings.  

The full article has published in the February...