W, X, Y and Z (children : welfare)

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The parents have been married for twelve years and have four children.� Their three boys, W, X and Y, are nine, seven and five.� Their daughter Z is two and a half.� She has Downs� Syndrome and a number of health issues which make her care needs complicated.� Z�s file of medical records runs to over 2,500 pages.�

The father was born in Syria in 1964 but moved to the UK in his early twenties and has been a British citizen since 2002.� The mother was born in Russia in 1984, moved with her mother and sister to Syria when she was twelve and stayed there until her marriage in 2007 when she came to live with her husband in the UK.

The boys have been subject to interim supervision orders since 25 th February 2019. ��Z has been in foster care since the start of proceedings.� She is now thriving and making significant progress in all areas of her development.� She continues to see her parents twice a week, at one of those sessions she also sees her older brothers.

Because of the complexity of Z�s situation, the need for documents to be translated, and potential kinship assessments overseas, I allocated the case to the exceptional track.� However, while I envisaged that the case may not conclude within the statutory twenty-six weeks, I did not expect them to go on as long as they have.� There have been a number of delays in this case.� None of them have been caused by the parents and it is not acceptable that for them they have had the stress of Court proceedings hanging over them for so many months.