G, R (On the application of) v Nottingham City Council

Mr Ian Wise (instructed by Bhatia Best) for the Claimant (G) Mr Bryan McGuire (instructed by Nottingham City Council, Legal Services) for the Defendant (local authority) Hearing date: 30 January 2008 ____________________

The minutes further record the recommendation that what was described as "details of the agreed birth plan" be sent to all hospitals in the region.

There was no reference in that document to obtaining any emergency protection order or interim care order. So the need for one or other of those steps to be taken if the child was to be removed from G was not brought to the attention of the midwives and other medical staff to whom the document was addressed.

The purpose of the first proviso was to ensure that my order would not prevent any lawful action taken by a police constable in accordance with section 46 of the Children Act 1989, any lawful action taken by the hospital consistently with section 3(5) of the Act, or the implementation of any emergency protection order or interim care order that might be made. The purpose of the second proviso, which Mr Wise was willing to agree, was to avoid a situation where the local authority might feel compelled to invoke the assistance of the police with consequences that might not be what G would wish.

Those words might be thought to have a powerful resonance in the circumstances of the present case.