Surrey County Council v Mother & Ors

This judgment was handed down remotely on 19 th August 2025 following submissions by the parties with regard to clarification, errors and omissions.

The Court has determined that this Judgment should be published. Publication was sought by the father and by the children. It was not opposed by mother. The Local Authority and both Guardians opposed publication. The Court received written submissions on the matter of publication and gave a written judgment permitting publication on 18 th November 2025. The parties have worked together to anonymise the judgment.

I have dealt with such matters as are appropriate by making amendment to this judgment. More substantive matters have been dealt with in a supplementary judgment at Appendix B.

The LA's original plan for contact was that it should be monthly with contact for father working towards being unsupervised. Mother's contact was to have been supervised by GPs but will now be professionally supervised by the LA or in a contact centre until mother can show six months of abstinence from alcohol. The children will continue to have indirect contact and the parents will be expected to moderate that to meet the children's needs. The LA will arrange regular contact between the children, depending on location.

(ii) Mother does not seek to put herself forward to care for the children. She accepts and understands that her ongoing alcohol misuse prevents her from being able to care for the children. In her written submissions she says, "Mother intends to address her alcohol misuse and maintain sobriety but accepts that she is not currently engaging with alcohol support services" . She accepts that the children cannot remain in the care of the GPs. She does not support the children going to the care of the father. She accepts that they will need to remain in foster care.