A v The Secretary, Family & Community Services (No 2) [2016] NSWDC 13

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: A v The Secretary, Family & Community Services (No 2) [2016] NSWDC 13 Hearing dates: 29 January 2016 Date of orders: 26 February 2016 Decision date: 26 February 2016 Jurisdiction: Civil Before: Judge Levy SC Decision: See paragraph [12] for orders. Catchwords: CHILD CARE APPEAL – final orders Legislation Cited: Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998, s 76, s 79, s 105 Cases Cited: A v The Secretary, Family & Community Services [2015] NSWDC 307 Category: Consequential orders (other than Costs) Parties: A (Appellant maternal grandmother) B (Second child) C (First child) Secretary, of Family & Community Services (First respondent) Minister for Family & Community Services (Second Respondent) Representation: Counsel: Ms C Bennett, Solicitor (Appellant) Ms S Nanlohy, Legal Aid NSW (The children) Ms R Dart (First & second respondents)

Solicitors: Randall Legal (Appellant) Ms S Nanlohy, Legal Aid NSW (The children) Crown Solicitor (First & second respondents) File Number(s): 2014/353026 Publication restriction: Non-publication orders made pursuant to s 105 of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998

Judgment

Background 1. In this child care appeal, on 18 December 2015, findings and recommendations were recorded and published concerning the issues to be determined: A v The Secretary, Family & Community Services [2015] NSWDC 307. It now remains necessary to make final orders. 2. The effect of the findings already published is that the care and parental responsibility for the care of the children, who have been given the litigation pseudonyms "B" and "C", be re-allocated from the Minister, to the maternal grandmother of the children, "A", until those children reached their respective majorities. 3. At the time those findings were recorded, I indicated a view to the parties that because of longstanding prior restrictions on "A" having access to the children, limited to 1 hour per month under supervision, and given the nature of the medical and allied needs of the children for early intervention for global developmental delays, it seemed reasonable and in the paramount best interests of the children, that for a period of three years, the Minister should be allocated the responsibility for the medical, dental and allied needs of the children: s 79(2)(e) of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998. 4. It was envisaged that the benefit of such an arrangement would be that in the initial period in which transfer of the children and their medical and allied records was to occur, "A" would have to achieve a significant degree of catching up with past events, and in the meantime, the continuity of care and attention to the medical and allied needs of the children should not be compromised. 5. Those views were communicated to the parties so they could obtain instructions. On 29 January 2016, the matter was then relisted for further argument on that issue. 6. At that time, I was informed that in the interim, in accordance with my findings, the care of the children had been successfully transferred to "A" on 11 January 2016. I was also informed that the children are thriving in the care of their grandmother.