What was the case about?
'X', the appellant in the case, was the foster mother of her two nephews, aged seven and 14, and one niece, aged 16.
She was a defendant in the case against the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which had appealed against a High Court ruling that its policies on payments to kinship carers were unlawful. According to its policies, X, as a family foster carer, received less money than she would as an unrelated foster carer looking after the same children.
In the initial judgment in the administrative court, Males J described X as "one of the unsung heroes of our society". She had, since August 2009, been the carer for her niece and nephews, who had suffered severe neglect from a young age. All three children had complex needs and challenging behaviour. In 2007, after a lengthy period of involvement with social services, the children were removed from the parental home and placed with foster carers.
However, three placements had broken down and for some time, the children lived separately from each other, as no foster carer could be found to manage all three children together. In 2009, the council approached X, who agreed to care for the children, giving up her financial independence and moving out of London to do so. In 2011, she was formally approved as a foster carer for the children. The court noted that she had provided a measure of calm and stability in the children's lives that was sorely lacking.
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