Yesterday (12 June 2025), the Court of Appeal heard an appeal of an order made by Mr Justice Hayden sitting in the High Court of the Family Division in February 2025 in the case of S v F and M [2025] EWHC 439 (Fam).
Facts of the case
The case concerned a now-14-year-old boy ('S') with dual Ghanaian and British nationality, born and raised in the UK. In March 2024, when he was 13 years old, S was taken to the Republic of Ghana by his parents, told he was visiting his ill grandmother. In reality, after increasing concern from his parents that he was engaging in criminal activity and gang culture that would result in his death, his parents had enrolled him in a boarding school in Ghana and essentially relocated him with plans for him to remain there until he was able to see out his education.
In September 2024, S applied to make himself a ward of the High Court and for an order to return to England and Wales.
Previous proceedings
In February 2025, Mr Justice Hayden ruled that "the decision falls within what I regard as the generous ambit of parental decision-making, in which the State has no dominion". The judge did not make an order for S to return to the UK and discharged the warship.
Proceedings in the Court of Appeal
S's appeal was granted yesterday after written and oral submissions from both parties. The Court of Appeal ruled that the case should be remitted to the High Court and be reheard by a judge of the High Court other than Mr Justice Hayden. The issues of the assessment of the child's best interests, parental responsibility and risk of harm will be reviewed again.
Sir Andrew McFarlane, sitting with Lord Justice Baker and Lord Justice Arnold, stated in his ruling: "as will have been apparent during the hearing, we've become progressively more and more concerned as to the exercise the judge undertook, both as to the fact that he decided to undertake it at the hearing in February, despite having adjourned for more information but no further information having come, and therefore the options before the court had not progressed in any clarity."
The exercise of determining the child's best interests was much addressed during the hearing and Sir Andrew McFarlane stated in his ruling that there was "confusion" evident in the judgment between the exercise of the evaluation of S's best interests and the exercise of auditing the parents' discharge of their parental responsibility. Sir Andrew McFarlane stated that he, Lord Justice Baker and Lord Justice Arnold considered there was "a risk that the two [exercises] became conflated and that one may have influenced the other."
The full written judgment will be handed down in due course.
Our involvement
Amy Rowe and Lydia Chapman were instructed on a pro bono basis by Professor Marilyn Freeman on behalf of the International Centre for Family Law Policy and Practice (ICFLPP) to intervene in the proceedings, instructing Charles Hale KC (4PB), Harry Langford (4PB) and Naomi Hart (Essex Court Chambers).
The ICFLPP intervened on a neutral basis to make representations about issues of identity and how identity and selfhood interplays with the voice of the child and the lawful exercise of parental responsibility and the court's role when there are such conflicts. The written submissions filed on behalf of the ICFLPP examined the central role that identity plays in a young person's sense of self and questioned whether the issue of identity should be given more weight when making a holistic analysis of welfare and best interests.
Professor Marilyn Freeman, Co-Director of the International Centre for Family Law, Policy and Practice (ICFLPP), has co-edited a recently published volume entitled Children's Rights to Identity, Selfhood and International Family Law. The book underscores the legal imperative of recognising and integrating children's identity considerations within family court proceedings, as taking identity into account will improve outcomes for children and provide greater support for the young people who are in proceedings.
Read the judgment and some of the press coverage from the original decision and Court of Appeal proceedings below.
- High Court Judgment S v F and M [2025] EWHC 439 (Fam)
- A U.K. Teen's Parents Sent Him to Ghana. He Took Them to Court
- Judge backs parents who sent boy to Ghana to 'save him from gangs'
- Parents 'abandoned' teenager in Ghana over fears he would become a gangster in Britain
Full reference for Professor Marilyn Freeman and Professor Nicola Taylor's book is as follows:
Freeman, M. and Taylor, N. (2025). Children's Right to Identity, Selfhood and International Family Law. Edward Elgar Publishing.
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