Drug addiction child in care

[Anon4this22]

If a parent has/had an addiction child was taken into care as a 5/6 year old. Child now 15 does a runner from care, to mums house. Police were looking for child. Child is found at mums house . Within a few days it's decided mum is clean so child can stay with her.

It would not happen like that would it ?

I think it could.
The child would be considered old enough to make their own choices, and if the house was safe maybe they would OK it.

More likely I suspect when the child had been adopted and BM subsequently got clean, because if the BM was now safe and the child only in FC I would have maybe thought the child would have been permitted to return earlier?

Very likely that it would. It is very difficult to force a 15 year old to return to a foster family and if a reassessment is saying it is now safe then the child's wishes and feelings would be taken into account. There would have been an order allowing the child to be in long term care so unless mum went to challenge that it would be the reason for the child not being returned sooner.

It could, the risks for a 5/6 year old are vastly different than for a 15 year old, and the teenagers views would need to be considered. It may be safer to support the teenager living with mum even in less than ideal circumstances than have her running away from her care placement.

It happens far more often than you would think.