A PREGNANT young woman fighting a decision to take her unborn baby into care spoke of her disappointment yesterday at Northumberland County Council’s "vague" response to her appeal bid.

Fran Lyon is battling the decision to take her child away at birth because she was considered likely to suffer from Munchausen’s Syndrome by proxy, a condition in which a mother will make up an illness in her child or harm it in order to get attention.

A social services safeguarding children panel last week heard Ms Lyon’s appeal against the ruling, the outcome of which the 22-year-old was expecting to hear at the weekend.

But when the letter arrived at her home in St Hilda’s Road, Hexham, Northumberland, on Saturday, she was left only with more questions.

Ms Lyon, who suffered a traumatic childhood in which she began self-harming and was admitted into psychiatric care, received treatment for a personality disorder when she was 16, but now helps to run two separate personality disorder charities. Psychiatrists have backed her fight to keep her child, whom she has named Molly, and have said there is no clinical evidence that backs up social services’ concerns.

Following the appeal, she said the council has now told her the original child protection conference would not be reconvened, but that a further conference would be brought forward to an as-yet unspecified date.

Yesterday Ms Lyon said: "It’s a bit confusing. We’d been told the outcome of the appeal would either be ‘We’re reconvening the child protection conference’ or ‘We’re not’. It’s difficult to work out exactly what it is they’re saying. It’s not so much the decision, it’s the fact that they haven’t responded to what we asked of them that is frustrating. They were asked 12 reasonably direct questions and I’ve got 12 very vague answers."

Ms Lyons said she will be discussing the letter with her solicitor today with a view to taking the matter to the next appeal process. She has vowed to take the case to a judicial review if necessary.

She has already told the council she is prepared to go into residential assessment with her baby after it is born to prove she can be trusted to care for the child.

She added: "I don’t see why, when they’ve got a mother who is willing to cooperate, they need to remove the baby. I haven’t had an explanation for that.

"They’ve had time to read a lot of paperwork and they’ve still come back with such non-committal statements. I just find that a bit odd."

In a statement, Northumberland County Council, said: "We always advise clients of their right to appeal, and how to go about it. Appeals are very rare but are taken seriously by the board and by this local authority.

"Where a Safeguarding Board decides to take into account developments since the initial conference, parents would be informed that a child protection review conference would be held.

"This would include appropriate representation from a range of professionals, and both parent and their legal representative would be invited to attend the meeting."