Adoption — overviewGeneral principles

The Adoption and Children Act 2002 (ACA 2002) embodies the law on adoption. It was intended to improve adoption support thereby encouraging more people to come forward to adopt. It placed a duty on local authorities to make arrangements for the provision of adoption support services to promote adoption as a means of giving looked after children the chance to live in permanent homes.

ACA 2002’s framework is intended to:

• simplify the adoption process

• make the child’s welfare a paramount consideration in decisions on adoption

• avoid delay

• make provision for the process of adoption and the conditions for the making of adoption orders, including measures for placement for adoption with consent and placement orders

Placement orders

ACA 2002 introduced a framework for authorising the placement of children for adoption, either with parental consent or under a placement order.

There is a legislative distinction between the local authority acting as an adoption agency and the same authority bringing care proceedings. The child’s case must be placed before the local authority’s adoption panel to decide whether to recommend that the child should be placed for adoption.

There are certain circumstances in which local authorities are obliged to apply for placement orders and others in which they have a discretion to apply for placement orders.

Contact orders

Before ACA 2002, under the clean break principle, courts discouraged making contact orders linked to adoption. However, the Court of Appeal has signalled a reappraisal of this position and in some cases may need to make contact orders linked to placement or adoption orders.

The court has power to make a contact order itself, even if no one has applied, in considering making a placement order. Contact orders under ACA 2002, s 26 cease to have effect when the child is adopted.

Adoption orders

Local authority solicitors will generally advise about adoption applications in three situations:

• when children are the subject of placement orders, usually in the context of care proceedings

• when children are being placed for adoption with parental consent, where there will usually not be any prior court proceedings

• in private applications for adoption, for children living with the applicants where the child was not placed with them by an adoption agency