All your questions answered...

• Do we have to go to court and get an ‘order’ if we want to permanently foster or be a special guardian?
• What happens if things are difficult, and I want to delay the order?
• Who applies for the adoption order?
• Will I have to pay legal costs?
• What happens if the birth family does not agree to the adoption?
• What happens now we have an adoption order?

Do we have to go to court and get an ‘order’ if we want to permanently foster or be a special guardian?

While adoption is a legal process, transferring all parental rights and responsibilities for the child to their new family, fostering means that legal responsibility is shared between the child’s local authority and their birth parents. It is a way of providing family life for someone else’s child, with the expectation that most will hopefully return home.

Permanent fostering is a little different, as a permanent foster family will usually care for a child until they reach adulthood. However, at no point will they gain legal responsibility (except in Scotland). Because of this, there is no equivalent of an adoption order for permanent fostering in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The new Scottish permanence order can lead to foster carers and others sharing parental responsibilities and rights with a local authority, and with birth parents too, depending on the circumstances.

Special guardianship (not available in Scotland), considered a bit of a ‘halfway house’ between adoption and permanent fostering, does not give total legal responsibility either. The special guardian is the child’s permanent carer and can exercise ‘parental responsibility’ (the legal right to make decisions about the child and their future) to the exclusion of others on most issues, but the child’s birth parents still share this legal right.

What happens if things are difficult, and I want to delay the adoption order?

You may find that, once a child moves in with you, things do not go as smoothly as you had hoped, or you find it difficult to manage the child’s behaviour. Whatever the problem, your agency will be very much involved in how things are turning out and be there to provide support and advice – so ‘flag up’ any concerns that you have.

If you have tried everything, or feel certain that the match is not
right, or your circumstances dramatically change, you may want to
take the big step of contacting your agency and ending the adoption
placement here. This is called a ‘disruption’, and means that the
child will go back into care. This is not a step that families take lightly. The child will probably have had many moves and much instability, and the emotional fallout of a disruption can be huge, affecting their self-esteem and sense of worth. However, it is best to be honest with your agency if you truly feel a disruption is necessary. There is no need to be ashamed. Your agency will want the best outcome for you and the child, and will support that throughout the process, whatever form it takes.

It is also less damaging to end the adoption at this point, if things are not right, than to avoid the issue with your agency and feel ‘obliged’ to continue and formalise the adoption with an adoption order. Once an adoption order has been granted, it cannot be reversed.

All of the above is why agencies recommend that families wait a while after the child has moved in with them before applying for an adoption order. The timing of your application will be discussed at review meetings with your agency and will be delayed so you have time to work through any difficulties, if this is possible.

Who applies for the adoption order?

You need to complete an application form, but your social worker and solicitor, if applicable, will help you get hold of this and fill it out. Once the court receives the form, the child’s agency can send them a report that outlines all the details of the case. In Scotland, the report will usually have been given to the court with the application.

Will I have to pay legal costs?

When an adoption application is made to court, there is a one-off court fee. This is currently £140 in England and Wales. This fee applies to sibling groups too, however large, though you will have to fill in separate application forms for each child. The fee is £79 in Northern Ireland, and £60 in Scotland, but this is per child if you are adopting a sibling group.

The local authority looking after the child may cover some, or all, of any additional legal fees or court costs. This will all be clarified and agreed upon quite early on in the process, and certainly before the hearing.

What happens if the birth family does not agree to the adoption?

In England and Wales, local authorities cannot place children for adoption without the court granting them a placement order first. If the birth parents do not agree with the proposed adoption, then they have the opportunity to oppose it at this stage, when the placement order is being considered in court. The issue of birth parent consent is dealt with at this stage.

If the local authority has a placement order, the birth parents are told of the adoption hearing and have the right to attend court and to make an application for contact, but they do not have the right to oppose the adoption unless they have the leave of the court. The court will only grant leave where they are satisfied that there has been a change in circumstances that justifies giving the birth parents another day in court (in practice, this very rarely happens). Full argument will have taken place at the placement order stage and will not be repeated.

What happens now we have an adoption order?

A few weeks later, you will be sent a copy of the adoption order (in England and Wales), and/or an ‘adoption certificate’ (in Northern Ireland and Scotland). The certificate should be kept very safe, and it replaces the child’s original birth certificate.

Originally published in the Be My Parent newspaper in March 2010.

This article is published with the kind permission of the people involved. You may download it for your own reference but if you wish to use it for any other purpose, please contact Be My Parent for authorisation: Be My Parent, BAAF, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Telephone: 020 7421 2666.

More information on legal and financial matters in adoption

Last updated: 04 May 10

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