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When considering adoption, the court must authorise the transfer of a child from one family to another. This is known as an adoption order. An adoption order involves one party or parties terminating their parental responsibility for the child whilst the party or parties adopting the child gain parental responsibility. Following this process, the child is known as the legitimate child of the parties adopting the child and not as the child of anyone else.
Adoption Order
When a child is placed for adoption (placement order) the local authority should start the process of finding a specific family for the child. The adopters must be domiciled and habitually resident in the UK, Channels Islands or The Isle of Man.
When a family have made a decision to adopt the child, an application for an adoption order must be made which is usually done through the Family Court.
Before prospective adopters are able to make an application for adoption, there is a requirement that the child must have lived at their home for a period of at least 10 weeks. This promotes stability and security and allows time for the child to form healthy attachments to their prospective adopters.
Before the process of adoption, whilst the child is with the prospective adopters, they share parental responsibility with the birth parent and the local authority. In this instance it is important to know that there are certain restrictions such as:
- Prohibition on changing a child’s surname; and
- Prohibition on removing the child from the UK.
Effect of Adoption Order
After a 10 week period, an adoption order can then be secured which will sever all legal ties between the birth parents and the child. This means that the birth parents will no longer have parental responsibility. The child will legally become the adopter’s child as if they were the child’s biological parents.
Adoption application
The application for adoption is made using Form A58 and must be accompanied by:
- Two copies of a statement of facts;
- A certified copy of the child’s birth certificate;
- A copy of any placement order;
- A certified copy of a marriage or civil partnership register entry (if appropriate);
- Photocopy of the photo page of the prospective adopters’ passport.
