The Adoption and Children Act 2002: An Overview

The new Adoption and Children Act 2002 came into force in December 2005, replacing the Adoption Act 1976 and the Children Act 1989. The new Act modernised the law regarding adoptive parenting in the UK and international adoption. It also enabled more people to be considered by the adoption agency as prospective adoptive parents. The new Act also places the needs of the child being adopted above all else.

The Main Changes to the Law

The new Act has a number of key components that include:

1: The Child at the Centre

It was recognised that foster care and adoption sometimes overlooked the actually needs of the children in these situations. The new Act makes it a judicial responsibility for all the agency’s involved in the adoption process must put the needs and welfare of the child first. This is the Act’s guiding principle.

2: No Blanket Ban

In the past some adoption agencies had a policy that would ban certain groups of people from adopting children. A good example is people that smoke. It is now a legal requirement that the adoption agency looks at each prospective parent that wants to adopt in more detail, often taking medical advice before they come to their final decision.

3: No Postcode Lottery

The adoption agencies across the country had varied their assessment process. The new Act gives these agencies guidelines they must follow. This should deliver a more consistent assessment process for all adoptive people moving through the adoption process.

4: Better Matching Process

Once you have been accepted as an adoptive parent, the matching process of finding you a child could take up to a year. In the past, the criteria of this matching process has been quite restrictive. The new Act makes the matching process more flexible and again puts the needs of the child first.

5: More Information

One of the most important aspects of the new Act was to give prospective adoptive parents more information. The child’s permanence report is now more detailed and gives you as the possible new parent of the child more information to decide if the child is a good match with you and your family.

6: Better Support

It has been recognised that adoptive parents often need support. The systems and schemes that are in place have been enhanced to ensure that the adoption you are making is successful.

Special Guardianship

In the past children looking for a new home would have been placed with adoptive parents, offered foster parents, or would live with existing family. The amendment to the Children Act 1989, that the Adoption and Children Act includes creates a new option called Special Guardianship.

For children that are in care, adoption can sometimes not be appropriate for them. Often, the children in this situation want a stable family life, but they want to maintain a link with their birth parents that an adoption would remove under the current judicial law. There is also a religious component to consider. In some ethnic communities the religion of the group prevents an adoptive parent from calling the child their own.

In these circumstances a new legal framework was needed to provide the child with a stable family foundation, which could be especially important with international adopting, but a way was needed to main the legal link with the child’s birth parents. Special Guardianship solves this problem.

How Special Guardianship works

One or more people can be appointed as a child’s Special Guardian. This means:

• You would have complete legal responsibility for the child just as if they were your own child or if you have gone through the adoption process including after foster care. This includes where they go to school and authorising any medical treatment.
• Just like an adoption, you have a legal responsibility regarding the child, but unlike an adoption order, under Special Guardian status, the child still maintains their legal link to their birth parents.
• The birth parents of the child still have a legal responsibility including with international adoption, but their parental responsibility is limited.
• The birthmother or father still retain the right to decide whether their child can be formally adopted.
• A special court order is required to change the child’s surname, or to take the child out of the UK for more than three months.
• Special Guardian orders can be ended unlike formal adoptions.

The Adoption and Children Act 2002 places child welfare at the centre of the judicial legislation that now govern the legal guardianship of a child. Reflecting a changing world, the new Act takes into consideration adoption in its wider context recognising the limitations of the previous acts, and moving the courts, local authorities, adoption agencies and their support organisations towards a more integrated system that vastly improves the adoption and guardianship process for the children moving through the system.

Business Energy With a Difference

If you are looking for business energy or need advanced solutions like remote energy monitoring, new supplies, downgrading or upgrading capacity have a no obligation chat wuth Purely Energy. To find our more get in touch here..

Next Page
You might also like...

Family Court and the Adoption Process

How to Apply for Adoption

Who Can Apply to Adopt a Child
Share Your Story, Join the Discussion or Seek Advice..
[Add a Comment]
My children were taken off me because of my son being violent towards them but they never asked me how I felt about that what did I do to prevent that instead they got a final care order done in court and now the foster carer Mel wants to. Adopt three of my children why they are my kids not hers she can't just take them. Off me how cruel this system works and yet you say your fair to all no the court isn't.
Taz - 13-Jun-20 @ 12:22 PM
My son through no fault of his own never knew his daughter Lola until she was taken into care, and was fostered by two women to be adopted. The mother after refusing to do a DNA test when she was born, abused Lola and her half brother Brandon, with her boyfriend. Lola had broken wrists and Brandon had broken legs. After being told by the boyfriends mum and dad that they thought Lola was my sons, we quickly got a solicitor and a DNA proved Lola was indeed my sons. That was February 2017. My son and myself have both been assessed by the social services to have Lola /Brandon but have failed and the other grandparents have too. Having failed for both we decided to try for just Lola so again were reassessed but failed for a second time. My son then asked for an independent social worker but was told from the beginning that he would fail that too, which again he has. My son sees his daughter Lola twice a week and they adore each other. Tomorrow we are in court and the judge will decide whether to place Lola with her dad or allow these two women to adopt her and her half brother. My son has done nothing wrong in this case and only wants to raise his daughter and bring her up where she belongs with her biological family. We don't know what to do if we lose her but we won't give up the fight.
Mo - 8-Mar-18 @ 11:07 PM
My son through no fault of his own never knew his daughter Lola until she was taken into care, and was fostered by two women to be adopted. The mother after refusing to do a DNA test when she was born, abused Lola and her half brother Brandon, with her boyfriend. Lola had broken wrists and Brandon had broken legs. After being told by the boyfriends mum and dad that they thought Lola was my sons, we quickly got a solicitor and a DNA proved Lola was indeed my sons. That was February 2017. My son and myself have both been assessed by the social services to have Lola /Brandon but have failed and the other grandparents have too. Having failed for both we decided to try for just Lola so again we're reassessed but failed for a second time. My son then asked for an independent social worker but was told from the beginning that he would fail that too, which again he has. My son sees his daughter Lola twice a week and they adore each other. Tomorrow we are in court and the judge will decide whether to place Lola with her dad or allow these two women to adopt her and her half brother. My son has done nothing wrong in this case and only wants to raise his daughter and bring her up where she belongs with her biological family. We don't know what to do if we lose her but we won't give up the fight.
Mo - 8-Mar-18 @ 11:02 PM
@N/a - if you think someone is being mistreated - you should report it directly to the police.
CourtroomAdvice - 19-Dec-14 @ 12:10 PM
as we speak there are children still been mistreated in the walsall foster system and walsall council are doing more than corruption
n/a - 18-Dec-14 @ 10:44 PM
Share Your Story, Join the Discussion or Seek Advice...
Title:
Miss Ms Mrs Mr Dr Rev'd Prof. Other
(never shown)
Firstname:
(never shown)
Surname:
(never shown)
Email:
(never shown)
Nickname:
(shown)
Comment:
Validate:

Enter word: