Adoption

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The Children and Families Act 2014 (CFA 2014) made changes to adoption, in particular as to post-adoption contact, the emphasis to be placed on ethnicity and fostering to adopt. The Public Law Outline (PLO 2014) as set out in Family Procedure Rules 2010, PD 12A applies to adoption proceedings, see Practice Note: Public law children procedure—Public Law Outline.

General principles

The Adoption and Children Act 2002 (ACA 2002) embodies the law on adoption and was aimed at improving adoption support to encourage more people to come forward to adopt. It places 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.

The framework of ACA 2002 is intended to:

  1. •

    simplify the adoption process

  2. •

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

  3. •

    avoid delay

  4. •

    make provision for the process of adoption and the conditions for the making of adoption orders, including measures

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