Application to Court for an Adoption Order

1. The Timing of the Application

When a child was placed for adoption by an adoption agency the prospective adopters are entitled to lodge an adoption application at any time after the child has been living with them for 10 weeks. Note that this does not necessarily mean 10 weeks after placement for adoption: if the applicants were previously the child's foster carers they could apply to court immediately.

The timing of the application to court is a matter for the prospective adopters – the Children's Trust cannot stop them if they intend to apply, and it cannot insist that they apply if they do not feel ready. Staff can only make their concerns clear and try to encourage them.

Each adoption review should discuss the timing of the application and:

• If the prospective adopters report difficulties that are likely to delay the application, review the adoption support plan; and
• If there are extended and unresolvable difficulties, it may be exceptionally necessary to consider long-term fostering.

The review would conclude that there are extended difficulties if the prospective adopters no longer felt able to commit to adoption, or if there was such a chronic lack of progress toward adoption that the uncertainty was having a detrimental effect on the child. If there are serious concerns about the viability of the arrangement such that the welfare of the child appears to be at risk, staff should consider the placement to be at risk of disruption. In this situation staff should be aware that the prospective adopters may make an immediate application in order to block any move by the Children's Trust to remove the child.

2. The Application

The online application form and the notes on completing will be found on the GOV.UK website.

The adopters will complete the application form with support from their social worker. The Children's Trust must provide certain documents and information to enable them to make the application – for example previous court orders, court numbers relating to the child and siblings, current addresses for all parents and anyone else entitled to notice of the hearing – see the notes on completing the form.

The prospective adopters must pay an application fee, but may be entitled to remission of some or all of the fee. The Children's Trust will meet this cost – the child's social worker or the prospective adopter's social worker should send the request to the adoption team manager who will arrange payment. Receipts are not required.

The prospective adopters will lodge the application with the court. The court will then issue directions requiring the Children's Trust to produce a report. If the directions do not state a specific deadline for this report, it should be provided within 6 weeks after the date on which the directions were issued. Delay in producing this report will delay the hearing of the application and may result in a Wasted Costs Order.

The Children's Trust recommends adopters to make the application to the court in Birmingham as notices will be sent to the birth parents from the court issuing the application. The use of a court local to the adopters will disclose the area in which they live to the birth parents. At a later stage an application may be made for the 'pronouncement hearing' to be transferred to a Court convenient for the adopters.

The court may issue further directions, for example about attempts to identify and contact the child's parents.

3. The Court Report

The court report for an application for an adoption order is prepared under Rule 14 of the Family Procedure Rules 2010. Staff should be aware that this report is specified under Annex A and is not the same as the report required under Rule 14 and Annex B (report in an application for a placement order).

The Rule 14 Annex A report is the final report in the adoption – the court will expect it to be prepared to a very high standard.

The report will have more than one author – different sections must be completed by different practitioners, who may be working in different agencies. There must be clear agreement about responsibility for compiling the final report and filing it with the court – this may lie with the child's social worker or the prospective adopter's social worker – see Court Reports in Adoption/Special Guardianship Guidance.

The person who is to compile the report will need to receive all completed sections at least 7 working days before the deadline.

All authors involved in writing the report must meet the minimum requirements to prepare adoption reports as set out in the Restriction on the Preparation of Adoption Reports Regulations 2005.

If any person is unable to comply with the court deadline for lodging the report, they must notify the court, with reasons, as soon as possible, and send a copy to all parties to the case.

4. The Hearing for Determination of Consent

This is a hearing at which the court will determine whether each parent has given consent to the adoption and if not whether their consent should be dispensed with. Before dispensing with a parent's consent the court must be satisfied that:

• The parent cannot be found; or
• The parent lacks the capacity to give consent; or
• The welfare of the child requires the consent to be dispensed with.

In making this decision, the court will regard the child's welfare, throughout her/his life, as its paramount consideration.

Notification of the hearing will be sent to the birth parents, the adopters and the Children's Trust and -

• The birth parents may attend the hearing and they may be legally represented;
• The adopters may submit a statement, but they do not generally attend the court;
• If the birth parents are expected to attend court and seek to contest the making of the Adoption Order, the adoption support worker will advise the adopters to consider arranging legal representation;
• The child's social worker must attend this hearing to answer questions about the child's welfare and about any changes in the parents' circumstances since the care proceedings; and
• The adoption support worker may also attend the hearing; but
• The Children's Trust is not legally represented at this hearing.

The birth parents are not normally given notice of the final hearing at which the adoption order is made. However, at this stage they may apply for leave of the court to oppose the adoption application.

If each parent's consent is given or dispensed with, the judge will indicate that an adoption order will be granted. The birth parents may appeal against the decision to set aside their consent. For this reason, the date of the Pronouncement will not be set until after the deadline for appeal.

5. The Pronouncement

The Pronouncement is the hearing at which the adoption order is granted, and this date should be used as the date of the adoption. The Birmingham courts refer to this hearing as the Pronouncement, but other courts may use different terms such as the Celebration Hearing.

The court will set a date for the Pronouncement after the deadline for an appeal by the birth parents has passed.

The child and the adopters will normally attend the Pronouncement – in exceptional circumstances the court may agree that the child may not attend. A social worker representing the Children's Trust's Adoption Service will also attend.

After the Pronouncement

• The child's social worker will notify the administration team that the adoption order has been made;
• The administration team will notify CRE of the date of the order, the court that made the order and whether the order was opposed or unopposed;
• Within six weeks the child's social worker will send the child's file to the adoption support team for archiving;
• If the child is now living in the area of another Local Authority/Trust, the adoption support worker will notify the Local Authority/Trust of the date of the adoption.