Adoption Solicitors.

In short, adoption is when an adult becomes the legal parent of a child rather than the child’s birth parents. By taking on full parental responsibility, an adoptive parent is required to:

• Provide a home for the child
• Offer protection and maintenance for the child
• Discipline and educate the child
• Agree the child’s medical treatment
• Name the child and agreeing to any change of name

You can adopt from within the UK, or internationally, but the process may differ slightly.

Adoption is a long and complicated process as the law must ensure that you are suitable to be an adoptive parent. Before you can even start the adoption process, there are a few conditions that must be met:

• The child must be under the age of 18 and have never been married.
• Both birth parents consent to the adoption. However, the birth parents consent may not be required in some circumstances, which are: when the birth parents cannot be found, if the birth parents are incapable of providing consent, or if it’s in the child’s best interests.
• You must be over the age of 21
• You live in the UK. If you’re not a British citizen, you can still adopt if you or your partner have a fixed or permanent home in the UK, or if you or your partner have been living in the UK for at least one year before you begin the application process.

Once you have met all of the above criteria, you can follow the three-step process of adopting a child.

The three-step adoption process:

1. Approaching an adoption agency. When you contact an adoption agency, they’ll send you information about the adoption process and arrange to meet you to discuss. Following on from the meeting, if both you and the agency are happy to go ahead, they will give you an application form.

2. Adoption assessment. Once you have completed the application form and handed it to the adoption agency, they will start their assessment, determining whether you’re fit to adopt a child. The assessment will include medical examinations, police checks to identify any previous crimes, social worker visits, and collecting three personal references. If you pass the agency assessment, you can move onto the final step.

3. Adoption application. Finally, a child will be placed with you and you will need to make an application for an adoption court order at the Family Court. The application stage is where people usually instruct a specialist adoption solicitor to ensure the legal application process is completed correctly.

Some of the most common factors that can prevent you from successfully adopting a child include:

• Whether you or a family member have previously been convicted of a serious criminal offence.
• If you fail your medical examination and it’s deemed that you’re unfit to adopt a child.
• You fail the assessment from the social worker.
• The court having concerns about the welfare of the child and denying the adoption court order.
• The child doesn’t want to be adopted by you. If the child is of a certain age, the court will consider their views on the adoption.
• If a birth parent decides to contest their child being placed into adoption.

By instructing an adoption solicitor, it will ensure you have the best chance of legally adopting a child. Additionally, in a case where you disagree with an adoption agency’s decision, our solicitors can help you contest.

If you don’t want your child to be adopted, the court will give you the chance to say why. An independent social worker will visit you and:

• Record the reasons you do not want your child adopted
• Let the court know these reasons. You will likely be required to attend the court to explain your reasoning.

If you’re a birth parent and you want to stop the adoption process, you will need the help of a specialist adoption solicitor as it’s a complicated procedure. A solicitor will help you identify strong arguments for why your child shouldn’t be placed into adoption and represent you in court.

In short, no. When the Family Court has granted an adoption order, the order is final and can’t be revoked. However, it’s possible to remove the adoptive parents’ parental responsibility by making a further adoption order.

The cost of an adoption matter depends on its nature and whether it’s disputed. For any adoption matter, you’ll need to book an untimed initial consultation.

Our consultations include:

• Unlimited time to go through the details of your matter
• An overview of your legal standpoint and available options
• More accurate cost and time estimate for your case

Depending on whether you are adopting from within the UK or outside, adoptions typically take between 11 months and 3 years to complete. Regardless of where you are adopting from, getting approved for adoption normally takes 6 months.

If the adoption agency doesn’t have any children waiting to be adopted, you’ll need to wait until they do. This can take anything up to 6 months or longer.

Finally, after you’ve submitted the adoption court order, you’ll need to wait until the court is available to approve it. This takes an additional 6 weeks to 1 year.

We are currently unable to offer legal aid in any capacity as we lack the necessary legal aid certificate. We also don’t offer pro bono adoption law work at present.