Birth family contested the adoption and it never changed the outcome. Last week the Transparency Project, an organisation which seeks to promote the transparency of proceedings within the family courts, published findings from a Freedom of Information request into adoption targets. I think this was an unfair and unnecessary comment. All in all a bit of a disaster for the family. This could be where there are concerns for the safety of the child. It is a very strongly worded judgment. Generally speaking, most states will not allow birth parents to make any sort of contest past a single year after the child was placed. The judge will consider that evidence and may grant them leave to appeal and a few weeks to get any evidence in place. Adoption past and present. Re W (Adoption- Reunification) [2015] EWHC 2039 (Fam) (22 July 2015) is an extraordinary decision of Ms Justice Russell.Extraordinary for a number of reasons. They have no automatic right of appeal at all in this situation. No Order; In some circumstances, step-parents may decide that there is no immediate need for a court order to be obtained. You don’t give enough information to properly understand what is going on for you but in cases of adoption it is important not to delay. He holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Indiana University, and resides in Northwest Indiana. I am not going to go on,but one particular aspect leapt out at me. You are right, it was dumped by the CoA – and if I recall correctly (haven’t had time to reread tonight) although they did not find bias they were not hugely impressed at how things had proceeded. Who knows what the child might thing when she is 12/13/14 – she may think she was glad she was adopted and wasn’t left to live with her father and siblings. There is a fee (£15) to register yourself to connect with your family members. The social work evidence comprised “what can only be described as psychobabble…In short it voiced opinions which neither Ms Wilkinson nor Ms Alsop are qualified to make.” It was at odds with the expert evidence and unsupported by evidence from those on the ground. However, there are some things that you can do to avoid this situation. Adoption is an option for birth parents who can't or won't take care of their children. This is a difficult case to talk about and I really do not want to stab anyone in the back, which is why when I noticed,it I kept reasonably quiet as I am sure other’s have done. The LA were responsible it appears for making a “misleading, damaging and inaccurate referral” to the Local Authority Designated [Safeguarding] Officer (LADO), which resulted in the father losing his employment.”. Much will depend on how will she take it. At one stage in the judgement, the Judge commented that W may have some recollection of contact with her birth family prior to being placed for adoption. The court will send you the evidence it has been given and you should discuss this with your solicitor as soon as you can. The court was ultimately assisted greatly by the two experts in the case – a clinical psychologist (who had assessed all four siblings) and an independent social worker. The rarity of return will be little comfort to adoptive parents who are ready to invest so much into a child that they will love as much as any biological parent. There was an issue about W falling from a sofa and being taken to hospital by her father and allegations from 2 sons of the family X and Y one about “rough” use of toothbrush causing a cut to mouth made by X and Y alleging father hitting him on the ear causing pain. Add message | Report | See all. I don’t know if it is the LA or the Guardian [edit 4 Aug : or the adopters] appealing, or possibly [both all]. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. However it seemed the DJ disregarded those issues but was convinced that “otherwise” the threshold conditions had been met. The number appears on any certificate you have which has been issued from the Adopted Children Register. I read the judgement on this case but couldn’t understand on what grounds the LA had proved significant harm to A. In the original proceedings he filed “a brief report that was scant of any real analysis and which failed to set out the reasons for and against permanent placement outside her family”. A contested adoption occurs when an objecting birth father is legally entitled to claim parental rights, but the adoption can be granted if the birth father is unfit to parent the child. 5 moves and not yet reached her 3rd birthday. That seems to me just as likely as her being traumatised by the knowledge that she was the only child to be adopted. For instance, if a birth parent disagrees that the child should be adopted by one particular family, he could suggest the alternative that another family be allowed to adopt. Russell J is highly – highly – critical of the local authority. However, without proper identification of the birth father, he may not be able to exercise his parental rights or give consent. I’d be really surprised if the LA dared to appeal ……and the CG is clearly incompetent, and so won’t be instructing lawyer for child to appeal. All this talk of what she might or might not think of the reasons why she was adopted and her siblings weren’t is a matter for conjecture and nothing else. Unfortunately or fortunately from whatever angle you are looking it does tick the boxes from a parent’s point of view. This is not reasonable behaviour , it is malicious and should be confined to a primary school playground. Each case is different and the court will only go ahead with an adoption order if it feels it is necessary. I can’t answer your question on this blog. Even more unprecedented is seemingly that the G’s counsel, who is very experienced and well-regarded, apparently makes a submission early on that the judge is biased and has pre-determined the outcome. I would guess that it might be the adopters appealing. It has taken until now for us to see the fullest effects – the sending home of the all-but-adopted, and the removal of a child from the carers who have to all intents and purposes been his parents for many months. I am sure that whatever happens will be instructive and hopefully in the best interests of all the children. For info, advice and/or counselling before or after tracing birth parents, After Adoption (England and Wales) or the Scottish Adoption Advice Service (Tel: 0141 248 7530) may be useful. However, like any other court case, it's important that you have some legal ground to stand on and, if possible, experienced legal representation. ‘Even though adoption is designed to put a child into a safe and loving environment, it doesn’t erase the past or early childhood trauma. Ultimately the judge has taken the easy option of blaming the professionals instead. Either you must agree, or the court must decide to go ahead without your agreement. Before the 1976 Adoption Act most children adopted in the UK were “illegitimate” infants. A person over the age of 18 adopted after the 1976 Adoptions Act was granted the automatic right to discover their birth parents and gain access to their adoption file. It runs thus : I don’t think that is a further dig at the Guardian, who had been but was not now the Guardian for the older siblings. She is about to make a 5th move before she is three. P.S. As a judgement there is no analysis or balancing of the competing arguments, which ought to be a prelude to making criticisms, rather it seems to be a rant by Dame Alison against the LA and G. It seems to dismiss them stridently as either malicious or incompetent, but it it not clear what their argument actually is. In that case the child was placed with paternal family members, which had the advantage of being not only biologically connected but also ethnically / culturally appropriate. But that was a case of a court keeping a child with extended family who were not said to have been the source of harm / risk of harm to the child. Contested adoptions typically occur in instances of infant adoption, when one biological parent, typically the birth mother, intends to place an infant for adoption, while the other biological parent, typically the birth father, objects, or when the birth mother is giving a … I assume that if the appeal is unsuccessful then she will go to her F, if successful she will not. Of course the adopters are going to be traumatised and will be wondering how they are going to cope with losing W, who has been a part of their family for 16 months. When an adoption order is put through the court, one or both of the birth parents have the option of opposing the order and attempting to keep the child. The outcome will turn on when the birth father objected, the particular facts of the case, and the applicable laws. The birth parents are also no longer considered the parents of the adopted child. To be adopted, a child must: be under the age of 18 when the adoption application is made not be (or have never been) married or in a civil partnership The child’s birth parents They have bBoth [the LA and Guardian] had a right old pasting, and one can only speculate about the possible bases of appeal. In the case of a non consensual adoption, the court has to determine whether the welfare of the child requires that the consent of the parents should be dispensed with. Other than that case there are really very few examples of this sort of turning of the tables. I’ve edited your name and that of your child for legal reasons. Your email address will not be published. You might expect this from a parent LiP, but this degree of rancour from the professional parties is practically unheard of. In the same breath, it would also be detrimental to her long-term mental health when she comes of age, and realises that she missed out on growing up with her biological brothers, sisters, niece and all of her extended family. Which is an argument parent’s frequently put forward. ‘Adoptions come from the care system when children are unable to stay with their birth families, often because of neglect and abuse,’ says Sue Armstrong Brown, CEO of charity Adoption UK. All material on this site is copyright of Lucy Reed. By the time the adoption application came on the child had been living with the prospective adopters for some 16 months – give or take for half of her little life. Even if the argument is as simple as there is nothing wrong with the birth parent's ability to parent or the home she can provide, that is still a reason to allow a birth parent to keep her child. I am confident that I will win at the hearing, but am concerned that the judge will deem it detrimental to my daughter’s mental health [edited] to uproot her again. So, this is not your run of the mill case. However I think the decision to remove the child from the adoptive parents is wholly wrong. If the birth parents wish to restore their parental rights, they may file a petition. Although I do agree that a child should have permanence, my daughter did have this until the local authority stepped in. It is expected to be heard in August. severing ties between a child and his or her birth family. It found: “Significant numbers of councils in England are setting local numerical targets for how many children (or what percentage of their care population) should be adopted from care”. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. that W will stay where she is until the appeal is decided (or until permission is refused). Thanks Lucy. Contested adoption – Return of a child to parents. Once your child is adopted, you no longer have parental responsibility for them. The court will also ask an independent social worker - know… The thing is they can't just contest they are only asking for permission to appeal. Initially, the biological mother should share any information that she knows about any potential biological fathers. If a biological parent passes without a will, the child in question is considered a … The picture is different again in Spain, which is only now considering legislation to make open adoption legal. Even if the argument is as simple as there is nothing wrong with the birth parent's ability to parent or the home she can provide, that is still a reason to allow a birth parent to keep her child. UK research suggests that open adoption can work well even where children have been taken away from birth parents, although sometimes contact may be with birth grandparents or birth siblings rather than with the birth parents. 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