Clearly disruption is an incredibly difficult time for everyone involved. Adoption can be complex and therefore the reasons why a placement breaks down vary. No two situations will ever be the same therefore there isn’t a “one size fits all” guide to disruption.

This article provides some basic detail around what disruption is and signposts to some places where you can get help and support.

The reasons why children require adoption

We live in a world where those who are struggling often fall through the gaps. The current cost of living crisis means money is tight for everyone. And that includes governments and local authorities.

The reality is that help and support isn’t there in the levels that some people need it.

Sometimes children require adoption because their parents don’t have the skills to be able to safely parent them. That could be due to extreme poverty, lack of understanding of the basic needs of a child, or a whole host of other things.

Drug and alcohol misuse often plays a large part in why some children can’t be safely parented by the birth families.

Violence and abuse are also often factors in birth parents lives that means it isn’t safe for them to have children in their care.

All of these issues have a massive impact on a child, regardless of whether they’ve lived with their birth family. Trauma can begin in utero and the impact of this is often misunderstood. Preventing disruption from happening starts by understanding (as much as is possible) the reasons that led to the court concluding it wasn’t safe for the child to live with their birth family.

The matching process

This is probably the most difficult part of the adoption process for many. Waiting to find the “right” child for your family is incredibly hard. And whilst this part of the process should involve an honest and open exchange of information, sometimes it isn’t that simple.

If there are gaps in the information, ask questions. Why are there gaps? Who can answer the questions? If they can’t be answered, how will that affect you? If you can’t get answers to the questions, you will need to be prepared for there to be a lot of unknowns. Some of those may be things you said you weren’t able to manage. So, you’ll need to assess whether the gaps mean that the match isn’t right for you.

There will always be some missing information, simply because of the nature of adoption. But only you can say whether the gaps are too big and create too much of a risk of you not being able to cope with behaviours or issues. There’s no shame in saying that at all.

Knowing when to say no

The key to making sure a match is a good fit is to get as much information as possible about all of the issues a child is facing. Knowledge is power and if you have a lot of information, you can make a realistic assessment as to whether you feel able to meet the needs of the child you’re reading about.

This can be incredibly hard. There are so many children waiting to be matched (2,030 in England as at October 2023) and adopters often feel like they want to say yes to every child. They’ve done nothing wrong and are in the situation they are because they’ve been let down by the people who were supposed to love and protect them. There are many, many reasons for this. But that is the reality.

Be realistic

So, one of the key things for adopters to bear in mind during matching that will help to avoid disruption further down the line is to be completely realistic about what they can and can’t manage. And understand that there will always be some issues. Adoption is trauma, whatever age a child is.

I struggled with this massively when we were waiting to be matched. It felt like we were picking and choosing which child we wanted based on their level of needs. That felt wrong because we wouldn’t get to choose if we’d had a birth child.

But that’s the thing. You aren’t having a birth child. You are being assessed to look after a child who has experienced some level of early life trauma. And it may be that the full extent of that trauma isn’t yet known. So we have to be open and honest about what we can and can’t deal with.

Adopters aren’t doing anyone, least of all the child, any favours by saying they can cope with something when they know they can’t. Matching usually involves listening to your head more than your heart.

Having a realistic match makes it more likely that the placement will last.

How does adoption disruption happen?

There is no simple answer to this because it will vary for each situation. But there are likely to be two scenarios. The first is where the local authority has concerns about either the child or the adopter’s ability to parent them (or both).

Or, the adopters may have concerns and don’t feel able to manage certain behaviours. It may also be that certain issues come to light which weren’t originally known about that affect the placement. This may be something like a particular behaviour that puts other children in the home at risk.

Whichever way it happens, unless there’s an emergency that means the child needs to be removed immediately, wherever possible, disruption should happen in a planned and careful way.

A plan needs to be made about how, when and where it will happen. Who will be there? How will their belongings be packed up discretely? At what stage are they told and by whom?

A lot of the answers to those questions will depend on the age of the child. If the child is school-aged, a social worker may collect them at the end of the school day and take them to their new carer.

Contact will have to be agreed in the short term, unless something happened that led to the disruption meaning that it’s not safe or appropriate.

Where does the child go?

The child will be placed back in foster care. In an ideal world, this would be with carers who have previously looked after them, if that was safe. But it is likely to be new carers who the child doesn’t know.

Depending on the reasons why the placement has broken down, there may be further assessments of the child and adopters. This will be to work out what the best way forward is for example, would intensive support make the placement work, or is the child being placed with their sibling more important than one of them staying where they are?

If there’s more than one child in the placement, it may be that disruption only happens with one child. That was the situation in the disruption stories shared in the magazine by two adopters.

What to do if you think disruption may happen

The most important thing with all aspects of adoption is open and honest communication. If you’re struggling, contact your social worker or post-adoption support. They can’t help if they don’t know what’s going on.

However, it can sometimes be the case that adopters feel that what they have said is being misinterpreted, or ignored, particularly if it’s felt that certain pieces of information were not disclosed as part of the matching process. That leads to a breakdown in the relationship between them and social services which isn’t conducive to finding a workable solution.

In those circumstances, it may be best to seek the advice of an independent body. Adoption UK is a good place to start if you’d like some independent advice. If you need legal advice, the Citizens Advice Bureau may be able to help you find a solicitor, or contact an adoption specialist such as The Adoption Legal Centre.

There are several Facebook groups for parents who are experiencing or think they may be at the point of disruption. And the #ukadoptioncommunity is a great source of help and support.

This policy document about Disruption of Adoption Placements created by Birmingham Children’s Trust gives a lot of detail about their procedures which might be a useful read if you want to know more about what happens. The procedure won’t be the same for all local authority’s but it will give you an idea of the processes.

I’m again grateful to Sarah from the Adoption Legal Centre for writing this article to explain the process. She explains the steps birth parents have to take to be able to take part, with examples of the types of things that may meet the criteria. I hope anyone at this stage finds it demystifies the process and helps them understand what to expect.

Court Proceedings: Care and Placement Orders

The main question we get asked by adopters is, “What will happen if the birth parents oppose?”. This is an issue that worries a lot of adopters. At the Adoption Legal Centre, we have represented adopters on numerous occasions when birth parents have decided to oppose the adoption application.

When children are removed from their birth parents, they are subject to what are known as care proceedings. If the Court decides that a child cannot return to their birth parents, then depending upon the child’s age, they could be placed for adoption. If this is the plan for a child, the Court will make a Care and Placement Order at the end of the care proceedings. The Care Order means that the Local Authority share parental responsibility with the birth parents. The Placement Order means that the Local Authority can place the child for adoption.

Application for the Adoption Order

Once a child has lived with their adoptive parents for at least ten weeks, an adoption application can be submitted to the Court to formally adopt their child. When that application is received by the Court, the birth parents have to be provided with notice of it. Until an Adoption Order is made, the birth parents still have parental responsibility for their child. This is the case even when a Care Order has been made. This means that the birth parents have a right to be told that an adoption application has been made.

When the Court office receives the application, they will send notice to the birth parents. The birth parents will not receive any information in respect of the adopters, or the whereabouts of the child. They’ll just be informed that an application has been made. It will also be explained to them that if they wish to oppose the application, they will need to notify the Court before the initial hearing.

Opposing the Adoption Application

In order to oppose an adoption application, the birth parents need to ask permission of the Court. They have to satisfy a two-part test to obtain the Court’s permission. The first part of the test is to show that there has been a change in their circumstances since the child was removed from their care.

An example of this could be that a younger sibling is now being cared for by birth parents. Or they’ve taken steps to address issues which were identified in the care proceedings. This could be in relation to drugs and alcohol, mental health difficulties or domestic violence.

If the birth parent can satisfy the Court that there has been a change in circumstances, then the Court will go on to consider part two of the test. This is to decide whether permission should be given. In reaching this decision, the Court will have to consider their prospects of success in opposing the Adoption Order. They will also have to consider the impact on the child if permission is given or refused. When coming to their decision, the court will always consider the child’s welfare.

If the birth parents do oppose the adoption application, then the Court could decide that the child needs representation within those proceedings. This is to ensure that the child’s voice is heard within the proceedings.

Court Proceedings: The Children’s Guardian

The Court then appoints a Children’s Guardian on behalf of the child. The Guardian is allocated from an organisation called CAFCASS. They are independent of all parties and the Court. They are allocated to look at what is in the child’s best interests. The Guardian also instructs a solicitor to represent the child within the proceedings.

If a Guardian is appointed, they will speak to all parties to find out what the situation is. This will include visiting the child and talking to them in an age-appropriate way about what’s happening. The Guardian will then provide a recommendation to the court, as to what outcome, in their professional opinion, is best for the child.

If the Court does give birth parents permission to oppose the Adoption application, that doesn’t mean they will be successful in persuading the Judge to refuse to make the Adoption Order. It simply means they are allowed to put forward evidence as to why the Adoption Order should not be made.#

Change in Circumstances

If there has been a change in circumstances, the Court may decide it needs further evidence before it can make a final decision on the Adoption Order. This may include assessments from independent experts, such as Psychologists or an Independent Social Worker to see whether birth parents could now meet the child’s needs.

A psychological assessment of either the child or the birth parents would look at what the child’s needs are and assess whether they’re being met by their adoptive parents and whether they could be met by birth parents.

It’s worth noting that birth parents are given the opportunity to address the issues during the care proceedings, for example, by accessing therapy or treatment.  The reasons why they weren’t able to effect the necessary changes then, will be looked at during this new assessment.

Even if they are assessed as being able to meet the needs of the child, the court will consider whether it’s in the child’s best interests to allow them the opportunity to meet them.

Final Hearing

Once all parties have sent their evidence to the Court, a hearing will be listed. This hearing will usually last for a few days depending on how many witnesses are required. The purpose of the hearing is to allow the Judge to make a final decision on the Adoption Order.

If expert assessments have been provided within the proceedings, then those experts could give verbal evidence at the hearing. The Judge will also require evidence from the Social Worker, birth parents, Children’s Guardian and sometimes the adoptive parents.

Adopter’s details are not included in court documents, and if they are required to attend a hearing, they will not come into direct contact with their birth parents. Special arrangements will be made for adopters to attend Court.

If you have any concerns in respect of birth parents opposing your adoption application, or you are currently going through adoption proceedings, please don’t hesitate to contact us at the Adoption Legal Centre.

Head to the home page to read the latest articles about adoption.

At the Adoption Legal Centre, we provide a wide range of services covering various issues that adoptive parents can face during their journey.

The team

Our team consists of Nigel Priestley, Sarah Brown and Michelle Silcox. Sarah predominantly specialises in adoption, Nigel and Michelle specialise in both kinship and adoption. We also have our assistants, Jane Bolton and Zuzanna Taithe, who keep us in order.  As a team, we provide assistance and reassurance to our clients, who are often dealing with difficult and emotional situations.

We’re based in Huddersfield, but our clients are based across the country. Distance is never an obstacle when providing our clients with the advice they desperately need. In today’s current circumstances, everything’s now held either by telephone or Zoom in any event.

How we can help

We can assist adopters during the adoption application. Usually, they’ll seek our advice at this stage when they require help agreeing on an adoption support plan with the Local Authority or if birth parents are opposing the application.

We also provide advice when the child’s placement ends before adopters obtain an Adoption Order. If anyone’s in a situation where the Adoption Agency or Local Authority are stating they’re not supporting the adoptive placement and seek to remove the children from the adopter’s care, then we advise clients to contact us immediately. We must take swift action when presented with this scenario.

It’s important to make sure you have a robust adoption support plan. This will very much depend upon the needs of your child. We can help you look at the Local Authority’s adoption support plan to ensure that it’s appropriate for you and your child’s needs. The support plan can include services such as therapeutic work or financial allowances.

If a child is displaying challenging behaviours, it may be that an assessment of need is required to look at your child’s individual needs. At the end of the assessment, there should be a recommendation as to what, if any, support is required for your child.

If you request an assessment of need from your Local Authority, they have to do it. However, they don’t have to provide the recommended support. If this is an issue which you’re facing, contact us to see if we can assist.

Crisis point

The majority of our work is with adoptive parents who contact us when they’re in crisis. Often the placement is at risk of breaking down. They may have been asking for support for months or even years, and not getting the help they so desperately need.

Often when adoptive parents contact us, it’s as a last resort and they’ve exhausted all other options.  We try to reassure our clients and guide them through the very difficult time within their family.

They’re often dealing with child-on-parent violence within the family home. We understand that this, coupled with the lack of professional support, can be very stressful and emotional. We try to take the pressure off by guiding them through the difficult process and providing them with the legal options available to them.

In some circumstances, our clients make the extremely difficult decision to request that their child be accommodated by the Local Authority. Once a child has been accommodated, the Local Authority may decide to make an application to share parental responsibility with the parents. This is often known as care proceedings.

If a Local Authority does decide to make this application, legal aid is available to adoptive parents during those proceedings and we represent them in Court.

Making a will

We always advise our clients to make a will. When an Adoption Order is made, their child is legally theirs. That means that their child would inherit from their estate. We help clients who are concerned about what would happen to their estate, should anything happen to them before their child reaches 18.

Some don’t feel their child would be able to cope with a large amount of money when they turn 18. They come to us to have measures put in place for this. We can provide advice about what steps you can take to protect your child’s inheritance.

Funding

We have various options in respect of our fees. Some of our work is covered by legal aid, but this is only if the Local Authority starts care proceedings. Some of our work is on fixed fees, whilst others are ongoing as the case progresses. It very much depends upon the area you’re seeking advice on and whether court proceedings are required.

We pride ourselves in helping adoptive families from all over the country, on various aspects of the adoption process. An adoption journey is not always straightforward.

We make it clear to all our clients, particularly those who are having an extremely difficult time within the family home, that we’re not here to judge them. Those at crisis point and at risk of an adoption disruption, often already feel judged and like they’re the only ones in that situation.

Get in touch with The Adoption Legal Centre

We’re here to provide advice to adopters and guide them through a difficult and emotional process. We’ll be with them every step of the way. We find a lot of our clients have a feeling of relief when they come to us. We “get it and understand” the emotional rollercoaster that adoption creates.

If you have any issues in respect of your adoption journey then please take a look at our website.

I’m really grateful to Sarah from Adoption Legal Centre for writing this article to give us a bit of insight into the legal side of disruption.

Adoption disruption

At the Adoption Legal Centre we often receive calls from adoptive parents who are in crisis. The majority of the time they are facing child on parent violence on a weekly, if not daily basis. This can be in addition to other challenging behaviours including running away from home, or their child putting themselves in risky situations. When we receive that call we know the parents have exhausted all other options and are turning to us as a last resort.

We reassure those parents that they are not alone in their situation. Adoption disruption/breakdown is something that we are all too familiar with. We receive calls from families who have been trying for months, or even years, to obtain appropriate support to help them with their child’s behaviour. They have been trying to prevent the situation escalating to an adoption disruption. Unfortunately, on some occasions the support isn’t forthcoming, or the child is beyond the parent’s control.

We always make it clear that no blame is ever put on the child from either us or the parents, for their behaviour. We all know that it is a sad reality of the early life trauma the children experienced. Parents often feel that if the local authority had given them the support they needed, they wouldn’t be in this position. They know their child needs help. But they know they can’t carry on and feel they have to ask for their child to be accommodated.

Legal options

If a parent considers that they can no longer continue caring for their child, either temporarily or long term, then we can advise them on their legal options. This includes asking that their child be accommodated into Local Authority care. This is known as Section 20 (s20) under the Children Act 1989.

Requesting that your child lives elsewhere is an extremely difficult decision. Unfortunately some parents have no alternative but to make that request. We are with our clients every step of the process, when they do make that very difficult decision.

Under s20 of the Children Act 1989, children and young people can only be accommodated by the local authority with the consent of those with parental responsibility (PR). The only exception is if the young person is 16 or 17 years old then consent isn’t required.

Retaining PR

Many adoptive parents don’t understand that if they agree to their child being accommodated under s20, they haven’t lost PR. And the local authority hasn’t gained it. Any person who has PR for a child may, at any time, remove the child from accommodation provided by or on behalf of the local authority.

This means if things change once your child is accommodated (for example if promised help is put in place), then you can withdraw your consent. You would simply tell the Local Authority that you were withdrawing your consent for accommodation and the child should return home immediately. The only way a Local Authority could stop the child coming home, is if they were to apply to the court for an order sharing PR with the parents.

It is extremely difficult for parents to make a decision that their child is accommodated. Many parents feel guilt and despair. They never wanted their child to go back into care. They never thought the adoption would breakdown.

The situation can be made worse by a view from social workers that somehow the adoptive parents have failed the child. This can be because the social workers are from the child protection team. Their experience of dealing with children who have been adopted may be minimal. The child’s behaviour must therefore be the parents fault. Our aim is to explain that the situation isn’t anybody’s fault. It is a consequence of early life trauma and the impact this has had on a child’s attachment, behaviour and relationships.

Contact with your child

If a child is accommodated then they should still have contact with their parents. The Local Authority should not stop contact happening unless they have a court order. This will, however, depend on the child’s age and their wishes and feelings. If a child is making it clear that they don’t want to have contact, the Local Authority can’t force them to. They should, however, promote contact between the child and their parents, and encourage the child to attend.

The court’s view on s20 accommodation is that it should be temporary. If it’s clear that a child cannot return to the parent’s care, the Local Authority should take steps to share PR with the parents. They would have to apply for a care order and issue proceedings at court.

Care proceedings

Care proceedings are often given a negative image. However, in some situations they can be a positive for families. It can finally be an opportunity for an independent expert assessment to be undertaken and the appropriate support put in place for the child.

The proceedings have oversight from an independent Judge. That means all parties have to adhere to timeframes given by the court. The child is appointed a Children’s Guardian who represents the child within care proceedings. They are independent of the Local Authority, court and the parents and represent the child based on what is in their best interests.

The Adoption Legal Centre

At the Adoption Legal Centre, we are here to help adoptive parents every step of the way. Whether this be in a request for s20 accommodation, or within care proceedings. We represent adoptive parents all over the country, as distance is never an obstacle for us.

Please contact us for further information, or if you wish to speak to us about your situation.

Head over to the adoption disruption section if you’d like to read more articles about this topic.