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Consequences of Adoption

Document Cited authorities 11 Cited in Related
AuthorNasreen Pearce/Richard Budworth
Pages119-123

Chapter 11

Consequences of Adoption

INTRODUCTION

11.1 ACA 2002, Chapter 4 (ss 66–76) together with s 46 set out the effect of an adoption order after 30 December 2005 when the Act came into force. The provisions of the Adoption Act 1976 continue to apply to children adopted before
30 December 2005.

MEANING OF ADOPTION UNDER ACA 2002, CH 4

11.2 ACA 2002, s 66(1) provides that ‘adoption’ means adoption by an adoption order made in England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland or in the Isle of Man or any of the Channel Islands. It also includes a Convention adoption; an overseas adoption; and an adoption by the laws of England and Wales and effected under the law of another country.

PARENTAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES

11.3 An adoption order is an order giving parental responsibility for a child to the adopter(s) (ACA 2002, s 46(1)). ChA 1989, s 3 defines ‘parental responsibility’ as ‘all the rights and duties, powers, responsibilities and authority which by law a parent of a child has in relation to the child and his property’. It includes ‘the rights, powers and duties which a guardian of the child’s estate (appointed, before the commencement of section 5, to act generally) would have had in relation to the child and his property’. It includes, in particular, the rights of the guardian to receive or recover, in his own name, for the benefit of the child, property of whatever description and wherever situated which the child is entitled to receive and recover.

120 Adoption Law: A Practical Guide

11.4 Until an adoption order is made, the natural parents, and any other person who has parental responsibility for the child, retain that parental responsibility, and their rights are unaffected, save as restricted by any determination made on a placement order (ACA 2002, s 46(3)(a) and (b)).

11.5 Under ACA 2002, s 46(2), an adoption order has the effect of extinguishing:

(a) the parental responsibility which any person other than the adopter(s) has for the adopted child immediately before the making of the adoption order;

(b) any order made under the ChA 1989 or the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 (SI 1995/755, NI 2). This includes a residence order, contact order, specific issue order, prohibited steps order, parental responsibility order, guardianship order and a care or supervision order;

(c) any order under the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 other than an excepted order;

(d) any duty arising by virtue of an agreement or an order of a court to make payments, so...

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