Types of adoption

Adoption provides a child the opportunity to grow up in a family that can give them the love, care and security that their birth family was not able to provide.

Adoption is a legal process which transfers all parental responsibility for the child from their birth parents to their adoptive parent(s). This supports a permanent, life-long commitment which gives children who have had a difficult start in life the opportunity to live happy, healthy, fulfilling lives with their new families.

Each adoption is unique and is built around the needs of the child. It gives you the chance to become a parent to a child whose early life has been disrupted, and to grow together within the stability and security of a permanent family.

Early permanence is used when a child’s care plan is adoption, or it is likely that they will be placed for adoption. The decision to place the child through Early Permanence can be made before a child is born, but it can also be used for older children. Early Permanence carers are dually approved as foster carers and adopters.

This means that the child would be fostered by you initially, and then adopted by you if the court decides that their care plan needs to be adoption. While you are fostering there would be an expectation that you support and facilitate the necessary contact during care proceedings. You will be supported by your Social Worker who will visit regularly.

Early Permanence carers also receive specific additional training and preparation to ensure they are really well equipped for the role. The aim of Early Permanence is for children to receive permanence at the earliest opportunity. Research shows that babies placed for adoption before 12 months of age are more likely to develop a secure attachment to their adoptive parents.

When a child has a change of primary carer, this is experienced by them as a trauma. With Early Permanence the child remains with the same carer from birth, throughout their childhood, which means no changes of main carer following their birth, although this is always dependent on the outcome of the care proceedings in court. This stability is hugely beneficial for the child’s attachment and their overall development.

If you are the partner of a parent with a child from a previous relationship, you can adopt your stepchild. This gives you formal parental responsibility.

Read the document below which outlines more information about step parent adoption.

 cypadoptionnonagency@suffolk.gov.uk

A special guardian handles the day to day decisions about caring for a child or young person, and his or her upbringing.

A Special Guardianship Order gives the guardian parental responsibility. The child’s birth parents also keep parental responsibility, but the guardian is able to use their responsibility to exclude that of the birth parents.

Special guardians cannot change a child’s surname or consent to adoption for the child. The birth parents keep the right to consent or not to adopt, and may apply through the courts for contact with the child.

The holder of a Child Arrangements Order shares parental responsibility jointly with the other people who have parental responsibility (e.g. the birth parents). The birth parents retain parental responsibility as well as the right to consent to adoption or not. They can also apply for contact through the courts, or ask for a variation of the Child Arrangements Order. The order will normally expire when the child turns 18. The family may have regular and frequent contact with their child.

For further information, read the Adoption and Permanence Support Statement of Purpose document.