Site Directory
Social Care and Health
Children and Families
Adoption
Information for Birth Parents
Adoption is a process which allows someone other than the child's birth father and mother to become their legal parents. It is a legal procedure in which all the parental responsibilities are transferred to the adopters.
Adoptions are made legally binding by the Court and once finalised, cannot be changed.
Who can arrange an adoption?
Adoption can be arranged by approved Adoption Agencies. Aberdeenshire Council is an approved Adoption Agency.
When is adoption considered for a child?
A birth mother or birth parents may decide that it is in the best interests of their child to be placed for adoption.
If the birth mother is unmarried, and the father does not have parental responsibilities, his formal agreement is not needed. The Social Work Service is required by law to try to contact him, if possible, as well as any other members of the family, to hear what they think about the adoption plan, and to collect information that will be helpful to the child later on. However, birth mothers do not have to reveal the identity of the birth father. An unmarried birth father who does not have parental responsibilities and who disagrees with the plan for adoption should seek legal advice.
In some cases where it has been decided that birth parents are unable to bring up their child, Aberdeenshire Council may apply to the court for the child to be freed for adoption. This is a process which allows the child to be adopted, without parental agreement. These children are likely to have been involved in the Children's Hearing System (this is the legal system in Scotland which deals with children who have been in trouble or who are having some difficulty at home).
What services can Birth Parents expect?
Parting with a child or children for adoption is never easy, whatever the circumstances.
As the adoption plan progresses, either before you sign any formal agreement or after the adoption, a counselling service to parents is available from Social Work or other agencies if more appropriate. Sometimes there may be a separate Social Worker for birth parents and the child. Counselling can help people to talk about feelings and to think about how they are going to tell people, such as future partners and children about their child and this time in their lives. The Social Worker will help parents to understand the emotional effects of adoption and the alternatives to adoption as well as legal effects of adoption and how to get legal advice or advocacy. Any brothers and sisters of your child may also get a full range of advocacy, counselling and any practical support. Should you need help at a later date you may contact your local Social Work office.
How is a decision made for a child to be adopted?
All children who are accommodated by Social Work have regular Reviews. The Review will have recommended that adoption is in the child's best interests.
The Social Worker will then write a detailed report within 12 weeks, and will present it to the Permanence Panel.
The Permanence Panel will then consider whether a child should be adopted. They must consider if any other option would be in the child's best interests. They must take into account the views of the child about any plan for his or her future (if the child is old enough to express his or her wishes and feelings). If the child is 12 or over, his or her consent is also required. They must also take into account the views of the child's parents.
If the Permanence Panel think adoption is the best choice and will support the child's welfare throughout his or her life, they will recommend this to the Head of Social Work (Child Care and Criminal Justice) who will make a decision within fourteen days.
The adoption does not become finalised until a decision is made by a Court.
What information is needed?
Knowledge of their birth family is important for children who are adopted. The social worker will encourage birth parents to share as much information as possible about the family background including health, race, religion, culture and language spoken. The agency will try, as far as possible, to take the child's origins into consideration.
The involvement of birth fathers and other family members in sharing information and planning can be very helpful to the child.
Medical reports on the child and both birth parents (if known) are carried out so that any health needs of the child can be taken into account.
The child's Social Worker will send all the information to the Permanence Panel, on a standard form. This report will be shared with the birth parents, who will be asked to sign it.
What happens next?
If a decision for adoption is made:
Within 7 days
- The Head of Social Work (Child Care and Criminal Justice) writes to Parents with parental responsibilities to let them know the decision.
- The Head of Social Work (Child Care and Criminal Justice) will send the parents a memorandum giving more information.
- The parents are asked to sign and return a certificate to say that they have read and understood the memorandum.
- The parents are also asked to sign and return a form to say whether they agree or disagree with the plan for adoption.
Within the next 28 days
The form should be returned to the Head of Social Work (Child Care and Criminal Justice)) by the parent(s).
If the parent(s) do not agree to the plan for Adoption within 28 days, Aberdeenshire Council must apply within another 28 days to the Court for the child to be freed for adoption. If the child is on Supervision, advice from the Childrens Hearing will be requested. If it is in the childs best interests, the child may be placed for adoption, and the prospective adoptive parents will apply to the Court to adopt the child in due course.
How is a family chosen for a child?
In Aberdeenshire Council we ask all families who wish to adopt to come to adoption preparation training which we run over several days. The course provides detailed information on becoming an adoptive parent. This is followed by a full and thorough assessment of the family's suitability to become an adoptive parent. This involves a number of meetings with a Social Worker as well as checks of criminal records, social work records, health checks and a check of the safety of their home. The Social Worker will also speak with people who know the adopters well and may make a check with their employer. The assessment will focus on the family's ability to provide safe care and promote a child's interests throughout their life.
The Permanence Panel will recommend to the Head of Social Work (Child Care and Criminal Justice) whether the family would be suitable as adoptive parents, and the Head of Social Work (Child Care and Criminal Justice) will decide whether to approve them.
Once the Head of Social Work (Child Care and Criminal Justice) has agreed an adoption plan for the child, a family is sought at an early stage.
Your child's Social Worker will ask Social Work staff who specialise in Adoption to suggest families who seem best able to provide for the child's needs throughout their life. Birth parents will be encouraged to be involved in planning for their child and to give their views, particularly regarding the religious and cultural upbringing of the child. These views will be taken into account in choosing a family for the child. The Permanence Panel will be asked to recommend to the Head of Social Work (Child Care and Criminal Justice) which family could best meet the child's needs and will give this careful consideration. The Head of Social Work (Child Care and Criminal Justice) will then decide whether to agree the match of this family and your child.
Social Workers who specialise in adoption will firstly consider families who have been approved as adoptive parents by Aberdeenshire Council. If a family cannot be found locally, without giving confidential information, Social Work will try to find a family by contacting other Social Work Agencies.
In choosing a family, Social Work will try to choose a family which matches your ethnic, cultural background and religion. Other factors taken into account are your child's health, education, social and emotional development.
The child's Social Worker will listen carefully to your child, if he or she is old enough to give their views, and will record these views and take them into account when considering adoptive families. If your child has brothers and sisters, Social Work will try to find a family where they can be placed together, provided that this is in their interests. If, after careful consideration, Social Work reaches a view that brothers and sisters should be placed separately, then this will be discussed with birth parents, and will be clearly recorded in the child's case file.
There is now much more openness in adoption: sometimes the birth parents and adoptive parents may meet before the placement and depending on the needs of the child, birth parents and child may have contact throughout childhood, possibly face to face or by letter arranged through Social Work. If your child has brothers or sisters living elsewhere, arrangements will be made for your child to keep in touch with them, where appropriate.
Provided your child is old enough, his/her Social Worker will give him/her a detailed explanation about what will happen now and in the future, and will try to answer questions that he/she might have. He or she will be given more information as the plan progresses. If Social Work does not act in line with your child's wishes, then the reasons for this will be explained to him/her and these reasons will be clearly recorded.
If Social Work does not act in line with your expressed views, you will be told the reasons and these will be clearly recorded. You should feel that you are being listened to and involved in the adoption process.
Moving to a new family
When your child is matched with a family, he will be given information about this family, and may be given written information or a photo album about them, to help him or her prepare for meeting this family. Your child will be encouraged to ask questions about this family.
Your child will usually meet his/her new family in his/her Foster Carer's home, with his/her Foster Carers and Social Worker. Social Work recognise how important it is for him/her to have support at that time. His/her introduction will be carefully planned and will progress at the child's pace, until he/she is ready to move.
Aberdeenshire Council has a Letterbox Scheme, and where this is in the child's interests and the adoptive parents agree, birth parents and the child can have contact through this scheme. This would enable an indirect annual exchange of written information between the adoptive parents and birth parents, administered by Aberdeenshire Council. Your Social Worker can provide information about this scheme. Sometimes it is in the child's interests to have direct contact with members of his/her birth family and if so, Social Work will make arrangements for this.
Social Work can continue to provide support to your child and his family after he/she has been adopted. Knowledge of their birth family is important for children who are adopted. For this reason the Social Worker will encourage birth parents to share as much information as possible about the family background including culture, religion, language spoken, family lifestyle's, family composition and health. Social Work will give this information to the adoptive family and to the child, so that he/she has knowledge and an understanding of his or her family and the reasons why he or she was adopted. This information will be carefully recorded in the child's case file, held securely and privately.
Social Work will ensure that the move to the new family is made as quickly as possible and will also try to ensure there are no unnecessary delays in court.
Support after the move
Social Work will continue to offer support promptly to both your child and their new family, for as long as they need this. Support can be requested by your child or their new family at any point as your child grows up.
What happens when my child is an adult?
By law, Social Work has to keep the child's file for 75 years, and adopted people can have access to their adoption record at the age of 16. Social Work records are held privately and securely and will contain full and accurate information, including information about the child's birth family, medical information, social history and needs at that time.
All children in Scotland have a right to receive their original birth certificate on request, once they are 16 years old. They can also have access to the original document prepared at the time of adoption. The information could make it possible for your child to trace you, should they wish.
Representations and complaints
Whilst it is Aberdeenshire's aim to provide a good service, birth parents have a right to make representations and complaints, and will be given the leaflet "Comments, Compliments, Complaints: A guide to Commenting, Complimenting or Complaining about Aberdeenshire Council Services" on request. It is available from Social Work offices.
As Aberdeenshire Council's Fostering and Adoption Service is regulated by the Care Commission, you may also make a complaint to the Care Commission, Johnston House, Rose Street, Aberdeen, AB10 1UD Tel: 01224 793870.
