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Placement order meaning

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What does Placement order mean?
In practice, a placement order authorises a local authority (as an adoption agency) to place a child for adoption with any prospective adopters it selects. In England and Wales it is a statutory order under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (section 21), typically sought in or alongside care proceedings where adoption is the care plan and parental consent is not given. The court applies the welfare paramountcy test and will only make the order if adoption is necessary and proportionate (Re B; Re B‑S), dispensing with parental consent where the statutory grounds are met. Key effects include: authority to place the child for adoption; management of contact pending placement; and, once placed, prospective adopters acquire parental responsibility to the extent determined by the agency. A parent or guardian may seek revocation before the child is placed, with the court’s permission and a change of circumstances; once placed, challenges proceed via leave to oppose adoption. Jurisdictional usage differs: Scotland does not use “placement order”; the nearest equivalent is a permanence order with authority to adopt under the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007. In Northern Ireland, freeing for adoption has been replaced by placement orders under the Adoption and Children Act (Northern...
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View the related News about Placement order

NEWS
UK Private Client update: trusts, Court of Protection, tax and HMRC changes, Companies House overseas entities removal, mediation Practice Direction, devolved and Jersey developments (25 April 2024)

In this issue: Trusts Court of Protection UK taxes for Private Client HMRC Manuals updates Insolvency—Private Client Charity and philanthropy Contentious trusts and estates Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland International Question of the week Daily and weekly news alerts LexTalk®Private Client: a Lexis®PSL community New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Latest Q&A Useful information Trusts Companies House publishes guidance on removal of overseas entities from register Companies House has issued guidance setting out the process for taking an overseas entity off the Register of Overseas Entities. It applies where the entity no longer holds registered title to UK land or property acquired on or after 1 January 1999 in England and Wales, 8 December 2014 in Scotland, and 5 September 2022 in Northern Ireland. The guidance confirms the entity must have disposed of all UK property or land, and the transfer of ownership...

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NEWS
England and Wales: DoL orders cannot be used to force a looked-after 17-year-old into a placement; section 20 Children Act 1989 requires informed consent; wardship jurisdiction upheld

Kent County Council v The Mother, The Father, G (by his Children’s Guardian) and A Hospital Trust [2025] EWHC 1974 (Fam) What are the practical implications of this case? The practical implications are: A clear reminder that the child’s age is critical. Here, the child was 17, so the local authority could not seek a care order or interim care order under section 31(3) of the Children Act 1989. Although an emergency protection order was theoretically available, its brief duration and limited relevance to these facts meant it was not the answer; the authority’s sole viable course was to ask the court for permission to invoke the inherent jurisdiction. Affirms that a local authority cannot rely on a deprivation of liberty order to force a looked-after child to accept its preferred accommodation or placement. While the court recognised that section 20(6) of the Children Act 1989 does not entitle a looked-after child to dictate where they are placed, their wishes and feelings about any...

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NEWS
Private Client weekly update - cases, legislation, tax and HMRC developments across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (19 March 2026)

In this issue: Probate Trusts Elderly and vulnerable clients UK taxes for Private Client HMRC Manuals updates Tax avoidance, evasion and non-compliance Regulatory compliance for Private Client Budgets and Finance Bills Charity and philanthropy Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland International Question of the week Additional Private Client updates this week Daily and weekly news alerts LexTalk®Private Client: a Lexis+® community New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Probate Bereaved Partner’s Paternity Leave Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/237): these Regulations create a new statutory entitlement for an employee to take time off to care for a child during the first year following birth, placement for adoption, or arrival in Great Britain for an overseas adoption, where the child’s primary carer has died (bereaved partner’s paternity leave). They take effect on 6 April 2026. See: LNB News 15/01/2026 18. Trusts Representation orders...

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View the related Practice Notes about Placement order

PRACTICE NOTES
Statutory Adoption Pay in Great Britain: Eligibility, notice and evidence, calculation, duration, liability (incl. multiple employers), disrupted placements, recoupment, and interaction with contractual pay, surrogacy and overseas adoptions

This Practice Note considers statutory adoption pay (SAP) and contractual adoption payments. It also examines eligibility criteria, the meaning of employed earner, the duration of entitlement, notice obligations, the evidence required, the length of time SAP is payable, rates of pay, and liability, including where an individual has more than one employer. It addresses outcomes where a child dies or a placement breaks down, circumstances in which SAP is not due, record-keeping duties, and how recoupment operates. Finally, it explores how contractual sick pay interacts with SAP, adoptions from outside the UK, and contracting out. A parent taking adoption leave (see Practice Note: Adoption leave) may qualify for SAP for part of that leave. They may receive payment for time off to attend adoption appointments (see Practice Note: Time off work for adoption appointments). Where a child is placed for adoption, the adopter and a second person—who must be the adopter’s spouse, civil partner, or partner—may, if they choose, share up to 37 of the 39 weeks of pay...

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PRACTICE NOTES
Family Procedure Rules 2010 (England and Wales): Index to Parts, Practice Directions, amendments (Brexit/DDSA 2020), electronic procedure, pilot schemes and pre-DDSA 2020 versions

How to use this index This Practice Note offers an index with links to the Family Procedure Rules 2010 (FPR 2010), SI 2010/2955—the main procedural rules that apply to family proceedings—together with all supporting Practice Directions. Use the 'Table of Contents' tab on the left-hand side of the screen; it will expand to reveal every Part of FPR 2010 and the associated Practice Directions for each individual Part. To open material within FPR 2010, select the margin note to the right of the text for the specific Part or Practice Direction you wish to consult. When you are inside a Part of FPR 2010, click the 'Table of Contents' tab on the left to then expand that Part, display all rules contained in it, and allow you to navigate to the relevant provision you are interested in or require. Within FPR 2010, the 'Table of Contents' tab also lists all other Parts of FPR 2010, and individual rules can be navigated to by clicking on each relevant...

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PRACTICE NOTES
Applying for surrogacy parental orders in England and Wales: eligibility, procedure, consent, hearings, forms and register (HFEA 2008; FPR 2010)

Practice Note This Practice Note explains the process for making a parental order application under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (HFEA 2008). It gives guidance on who may apply, where an application should be issued, acknowledging service, and the steps for the first directions hearing and the final hearing. It also outlines provisions on evidence of agreement, when agreement will not be required, and the parental order register. A parental order is an order by which a child is recognised in law as the child of the applicant(s) where the child was carried by a woman who is not the applicant, or not one of the applicants, following the placement in her of an embryo, or sperm and eggs, or through her artificial insemination, and the gametes of the applicant, or at least one of the applicants, were used to create the embryo, subject to certain conditions; see Conditions that must be met. The principal provisions for surrogacy arrangements are contained in the: Surrogacy...

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