Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Adoption definition

What does Adoption mean? Adoption is the court process by which an adult or couple becomes a child’s legal parent(s), permanently replacing the legal status of the birth parent(s). When an adoption order is made, parental responsibility (England & Wales and Northern Ireland) or parental responsibilities and rights (Scotland) transfers in full to the adopter(s); the birth parents’ legal rights and duties are extinguished, subject to any contact the court may authorise. The child is treated in law as the child of the adopter(s) for all purposes, including name, birth registration and inheritance. The law is statutory in each jurisdiction (for example, the...

Adoption contact orders: s 26 (pre-adoption) and s 51A (post-adoption) principles, applicants, procedure, duration, variation, suspension and discharge (England and Wales)

Published by a LexisNexis Family expert

Practice notes

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This Practice Note outlines the overarching approach to contact orders before and after Adoption, setting out the General Principles to be applied. It explains who can seek a contact order within adoption proceedings, the procedure to be followed, and provides guidance on the Duration, alteration and Suspension of contact orders in adoption, as well as discharge considerations and associated practice issues.

Planning for adoption and contact

Contact must be explicitly addressed in the social worker’s permanence report and also by the agency decision-maker at approval. In uncommon instances where the adoption panel decides whether children should be placed for adoption, and in every case involving matches between children and prospective adopters, the panel must consider contact matters too. There is no assumption either way about contact once the adoption agency is authorised to place the child for adoption.

Adoption and contact—principles

Before the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (ACA 2002), social work practice and judicial rulings frequently favoured a ‘clean break’, and, in most situations, direct contact was contemplated only where the birth family could back the placement and refrain from undermining it, such capacity being treated as a necessary prerequisite...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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