Adoption order revoked years after being made

[CloserToFiftyThanTwenty]

Just flagging up this story just published about an adoption order than was revoked many years after being made, for those of us who watch these things with interest.

The judge was clear that this was an exceptional case (possibly a completely unique set of circumstances?), so I don't think that adoptive parents should be unduly worried, though I am uneasy about the principle of being able to revoke an adoption order rather than, say, make a new order even if it would have the same effect as revocation.

I have to say it seems the right decision to me. Can;t birth children apply to become emancipated from their parents - it's kind of a version of that isn;t it.

I agree it seems the right outcome for the girl based on the reported facts (ie to be reconciled with her birth mother, take the same name etc). It's the revocation of the adoption order that I feel unsure about: I want to be able to say to DD with my hand on my heart that the order is permanent, final and untouchable. This decision undermines that, even in this particular and almost never to be repeated circumstances. If the judge could make some kind of return-of-adopted-child-to-birth-family order, which had exactly the effect as revoking the adoption order, that would IMHO be preferable (though to the best of my knowledge such an order doesn't exist, so she had to work within the system as it is).

Poor girl at the centre of all of this - I hope she is getting some proper support from SS (may also be fanciful thinking )

Yeah, I don't like the principle either - but this girl's welfare has to be the most important consideration. I think the judge emphasising that it is exceptional and particular rules it out being used as a general precedent?

Just reading a handful of cases where adoption orders have not been revoked because... "there was a risk that it could undermine the important legal principle that adoption orders are final" This is an exceptional case but other exceptional cases have gone to court before and even got as far as high court but revocation has been denied because of 'undermining the legal principle of it being final'. So I'd say while unlikely to impact on us all, it is still big news.

Why couldn't they issue care proceedings, get a CO, then PO, then an AO for birth parents? which essentially over rules last AO. That way an AO can't be revoked but can be over ruled if a CO is needed with no improvement. Obviously any of us adopters that have SS investigate and find a reason to remove a child from our care should really go through exactly what a birth parent would. I'm obviously missing something in law there I'm sure.
I appreciate birth parents are then to be legal guardians but they lost their rights, I presume for good reason, so if they have to become APs of sorts well fair enough!

ALSO thought this copy and paste could help you jamming ...

"Examples of where adoption orders have been set aside are where there is a procedural irregularity where, for example, notice of the proceedings were not properly served on the mother (Re F (R) (An Infant)[1970] 1 QB 385) or fraud had been used in obtaining the order (Re RA (Minors)Â (1974) 4 Fam Law 182 or a fundamental breach of natural justice in an adoption made overseas (Re K (Adoption and Wardship)Â [1997] 2 FLR 221). However as Wall LJ noted these were cases where the adoption order had not be â??validly and regularly obtainedâ? (para 161)"

This sentence I think is what it spins on

The judge said all the signs were that the couple who adopted the child in 2004 had "relinquished responsibility" for her.

But I still agree a CO (which possibly the ward of court status was in place of) Placement order and then adoption, but is there a precedent for an adopted adoptee?
Placements do breakdown after the order, so what is the next step? There are different steps that can be taken including relinquishing the adopted child, which is what the judge said happened here.

That said, what I find slightly disconcerting is how have the circumstances of the birth family materially changed-and how did the daughter find them.

Wow, what a terrible case. How very sad.

In this case I think they should do whatever the young woman wants, and they did, so I think it was right.

Closer re It's the revocation of the adoption order that I feel unsure about: I want to be able to say to DD with my hand on my heart that the order is permanent, final and untouchable. This decision undermines that, even in this particular and almost never to be repeated circumstances. It's just my personal option but I don't see that a decision in a very, very extreme and abusive case undermines what the rest of us may do. I would be more than happy to tell my son in any ways and in a thousand words and actions that his adoption is final. Even though I know adoptions do break down at times. For me, I just don't see it changes what the rest of us are doing in our lives with our adopted children.