After the adoption order

[Crechendo]

We've submitted our adoption order (whoop). I've realised I have no idea what happens now. I'm aware it will be reviewed by a judge and birth parents can contest, but what meetings are there and what do you look at? Where can I find this information? I'd prefer to have something to read myself rather than ask my SW for only the reason of I like research and reading.

I'm in England, I know it's different for other countries.

Thanks for your help!

Literally nothing - your social worker visits continue as normal. Most likely it will go to court but won’t be decided at the first hearing, and may be rejected at first which feels scary but in reality it doesn’t mean anything and no judge would allow it to get to the point of adoption order (they needed a placement order I think it’s called).

Personally think it’s a bit cruel as it gives the birth parents the idea that they can reverse the decisions made but in reality by this stage it’s much too late...

Someone may come along and correct me but that’s what happened for us :)

You don’t go to court also btw it’s done by social workers...

Same as Specialcase for us!

I agree with @specialcase, it feels cruel and gives false hope to birth parents especially in cases where there is less than a year between the placement order being granted and the application for an adoption order. That being said, it's important to recognise that an adoption order legally overrides both birth parents' and the child's right to a family life which is protected under the Human Rights Act 1998. This is one of the reasons why judges are so careful to follow due process and allow birth parents to apply for leave to contest the adoption order. Failing to follow the legal process would give birth parents grounds to appeal which would be incredibly stressful.

It is rare for a birth parent to be granted leave to contest the adoption order and rarer still for them to be successful. The handful of successful cases in which adoption orders were not granted that my frantic research turned up all hinged on errors made by the assessing social workers on issues such as checking that the biological father was correctly identified.

Should have added that the celebration hearing in court was about a month after the more official court stuff.

Personally think it’s a bit cruel as it gives the birth parents the idea that they can reverse the decisions made but in reality by this stage it’s much too late...

It does feel cruel but often birth parents will contest it so they can say they fought for their kids, not because they think it’ll stop the adoption going ahead, by that point it’s usually far too late. Adoption does remove birth parents parental rights, which is a serious legal decision and one that can’t be revoked so the courts need to be very sure it’s being done appropriately, ie that there really was no other possibility.

In terms of meetings, there aren’t any in terms of the court process, it’s a legal process usually progressed by solicitors who should keep you informed about what’s happening.