Adoption Hearings, attendance by adoptive parents

[OldForANewMum]

Hi all, wondering if anyone can clear something up for us. The Directions Hearing in our adoption has recently taken place with the second hearing taking place next year at which hopefully the adoption order will be granted.

We did not attend the Directions Hearing and were told we were not entitled to but that birth parents could attend (they did not, indeed they wrote to the Court in support or at least, acceptance of the adoption).

We would like to attend the next Court Hearing. Do we have a right to?

I have read conflicting things online. I suspect that regardless of whether we have a right to, nobody involved really wants adoptive parents to attend and in many ways I can understand this. However I don't really care what others want us to do! I want to know what we have a right to do (and then we will make a decision as to WHAT we do once we know). As with so many things in the adoption process, it seems you get many different answers and sometimes people are trying to obfuscate - just as often they don't know what they're talking about!

Really hoping somebody can give a definitive answer or point to a definitive resource.

(though fully prepared to hear that you don't have a 'right' but in certain circumstances sometimes a judge might 'allow' you to as I'm beginning to think that's the bottom line. But it's just odd to me to be the Applicant in court proceedings but not seemingly be allowed to be present!)

This was a grey area until early this year.

The President of the Family Division (most senior family judge in the country) has now decided that whilst it is unusual for prospective adopters to attend they must be allowed to if they wish.

The reported case is called T (2024) EWCA Civ 189. The full law report is available on line and goes into some detail about what arrangements might be put in place.

@LadyMacbethWasMisunderstood that is fantastic. Thanks for confirming so quickly and clearly! I'll be off to have a look, then

I came back to this thread to update for anyone searching in future, and also to thank you @LadyMacbethWasMisunderstood once again.

To cut a long story short, our second (and hopefully, final) hearing takes place within the next few weeks and we will be confirming [EDIT: attending!], it having been confirmed by the judge that we can.

Following your helpful response, I first wrote to both SWs (ours and child's) to let them know, sharing with them the same article you linked to. They reacted very positively and were supportive of this (it shouldn't have mattered if they weren't but it was obviously good that they were). I then wrote to the Court, received no response for weeks, got our adoption agency to follow up a couple of times, followed up again myself and eventually it has been confirmed that we can attend.

I should add that there was really no good reason why we could not have attended given our specific circumstances and virtually nothing in the way of 'special arrangements' is required to facilitate our attendance. Had things been more complicated, who knows whether we would have met more resistance. As it is though, we're in... as long as nothing changes!