Dear Twilight1107,
Welcome to the parents Forum.
I don't know whether any of the other users have experience of going back to court to try and revoke a placement order. if any one has, they could post here as well.
Before a court can make a placement order, it has to first consider whether any of the following people can care for the child:
1. Mum and/or dad.
2. Any family or friends or people “connected” to the child who have put themselves forward. This could be immediate family and friends or distant family and friends, who live in different parts of the country or the world.
3. Then the court considers whether long term foster care is an option. So that a child remains under a full care order. This often happens with children who may be difficult to adopt-because they are older children, for example.
4. Only if the court rules out all of the above, then adoption will be considered. So adoption should be a last resort.
Back to your questions.
Can a parent revoke an adoption order?
Once an adoption order has been made then the answer is no.
Adoption means that mum and dads parental responsibility is taken away and a child is usually placed within a completely new family until they are 18. Contact, is usually very limited, often only by letters and cards.
Can a parent revoke a placement order?
It is very rare for a placement order to be revoked. However, it can happen.
A placement order is made by the court, when the court has ruled out other options-such as mum or dad or family and friends.
A placement order gives the adoption agency the authority to place a child with prospective adopters even if the parent did not agree.
So if your child was under a placement order, he will either still be in foster care, waiting for adopters or will have already moved to adopters.
Adopters have to wait a while before they can make an application for an adoption order.
To revoke a placement order, a parent would first of all have to apply for permission of the court to make an application.
The parent would have to show 2 things:
1. That there has been a change in circumstances since the placement order was made.
2. That it is in the “best interests” of the child for the placement order to be revoked. The court would look at the “welfare checklist” when deciding.
Do you know why the court made a placement order? To find out you could check the court written judgment or reasons.
What has changed in your situation? Or are there any family or friends who did not know about the care proceedings and who could put themselves forward?
Where is your child living at the moment?
Have you discussed your case with your solicitor?
By law, you should have been offered a support worker, independent from the social worker to help you around the issues of adoption as well as counselling and written information about adoption and related issues. Has this happened?
You could also contact the
birth ties who give advice to birth families.
Please post back or you could call our advice line on 0808 801 0366 to discuss your options.
Best wishes,
Suzie