• contents
• keywords and contacts
• quick guide
• values
• alerts and suggestions
• search
• minimum standards

Contents

1. Babies Relinquished for Adoption
2. Contact with Birth Fathers and Extended Family Members: Wandsworth Legal Advice

1. Babies Relinquished for Adoption

Referrals for mothers wanting to relinquish their babies for adoption at birth should be referred immediately to the St. George's Hospital Team, irrespective of the hospital where the baby is due to be delivered.

A Child and Family Assessment will be undertaken by a worker from the St George's Team to establish the mother's intentions, to gather as much information as possible and to explore the various options open to the mother for the care of her child. Adoption counselling will form a part of this process.

A meeting will be set up within ten working days with the mother, the social worker who has completed the Assessment and the Team Manager, St. George's. The meeting will consider the immediate plans for the child once born, on going work with the mother and father, and all legal matters. Referrals to the relevant Children Looked After team, and the Fostering Team will be made, and the Permanency team will be notified. A referral will also be made to the Permanency Panel, aiming to bring the child's case to the Adoption Panel approximately eight weeks after birth. The social worker from the St. George's team will remain the primary worker for the unborn child, and the CLA worker will be allocated as the secondary worker. The St George's social worker will use the Form E format to gather and record information.

If the child has already been born, or the birth is imminent, the hospital social worker completing the Child and Family Assessment will arrange a foster placement and inform the IRO's and the relevant CLA team. The Permanency Team will be informed accordingly. The meeting with the IRO will need to be arranged as soon as is reasonably possible after the child's birth.

Once the child has been discharged from hospital and placed in foster care, the social worker from the CLA team will become the primary social worker for the child, and the worker from St George's will become the secondary worker, primarily to work with and counsel the child's birth parents.

At the time of the first statutory review of the child's placement, the IRO will provide information for the Permanency Database.

The child's social worker from the CLA team and the worker for the birth parents from the hospital team will be expected to keep in close contact. It will be necessary for the two workers to meet prior to submitting the papers to the Adoption Panel to agree the information that is being presented. Where possible the hospital social worker will attend the Adoption Panel, but the CLA social worker will present the papers to Panel and the CLA team manager will attend.

Prior to the second statutory review, consideration will be given to offering Birth Parent Counselling which can be accessed through the Senior Social Worker (Specialist) in the Permanency Team or the Service Manager for Permanency and Under Eights.

At the second statutory review, the hospital team will end its involvement with the family.

2. Contact with Birth Fathers and Extended Family Members: Wandsworth Legal Advice

When mothers relinquish babies for adoption the Council will not usually obtain PR through a care order before the adoption order is made due to the operation of the 'no order principle' in the Children Act 1989. The Council may obtain PR in advance of an adoption order by obtaining a freeing order. This rarely occurs however because the courts tend to view this as an over elaborate process when it would usually be more straightforward to proceed directly with an adoption application made by prospective adopters.

In any event the issue of whether or not the Council have obtained PR in respect of the child does not materially affect the position as regards the degree of confidentiality which should be offered to mothers who do not wish their family and or the natural father and his family to know of the birth of the child.

When considering if adoption is in a child's best interests, the Council has a duty to consider placement with relatives. Section 23 of the Children Act 1989 provides that a local authority shall make arrangements for a child it is looking after to live with relatives unless that would not be reasonably practicable or consistent with his welfare. Additionally, Circular LAC (98) 20 at paragraph 30 states that even where "... the preferred plan is adoption it is important that local authorities have satisfied themselves that sufficient assessment has taken place to rule any rehabilitation or placement with relatives..."

Sometimes the birth mother will not want the natural father to know of the birth. However, Section 22 of the Children Act 1989 provides that a local authority accommodating a child under S.20 must so far as reasonably practicable ascertain the wishes and feeling of each of the parents of the child and give due consideration to them in making any decision about the child. In the Children Act 1989, parent includes the unmarried father without parental responsibility.

For the purposes of the current adoption legislation however, the father without PR is not automatically a party to the adoption proceedings. The court would have to make an order allowing him to participate in the proceedings. Furthermore, he does not have to be given notice of the proceedings unless the court directs that this should be done. Normally a court will direct that a birth father should be informed of the proceedings unless the birth mother objects and can support her objection with good reasons. Such reasons could include the fact that the child was conceived as a result of rape; or the mother has an understandable fear of violence from the birth father; or his involvement could jeopardise the adoption placement or otherwise place the child at risk. The court will also consider the question of the birth father's human rights. However, if he has not had a relationship with the mother or they had never lived together for a period, it is unlikely that he will be able to claim that his right to respect for his family life will be breached. The court would also take into account the mothers human rights and it could be argued that her right to respect for her private life would be breached if she was likely to suffer public humiliation and /or psychological damage as a consequence of the disclosure.

Clearly, if the identity of the father is not known or it is decided that he should not be informed or be allowed to become aware indirectly about the existence of the child for the kinds of reasons referred to above the involvement with the paternal wider family cannot be an issue.

Where the birth mother refuses permission to contact the wider family the Council's obligations as referred to above must be balanced against the mother's right to a degree of confidentiality. A degree of confidentiality in adoption matters is clearly important but ought not, unless there are good reasons to the contrary, override the Council's clear duty to involve relatives in the placement process when this is consistent with the child's welfare. In discussions with the mother about the adoption process and when obtaining background information about the birth father and her relatives, care should be taken to ensure that no assurances or guarantees are given to the mother with regard to disclosure of that information. From the outset the Council's duties regarding the adoption process and placement should be made clear to the birth mother.

The decision making and planning process, and action arising from this can take place at any time. However, it might be considered to be more reasonable not to inform relatives, if this is proposed, until the child has actually been born. As stated earlier, the timing of any action taken in this regard is not dependent upon whether or not the Council has obtained PR.

If not withstanding the reasons advanced by the birth mother you decide that the relatives should be involved you should explain your reasoning to the mother and give her sufficient notice of the action you propose to take in order to allow her time to obtain legal advice with a view to giving her the opportunity of bringing the matter before the court to prevent the proposed disclosure.

End