Adoption Assessment (Annex A)
An Adoption Assessment (Annex A report) is completed in circumstances where an application has been filed by a child’s prospective adoptive carer(s) for an Adoption Order and the court requires evidence as to whether the order sought is consistent with the welfare of the child (throughout his life) having regard to the welfare checklist set out in section 1(4) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002).
This covers three sets of circumstances:
- Where the child has been placed with the applicants by an Adoption Agency (known as an “agency” adoption);
- Where the applicant is a step-parent or relative of the child with whom the child lives, and no adoption agency has been involved in the arrangements
(known as a “non-agency” adoption); - Where the applicant is unrelated but is approved to adopt from abroad and has brought a child into the UK for the purpose of adoption (known as “inter-country” adoption).
Upon the issuing of the adoption application, the court will direct the preparation of an Annex A report which is required to address the matters specified in Practice Direction 14C of the Family Procedure Rules 2010.
Assessments are prepared using the relevant Local Authority’s specific template, BAAF templates or ACCA’s own template, to ensure compliance with individual policies, procedures and panel requirements.
All our Independent Social Workers undertaking these reports are suitably experienced and satisfy the requirements of The Restrictions on the Preparation of Adoption Reports Regulations 2005.
For younger children, long-term foster care does not offer a guarantee of stability and whilst carers act as a parental figure to the child, they do not hold parental responsibility and decision-making for the child is shared between the Local Authority and the child’s birth parents.
Foster placements can create uncertainty for a child and no sense of ‘belonging’. Regulations prevent children from enjoying a full and unrestricted social life and statutory monitoring and intervention can be intrusive. Adoption offers the child an opportunity to create a new family and to legally become a child of that family.
