This new edition provides a comprehensive guide to the law, practice, and procedure for lawyers, adoption agencies, support services and other professional bodies who are concerned with adoption. It covers each stage of the adoption process, including the difficult issue of contact between the child and their birth parents and the alternative options available by reference to the relevant case law and regulations in relation to domestic adoptions as well as adoptions with a foreign element. The book considers registration of adoption and the sensitive issue of disclosure of information. It also outlines the rights of those parties to challenge decisions made by the professional bodies involved in the process. 

The second edition has been updated to include important developments, such as:

• the impact of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms on all aspects of the law relating to adoption;
• recent case law on notification to fathers and the child’s birth families of the plan to place the child for adoption, including procedure relating to preparation before proceedings are commenced and procedure for applications in the family court and High Court;
• case law in relation to placement orders, such as leave to revoke a placement order and oppose adoption and post placement contact as set out in the most recent case of R & C (Adoption or Fostering) [2024] EWCA Civ 1302;
• new coverage of post placement contact and post-adoption contact details in the wake of recent reports and research; and
• two recent lectures by the President of the Family Division on the modern approach to adoption and open adoption in particular.