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Court of Appeal decision on adoption proceedings

The link is to a decision of the Court of Appeal where parents apply to stop an adoption because their circumstances have changed. In essence it makes the point that first the court has to decide whether or not the circumstances have changed. At that point no decision should be taken as to the welfare of the child.

Once the decision as to circumstances has been made then welfare should be considered.

All of this ignores the overwhelming tendency of a number of family court judges to prefer intervention and adoption.

It is important to note what has happened now with the Websters. In the Webster (Hardingham) case it has now been decided that they didn't cause the original harm.

In the mean time two sets of adoptive families have been told that the children now with them should not have been removed from the original family. That is not in any way unique. PC&S is a case that went to the European Court and the same conclusion was come to, but by then it was too late. I know of another case exactly the same.

We must remember that the rush to judgment and rush to adoption harms the child, the extended birth family and the adoptive family (families).

What it also does is to undermine other adoptions which are without question valid.

I have drafted an application to court to allow me to publish the anonymised judgments to enable this debate to be properly held.

This story looks further at the issue

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