Adoption

Step Parent Adoption

Step Parent Adoption
You are considered a stepfamily if you or your partner has a child by a previous relationship who lives with you. If you are a stepfamily you may be thinking about how you can clarify the legal rights and responsibilities you both have in relation to the child or children in your family. You may consider applying for a Step Parent Adoption Order.

The advantages of having a Step Parent Adoption Order are:

Your family is recognised by law.
All members have the same surname.
The children share rights of inheritance with any other children of the family.
Legal links with the previous family are cut.

The disadvantages of having a Step Parent Adoption Order are:

If stepchildren are adopted, the law no longer recognises the other birth parent or any members of their family as having any legal link with the child. This could cause a child to feel confused or distressed and needs careful consideration. Whilst legal ties will be cut it may be important to the child to maintain some link with their other birth parent or their family.
An adopted child loses any rights to maintenance and inheritance from the other birth parent or that parent’s family. This may not seem important at the time of the adoption, but could matter a great deal if your family has financial problems later, or if both of you were to die while your child was still dependant.

If you decide that you wish to progress with a Step Parent Adoption Order then you will need to take the following steps::

You will need to inform your local authority adoption service that you are going to apply to adopt. This can be done by ringing the adoption service directly, or by sending a letter to them from a solicitor.
A social worker will then visit you to discuss with you if a Step Parent Adoption is the right choice for your family. If it is decided that this would be right for your family then you will be asked to complete a 'Notification of intention to apply for an Adoption Order' form which will give the local authority permission to make the appropriate reference checks. These checks include checking social services own system, approaching education, the NSPCC and probation. The applicant will also be asked to have a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check.
The court will not hear your application until three months after you have completed your 'Notification of intention to apply for an Adoption Order' Form. During this time a social worker will make a number of visits to you and other important family members to gather information for a report which will be sent to the court at the time that you make your application. The cost of the application is currently £160. This is non-refundable should the court make the decision not to grant the Adoption Order. The application would be heard at either the Magistrates Court here on the Isle of Wight or in Portsmouth County Court.
It is vital to understand that the court hold strong views about the social worker finding out how the absent birth parent feels about the application. If the absent birth parent has parental responsibility for the child the court are extremely reluctant to remove this from them should they not wish to give consent to the order being made. Birth mothers automatically have parental responsibility. Birth fathers gain parental responsibility by being married to the birth mother at any point, by registering the birth of the child with the birth mother, having a formal agreement to share parental responsibility with the birth mother or by applying to the court for a parental responsibility order). Even if the absent Birth Parent does not have parental responsibility their views still needs to be considered.
The views of the child are of great importance in this application. The social worker will speak to them if they are old enough to understand, or observe their behaviour within the home.

There are alternatives to having a Step Parent Adoption Order. You could consider the following:

Residence Order: A Residence Order settles who the child will live with. A Residence Order can be made by the court even if the person involved is not married (or civilly registered) to the parent of the child. If a Residence Order is made for the person who is not a parent then they gain parental responsibility in addition to the birth parents. The application for a Residence Order is made directly to the court and does not require the involvement of a social worker.
Parental Responsibility Agreement Order: A step parent who is married to (or in a civil relationship) with the parent of the child may sometimes acquire parental responsibility for the child, without the need for a Court Order. This can be done formally with the agreement of the birth parents of the child. Even if the absent birth parent does not give agreement the court can decide that it is right to make an Order giving the Step Parent parental responsibility. The advantage of this situation is that it doesn’t cut the child off from one half of the birth family. This application does not require the involvement of a social worker