Adoption & Special Guardianship Solicitors Enfield, North London & Hoddesdon'
Adopting a child, either in the United Kingdom or from overseas, require expert legal advice. Curwens family solicitors can support you in this highly complex legal area.
Adoption is one of the most important steps an adult or child can take. There can be many people or bodies involved before the process is complete such as the prospective adopter, the birth parents, the Local Authorities, the children’s guardians and, of course, the child. An adoptive person is treated in law as if born as the child of the adopter; the adopters become the child’s parents with full parental responsibility for the child.
Where adoption means the adopters become the child’s parents with full parental responsibility for the child, Special Guardianship is an order made by the Court that places a child or a young person to live with someone permanently and gives legal status to non parents who are or wish to care for that child or young person in a long term secure placement. A Special Guardianship Order gives to the special guardian for a child in his or her care and lasts until the child is 18. Special Guardianship Orders are often applied for where family members care for a child in circumstances where the child cannot remain with his or her parents for any reason. It provides legal permanence to those children for whom adoption is not appropriate. The child’s biological parents retain their parental responsibility; however, the special guardian can exercise his or her parental responsibility for the child without having to consult with the parents. They would provide a firm foundation on which to build a life-long permanent relationship between the child and the carer and this is accompanied by access to a full range of support services including, where appropriate, financial support.
When carers are considering making an application to Court for an Adoption Order they should seek legal advice as it may be possible to secure permanence and stability for the child by obtaining a special guardianship order. As adoption is a challenging time, it is important that you obtain expert family solicitors’ advice. Our family lawyers at Curwens LLP can advise you and assist through the adoption or special guardianship process from all sides.
Please note that Curwens is unable to offer advice under Legal Aid.
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