Foster Care Fortnight runs from the 12th to the 25th of May 2025.

The Foster Care Fortnight is led by National Charity the Fostering Network with an aim of inspiring more people to think about fostering and ultimately come forward to foster.

At the Adoption Legal Centre, we are constantly in contact with foster carers who are looking to adopt the child they are fostering. Often when the foster carer contacts us they have already given the Local Authority notice of their intention to adopt the child and, for whatever reason, the Local Authority have not supported this decision.

If the Local Authority do not support your application for adoption, that doesn’t mean that you can’t go on to make the application to the Court.

Below is an example of when the Local Authority haven’t been supportive of our clients adopting the child they are fostering, however, we have gone on to successfully apply for an Adoption Order.

Case Study

We were approached by a couple who were extremely experienced foster carers who wanted to adopt a child they had been fostering.

The child had been placed with them as a foster placement and at the point they contacted us, the child had been in their care for 6 months. A Placement Order had been made for the child 3 months before contacting us.

The clients had given the Local Authority notice of their intention to adopt the child in their care. We advise that foster carers give the Local Authority notice of their intention to adopt the child in writing, either by email or a letter. The Local Authority had responded to their notice of intent to adopt the child saying that they do not support their application due to the proximity of the birth family to our clients. At this stage the clients had informed the Local Authority that they would look at re locating in response to their concerns. The Local Authority still did not support them.

Tracy Beaumont – Solicitor

When the child was first placed with the clients, he was 4 weeks old, and he had gone from the hospital to a mother and baby placement until the birth mother relinquished care for him and he was placed with our clients.

When the clients contacted The Adoption Legal Centre, the child had not been in their care for 12 months.

If you want to adopt a child you are fostering, the first thing you must show is that the child has been in your care for at least 12 months before you can make your application to Court for an Adoption Order.

If the child has not been in your care for 12 months and you do not have the support of the Local Authority, you can apply to the Court for leave to adopt. This is an application asking the Courts permission to make an Adoption Order Application. The Court must be satisfied that you have a real prospect of success to grant the application for leave.

We submitted the application for leave for the clients and this was then granted by the Court. We then went on to submit an application for an Adoption Order.

At the initial Court hearing we requested that the Local Authority made assurances to the Court and pa

Sarah Brown – Partner & Solicitor

rties that the child would not be removed from the clients care until the conclusion of the Court Proceedings or further Order of the Court. This assurance was provided by the Local Authority and noted on the Court Order.

An Independent Social Worker (ISW) was instructed to carry out an assessment of the clients. A Children’s Guardian was also instructed to represent the child within the proceedings. The ISW and the Children’s Guardian both fully supported our client’s application to adopt the child.

Once the ISW and Children’s Guardian’s recommendations came back, the Local Authority then changed its position and supported our client’s application to adopt the child.

An Adoption Order was eventually made a year after the clients initially contacted us.

This is just one of many successful applications that we have helped clients to obtain as foster carers wanting to adopt a child in their care.

This year’s theme for the Fostering Fortnight campaign is the power of relationships – because at the heart of every fostering journey are the connections that make all the difference. This is definitely the case for many of the foster families that we help.

If you are a foster carer thinking about adopting the child you are caring for, then please get in touch with us at Adoption Legal Centre. We specialise in representing prospective adopters and foster carers applying for Adoption Orders.