Dispensing with adoption consent

SB v X County Council CA TLR 29 May

The proper test for dispensing with parental agreement to the making of a placement order under s52 (1)(b) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 is to treat the child’s welfare throughout its life as the paramount consideration. Section 1(1) of the Adoption Children Act 2002 plainly applied when the court was deciding whether or not to dispense with parental consent to a placement order. Section 52(1)(b) was concerned with adoption and what had to be shown was that the child’s welfare required adoption as opposed to something short of adoption. A child’s circumstances might require statutory intervention, but that was not to say that the same circumstances would necessarily require the child to be adopted. That did not mean, however, that there was some enhanced welfare test to be applied in cases of adoption. The difference was simply between s1 of the Children Act 1989 and s1 of the 2002 Act. Section 1(2) of the 2002 Act, in contrast to s1(1) of the 1989 Act, requires a judge considering dispensing with parental consent in accordance with s52(1)(b) to focus on the child’s welfare throughout his life. That emphasised that adoption, unlike other forms of order made under the 1989 Act, was something with life-long implications.