What is Adoption?
Adoption is a legal process, and is a way of providing permanent new families for children who cannot be brought up by their own parents.
There may be many reasons for this. Sometimes a court has made the decision that a child cannot live with his or her birth parents; sometimes parents make the decision themselves.
Once an Adoption Order is made, parental responsibility for the child is transferred entirely to the adoptive parents, and the adopted child is a full member of the family. An adoption order is permanent, and cannot be revoked. All legal ties with the birth family are severed by an adoption order, although some contact may take place afterwards, for example in the form of annual letters being exchanged. Children can be adopted at any age from birth, up to the age of 18.