Looked after children
Glossary
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| Adoption | Adoption is a legal process which replaces a child’s birth parents with new adoptive parents. Children who are adopted will almost always have been looked after children, except where a step-parent adopts the child(ren) of their partner or in the case of intercountry adoptions from outside the United Kingdom. Adoption services are regulated by the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care. Current adoption law is enshrined in the Adoption (Scotland) Act 1978 and was last updated by the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 and the Adoption (Intercountry Aspects) Act 1999. The Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 will, when commenced in late 2008, comprehensively improve and modernise the existing legal framework for adoption in Scotland. Key legislative changes instituted by the Act include: replacing existing court orders with a single permanence order which will be flexible enough to cater for the changing needs of individual children allowing joint adoption by unmarried couples (including same-sex couples). Currently, one person in an unmarried couple can adopt - their partner applies for a residency order removing the absolute ban on natural parents applying for contact after adoption, while putting in place safeguards to ensure this only happens if it is in the child’s best interests better adoption support services for people affected by adoption clear rights to information about adoption for those involved additional safeguards for intercountry adoption and the power for Scottish Ministers to charge for processing overseas adoption applications. |
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| Aftercare | The local authorities' duty to provide advice, guidance and assistance for young people who have ceased to be looked after, who are over school age. |