A recent case shows how unwilling the court will be to change an adoption order once it has been made.

The case concerned a child who was removed from his mother’s care because she was unable to look after him due to drug dependency. This was followed by an emergency protection order and the child was subsequently placed with a family of prospective adopters. The child’s mother took no part in any of the proceedings.

Subsequently, an adoption order was sought for the child. Due to an oversight, the mother was not informed. By this time, however, the mother had overcome her addiction and wished to oppose the making of an adoption order.

The situation was complicated by procedural irregularities in the granting of the original placement order.

The case reached the Court of Appeal, which upheld the making of the adoption order. The Court stressed that it is only in exceptionally rare circumstances that adoption orders will be set aside after the making of the care order, the making of the placement order, the placement of the child, and the issue of the adoption order application.