Children Placed with the Agreement of Birth Parents
Changes within society mean that very few children are placed voluntarily for adoption.
Occasionally birth parents decide that they cannot, or do not want to, look after their child. These parents will receive support from the social work department to assist them to care for their child, as there would be in most cases no reason to doubt the parent's ability to care for their child should they wish to do so.
These children will be subject to Section 25 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 which means the child is received into the care of the local authority on a voluntary basis. This means that parents have a right to withdraw their agreement at any point up to the granting of an adoption order. If this happens after a child has been placed with prospective adopters, social work services will normally expect the prospective adopters to co-operate in the return of the child to its birth parents.
If the adoption has been lodged in court the Sheriff will decide whether or not the child should be returned. The social work department will not support adopters who pursue adoption without parental agreement if it is in the best interest of the child to be returned to the care of the birth parent.