Amendments

Section 3, Security, Retention and Sharing of Records was updated in March 2026 in light of the Records of Adopted and Care-experienced People - Good Practice Guidance for Record-keepers and Care Professionals (England and Wales) Guidance - published February 2024 which recommends that Adoption records where an Adoption Order is made should now have for "good practice" minimum retention of 125 years (date of birth + 125 years this was previously 100 years) or for "exemplary practice" for 150 years, or best practice would be permanent preservation/retention.

In October 2025, this chapter was reviewed and updated locally where required.

In September 2025, information was added in Section 3, Examples of Adoption Support to highlight that the DfE has extended the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund initially until March 2026, with a new fair access limit of £3000.

Section 4.2, Procedural Fairness was updated in March 2025 in line with case-law.

This chapter was updated in March 2025 with a link to DBS guidance leaflets (GOV.UK) in Section 4.4, Concluding the Investigation.

This chapter was updated in March 2025 to include a link to the Disclosure and Barring Service Guidance Leaflets (GOV.UK) in Related Guidance.