Amendments

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.