Adoption breakdowns and care proceedings: emerging trends and legal issues

Navigating care proceedings, responding to allegations of parental failure, and managing the breakdown of an adoptive placement are challenges that many families face when seeking appropriate support for their children.

Russell-Cooke's children law team has extensive experience assisting clients through adoption breakdowns and the associated legal processes. But very sadly for some families, the legal process doesn’t end with that much longed-for adoption order. For some children, the trauma they have experienced and the long-term effects of this only appear after the adoption process has finished. Without long-term support and intensive therapeutic input from local authorities, these children often fall through the cracks and families can reach breaking point. 

Some of the saddest cases we deal with are adoption breakdowns and their subsequent care proceedings. Too often we see families grapple with the disintegration of a much-wanted family in the face of little support and even less understanding from the professionals meant to be supporting them.

Last week, the BBC published a story highlighting some shocking new statistics relating to these cases. The article reveals that in the past five years, more than 700 children placed for adoption were returned to care before a formal adoption order could be made, with a further 350 returning to care after the making of a final adoption order. For those 350 children, the legal connection to their birth parents has been severed permanently. The adoptive parents in those cases will then likely be subject to another set of care proceedings, but this time with the focus on their own failures to reasonably parent their children.

Of course, there are some cases where adoptive parents do not provide good enough parenting. However as practitioners, time and again we see families struggling due to a severe lack of emotional and practical support for the traumatised children in their care. Adopters tell us they were promised support which never materialised and despite reaching out for help for their children, very little is provided. This is especially so as time passes and their children hit the teenage years, which sadly is when many of the issues we see start to emerge.

This situation has been further affected by the government’s decision in April 2025 to implement a 40% cut in the funding available per child from the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (a fund set up to provide specialist support for traumatised children and young adults). It is difficult to see how things can get better when the outcomes for these vulnerable children and the families trying to provide safe and loving homes for them are clearly not being prioritised.

At Russell-Cooke we provide specialist, empathetic, non-judgmental and practical advice to families navigating adoption and special guardianship from start to finish. Our team is here to help in whatever way we can, so if you or anyone you know if currently struggling to get their family the help they need, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

Natasha Kirk is a senior associate in the family and children law team. She advises clients in a wide range of matters including adoption, children arrangements following separation or divorce, care proceedings and injunctions