Step-parent adoption

About this service

If you wish to consider how you can secure your legal relationship with your partner’s child(ren) from a previous marriage or relationship there are various ways you can do this, by applying to the court for:

1. a Parental Responsibility Order
2. a Parental Responsibility Agreement
3. a Residence Order
4. Step-Parent Adoption

Any of the first three options enable the child to retain the legal links with her/his other birth parent and wider family but give you parental responsibility, with regard to the day-to day decisions regarding the child.

If you wish to become the child’s legal parent, you may wish to apply for step-parent adoption, in which case the local authority has a duty to make an assessment of your circumstances, including:

  • making checks with CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) and other agencies
  • taking up three personal references from people who know you well
  • checking your health history and current state of health
  • preparing a detailed report for the court
  • seeking the views and consent of the child’s other birth parent and anyone else with parental responsibility
  • seeking the views of the child(ren), depending on age and understanding

For further information about step-parent adoption and the alternatives, please contact the locality social work team for your area:

Contact Details

Postal Address:

Adoption Team
Social Care Services Branch
Newbury House
Aintree Avenue
White Horse Business Park
Trowbridge
BA14 0XB

Tel: 01225 715555
Fax: 01225 755196
Email: adoption@wiltshire.gov.uk

(default) 7 queries took 0 ms
NrQueryErrorAffectedNum. rowsTook (ms)
1SELECT `Page`.`id`, `Page`.`parent_id`, `Page`.`lft`, `Page`.`rght`, `Page`.`child_count`, `Page`.`direct_child_count`, `Page`.`css_class`, `Page`.`internal_ref`, `Page`.`page_heading`, `Page`.`navigation_label`, `Page`.`image_id`, `Page`.`slug`, `Page`.`meta_title`, `Page`.`meta_description`, `Page`.`meta_keywords`, `Page`.`created`, `Page`.`modified` FROM `pages` AS `Page` WHERE `Page`.`id` = 24 ORDER BY `Page`.`lft` ASC LIMIT 1110
2SELECT `Page`.`id`, `Page`.`parent_id`, `Page`.`lft`, `Page`.`rght`, `Page`.`child_count`, `Page`.`direct_child_count`, `Page`.`css_class`, `Page`.`internal_ref`, `Page`.`page_heading`, `Page`.`navigation_label`, `Page`.`image_id`, `Page`.`slug`, `Page`.`meta_title`, `Page`.`meta_description`, `Page`.`meta_keywords`, `Page`.`created`, `Page`.`modified`, `Image`.`id`, `Image`.`alt`, `Image`.`image_folder_id`, `Image`.`extension`, `Image`.`versions`, `Image`.`do_not_resize`, `Image`.`created`, `Image`.`modified` FROM `pages` AS `Page` LEFT JOIN `images` AS `Image` ON (`Page`.`image_id` = `Image`.`id`) WHERE `Page`.`lft` >= 27 AND `Page`.`lft` < 60 AND `Page`.`slug` = 'step_parent_adoption' ORDER BY `Page`.`lft` ASC LIMIT 1110
3SELECT `ContentBlock`.`id`, `ContentBlock`.`image_id`, `ContentBlock`.`alignment`, `ContentBlock`.`content`, `ContentBlock`.`model`, `ContentBlock`.`modelid`, `ContentBlock`.`link_text`, `ContentBlock`.`link`, `ContentBlock`.`order` FROM `content_blocks` AS `ContentBlock` WHERE `ContentBlock`.`model` = 'Page' AND `ContentBlock`.`modelid` = (78) ORDER BY `ContentBlock`.`order` ASC 110
4SELECT `Page`.`lft`, `Page`.`rght` FROM `pages` AS `Page` WHERE `Page`.`id` = 78 ORDER BY `Page`.`lft` ASC LIMIT 1110
5SELECT `Page`.`id`, `Page`.`parent_id`, `Page`.`lft`, `Page`.`rght`, `Page`.`child_count`, `Page`.`direct_child_count`, `Page`.`css_class`, `Page`.`internal_ref`, `Page`.`page_heading`, `Page`.`navigation_label`, `Page`.`image_id`, `Page`.`slug`, `Page`.`meta_title`, `Page`.`meta_description`, `Page`.`meta_keywords`, `Page`.`created`, `Page`.`modified` FROM `pages` AS `Page` WHERE 1 = 1 AND `Page`.`lft` <= 56 AND `Page`.`rght` >= 57 ORDER BY `Page`.`lft` asc 220
6SELECT `Page`.`id`, `Page`.`parent_id`, `Page`.`lft`, `Page`.`rght`, `Page`.`child_count`, `Page`.`direct_child_count`, `Page`.`css_class`, `Page`.`internal_ref`, `Page`.`page_heading`, `Page`.`navigation_label`, `Page`.`image_id`, `Page`.`slug`, `Page`.`meta_title`, `Page`.`meta_description`, `Page`.`meta_keywords`, `Page`.`created`, `Page`.`modified` FROM `pages` AS `Page` WHERE 1 = 1 AND `Page`.`parent_id` = 24 ORDER BY `Page`.`lft` asc 10100
7SELECT `Page`.`id`, `Page`.`parent_id`, `Page`.`lft`, `Page`.`rght`, `Page`.`child_count`, `Page`.`direct_child_count`, `Page`.`css_class`, `Page`.`internal_ref`, `Page`.`page_heading`, `Page`.`navigation_label`, `Page`.`image_id`, `Page`.`slug`, `Page`.`meta_title`, `Page`.`meta_description`, `Page`.`meta_keywords`, `Page`.`created`, `Page`.`modified` FROM `pages` AS `Page` WHERE 1 = 1 AND `Page`.`parent_id` = 78 ORDER BY `Page`.`lft` asc 000