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ADOPTION AMENDMENT REGULATION 2010 (NO 1) (NO 32 OF 2010)
Adoption Amendment Regulation 2010
(No 1)
Subordinate Law SL2010-32
made under the
Adoption Act 1993, section 121 (Regulation-making power)
EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
When the ACT Adoption Act was first enacted in 1993, it was viewed as leading edge legislation to ensure the Territory’s adoption practice maintained the best interests of children and young people as the key guiding principle and was responsive to the needs of all parties involved.
However over the past seventeen years, there have been a number of developments that pointed to the need to review this legislation in line with contemporary practice and wisdom. These developments have included:
• The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child,
• The Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Inter-country Adoption (commonly referred to as the Hague Convention),
• The ACT Human Rights Act 2004, and
• The Children and Young People Act 2008,
The Government began the process of reviewing the ACT Adoption Act in 2006
with public consultation on the discussion paper A Better System for Children
without Parents to Care for Them. The consultation was concluded with the
publication of a Report on Key Findings from the Review of the Adoption Act
1993.
The review and consultation identified that seventeen separate
sections of the 1993 Adoption Act needed to be changed. These amendments were
approved by the ACT Assembly on 27 August 2009.
Summary
The purpose of the Adoption Amendment
Regulation 2010 (No 1) is to ensure that the contemporary adoption practice as
legislated in the Adoption Act 1993, as amended, is properly supported by the
regulation to ensure an accountable legal framework to guide the subsequent
service delivery for all parties involved or affected by adoption matters.
The amendments also make the Adoption Regulation easier to understand and
guide a child/ young person-centred focus for adoption practices in the
Territory. Finally the amended regulation also incorporate current language
updates and removes previous anomalies or inconsistencies identified by the
drafters.
Revenue/Cost Implications
The legislation will
be implemented within existing financial
resources.
DETAIL
Section 1 Name of
regulation
This is section sets out the name of the new regulation as the
Adoption Amendment Regulation 2010 (No 1).
Section
2 Commencement
This section provides that the regulation commences on the
day after its notification day.
Section 3 Legislation
amended
This section states that this regulation amends the Adoption
Regulation 1993.
Section 4-6, definitions and
dictionary
These sections omit the definition of adoption list and
relocate the amended definitions to the new dictionary inserted at the end of
the regulation.
Section 7 Part 2 Heading
This section
substitutes the heading of Part 2 to Register of suitable people more
accurately captures the intention of this part which is to ensure the
suitability of applicants to be included on the register to adopt children. This
renaming also moves away from the previous language the Adoption List
which was more focused on the rights of adoption applicants, to reflect
coherence with the new Adoption legislation which enshrines the best interests
of children and young people being the paramount
consideration.
Section 8 Section 4
This part substitutes
section 4 with Register of suitable people—requests for inclusion
which again reflects current language to clearly confirm the practice principle
of ensuring that adoption is a service providing for the needs of children and
young people rather than for adults wishing to care for a child or young person.
Thus applicants need to evidence their suitability to adopt.
This
regulation sets a regulatory framework for the information that must be obtained
regarding applicants prior to assessing their suitability for the placement of a
child or young person for adoption. Casework practice utilises this regulation
to build a more comprehensive psycho social assessment of applicants to
compliment the legislative framework.
The new regulation captures all of
the required information of the previous regulation but also refines the
information required about applicants’ length of time of their domestic
partnership and removes the requirement of providing information about whether a
couple residing in a domestic partnership are likely to have a further
biological child. Both these changes reflect current best practice that is
inclusive of a range of domestic partnerships providing suitable adoption
placements for children and young persons.
Finally this amendment
clarifies the placement process for children and young people, in that
applicants must be suitable to provide a placement for a child or young person
with a plan for adoption, prior to the adoption order being sought as the order
is not sought for a minimum 12 months period post placement.
Section
9
This amendment is consequential to amendments in the Act. The
substitution refers to the requirement by the Chief Executive to supply a
written report to the court about the arrangements for a child or young person
that resulted in an application for an adoption order.
Section
10
This amendment is consequential to amendments in the Act and refers to
the registering of adoptions by the Registrar-General in relation to the
recognition of adoption orders made for overseas born children and young persons
to Territory residents who were living overseas and who have satisfied both
Australian Immigration law and the law of the child’s country of origin,
to effect the adoption.
The Adoption Amendment Act 2009 (No 2) sought
to provide a more comprehensive legal framework to accurately reflect the range
of legal pathways to effect the adoption of a child or young person born
overseas and which also reflected Australia’s responsibilities under the
Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of
Intercountry. The regulation substitutes section 23 (4) to update cross
references to the Act. .
Section 11
This is a consequential
amendment which updates the reference to a child’s name after adoption
to be more inclusive and substitutes section 25 (1) (a) (i) child’s
or young person’s name after adoption, in recognition that
adoption is a service both for children and young people. The narrow use of the
term child is reflective of past practice when adoption was seen primarily as a
service for infants to be placed with infertile couples. The use of the terms
child and young person is particularly relevant when utilising adoption as a
planned process to secure the permanency of arrangements for children and young
people who reside in out of home care.
Section 12 New
dictionary
This section inserts a new dictionary. All key definitions
which were previously noted throughout the regulation are now included in one
dictionary which greatly enhances the clarity of the regulation. The dictionary
defines all relevant terms within the regulation and is consistent with the
meanings that the terms have in the Adoption Act 1993.
Section 13 and
14 Further amendments, mentions of child/children
The term
'child' is substituted with 'child or young person' where this denotes the age
of the individual rather than their dependency from/relationship with another.