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A and Another v Essex County Council
2003 · England and Wales
Following adoption, a child was accommodated by the local authority and spent time in residential placements. By the judgment he was living with his adoptive parents again. They brought a negligence claim concerning information withheld before placement.
A, B and C (Adoption: Notification of Fathers and Relatives)
2020 · England and Wales
Three appeals concerned mothers who wanted their babies adopted without fathers or wider relatives being told. The court considered how to balance a mother's privacy with the interests of the child and others who might have a family connection or offer care. The joined judgment is held as one database entry.
ADA (Children: Care and Placement Orders)
2023 · England and Wales
Appeals concerned decisions for several siblings, including an adoption plan for the youngest child, D. An aunt and uncle had offered to care for D. The court had to consider whether concerns about that family option had been properly investigated and whether possible protective arrangements and the children's relationships had received enough attention.
AX v BX and Others (Revocation of Adoption Order)
2021 · England and Wales
Two adopted young people applied to end their adoptions after returning to their original maternal family. Both instructed their solicitor directly. A described distress about a legal identity that did not reflect her family life, brought into sharper focus by the birth of her own child. They were aged 18 and 16 by the judgment.
C (Children) (Revocation of Placement Orders)
2020 · England and Wales
A mother made substantial improvements in her life after placement orders had been made for three of her children. She was allowed to apply to revoke those orders, meaning she could ask the court to stop the existing legal authority to place them for adoption. A further child remained in her care. She appealed when the court nevertheless refused to revoke the older children's placement orders.
F (A Child: Placement Order: Proportionality)
2018 · England and Wales
A mother appealed against care and placement orders concerning her infant son. The case focused on whether the judge had adequately explained why the risks in family care justified adoption, including how serious and likely the feared harm was and how the available alternatives compared.
F (Children: Placement Orders: Proportionality)
2026 · England and Wales
A mother appealed against care and placement orders for two children in proceedings in Wales. The dispute concerned whether the assessment had adequately examined the harm the children might face and whether support or protective arrangements within the family could reduce that risk. The underlying findings that justified state intervention were not themselves being appealed.
FL v Registrar General
2010 · England and Wales
A daughter wanted information about the origins of her deceased adopted father. She sought disclosure through the Registrar General, using a legal provision that required exceptional circumstances. The case concerned that particular route to registration information, rather than a general application to inspect every record connected with her father's adoption.
G (A Child: Transparency in the Family Courts)
2018 · England and Wales
An older half-brother wanted documents from past private family proceedings to understand his family's history. His request required the court to weigh his interest in learning about the past against the privacy of others whose lives were recorded in the papers. This was a family records case, rather than an adoption case.
Gaskin v United Kingdom
1989 · England and Wales
Graham Gaskin grew up in local authority care and wanted access to records about his childhood. Some information was withheld because people who had contributed to the file had not consented to disclosure. He took his complaint to the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that the records mattered to his understanding of his own life.