Adoption

Where a child was accommodated by an authority and the authority considered that the conditions of s 31(2) of the Children Act 1989 were met, it had to apply to the court for a placement order. There was no suggestion in the statutory scheme that looked after children who were accommodated but in respect of whom parental responsibility had not been vested in a local authority by the making of an interim or full care order were excluded from the placement order decision making process. Accordingly, it was legally permissible for a local authority to present a case to its adoption panel and issue an application for a placement for adoption order in circumstances where the child was not subject to an interim care order but was simply accommodated under s 20 of the 1989 Act.