Current status: Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 16 December 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what statutory support is available to adoptive parents following the completion of an adoption order.
Section 1 of The Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 (The Act) outlines the duty of local authorities to provide an adoption service. Sections 9, 10 and 11 of The Act require local authorities to assess a person’s needs for adoption support services and then provide that support if it is deemed necessary. This applies both pre and post adoption to children, young people, adoptive and birth families and adult adoptees.
Section 45 of The Act also requires local authorities, who have decided that adoption support is needed by a person or family, to prepare an adoption support plan setting out how the person or family’s needs will be met by adoption support services.
In addition, under Part 3 of the Adoption Support Services and Allowances (Scotland) Regulations 2009, every local authority is required to establish an Adoption Allowance Scheme. An adoption allowance may be paid where the local authority determines that one or more of the circumstances set out in Regulation 10 apply. These include supporting the placement of the adoptive child, facilitating special arrangements for placement or adoption, or supporting the continuation of adoption arrangements after an adoption order is made.