This part of the guidance explains the duties of an adoption agency in respect of storing, safeguarding and providing access to its adoption case records during the period up to the making of an adoption order (regulations 39-40 of the Adoption Agencies Regulations 2005 (AAR).
Sections 56-65 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (the Act) and Disclosure of Adoption Information (Post-Commencement Adoptions) Regulations 2005 (AIR) cover the agency’s duties in respect of its adoption records after the making of an adoption order. Guidance to those provisions is largely contained in chapter 11. The provisions with regard to safe storage and obligatory disclosure are, however, matched in both the AAR and the AIR and the guidance in respect of those provisions is contained in this chapter.
In this chapter the term 'adoption case records' unless otherwise indicated includes records subject to the AAR, the Adoption Agencies Regulations (the 1983 Regulations) and section 56 information under the AIR.
