Adoption and Children Act (Northern Ireland) 2022

21.—(1) Section 167ZY (entitlement: prospective adopters with whom looked after children are placed) is amended as follows.

(2) In paragraph (1)—

(a) omit “who is looked after by an authority and”;

(b) for “the authority” substitute “an authority”;

(c) for “Article 27(2)(a)” substitute “Article 27”;

(d) omit “, in the circumstances mentioned in paragraph (2),”

(e) for “an approved foster parent who is also an approved prospective adopter” substitute “a person who is approved as an authority foster parent and approved as a prospective adopter”.

(3) Omit subsection (2).

(4) In subsection (3) for the words from “as if” to the end substitute “, with the following modifications—

(a) the references to a child being placed for adoption under the law of any part of the United Kingdom are to be treated as references to being placed under Article 27 of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 with a person who is approved as an authority foster parent and approved as a prospective adopter;

(b) the references to a placement for adoption are to be treated as references to placement under Article 27 of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 with such a person.

(5) In subsection (4)—

(a) for ““approved foster parent”, “approved prospective adopter”,” substitute ““approved as an authority foster parent”, “approved as a prospective adopter” and”;

(b) omit “and “child who is looked after by an authority””.