PART 5COUNSELLING

Duty to secure counselling15

1

Where a person mentioned in regulation 14(1) requests that counselling be provided for him or her, the adoption agency must make arrangements to secure counselling for that person.

2

The agency may provide the counselling itself or make arrangements with any of the following persons for the provision of counselling—

a

if the person is in Wales or England, another adoption agency or a registered adoption support agency;

b

if the person is in Scotland, a Scottish adoption agency;

c

if the person is in Northern Ireland, an adoption society which is registered under Article 4 of the Adoption (Northern Ireland) Order 198716 or from any Board; or

d

if the person is outside the United Kingdom, any person or body outside the United Kingdom who appears to the agency to correspond in its functions to a body mentioned in paragraphs (a) to (c).

3

In this regulation —

  • “Board” means a Health and Social Services Board established under Article 16 of the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 197217 or where the functions of a Board are exercisable by a Health and Social Services Trust, that Trust;

  • “registered adoption support agency” means an adoption support agency in respect of which a person is registered under Part 2 of the Care Standards Act 2000.