M (adoption - notification of birth father)

Nicholas Goodwin KC and Chloe Wilkins, instructed by Jackson West solicitors for the Respondent �

      M is a happy, healthy boy of twenty months old.� He was placed in the care of the prospective adopters when he was a day old.� They have devoted themselves to him since the day he came to live with them, giving him loving, consistent, attentive care.� He is thriving.� They love him, and long for his place in their family to be secured by an adoption order.�

      M's mother C was twenty-one when she gave birth to him.� At the time she was not in a relationship with the birth father.� She had discovered her pregnancy at thirty-one weeks.� Placing M with the prospective adopters was an incredibly difficult and painful decision to make, but was made because she believed this was best for M.

      C did not wish the birth father to know of the pregnancy, of M's birth, or to have any say in the decisions she made for M.�

      C says she was supported in her decision not to tell the birth father about M by social workers, who told her that the decision was hers to make, she did not have to disclose the birth father's identity, and her wish for confidentiality would be respected.�