Stepfather adoption: the pros and cons

What effect does a stepfather adoption have?

The legal position for a stepfather in relation to his stepchild can be fundamentally altered through an adoption order. This will extinguish parental responsibility held by everyone other than the stepfather’s partner. The stepfather will obtain parental responsibility and will be treated in law as if he were the child's birth parent (s 67(1) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (ACA 2002)).

The child’s ties with the person whose parental responsibility has been discharged as a result of the adoption are likely to be severed. His or her surname could be changed. In the event that the stepfather and the mother separate, the stepfather would remain the child’s ‘parent’ in the eyes of the law and would therefore continue to have all the associated rights and responsibilities, including the responsibility to financially maintain the child.

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