Amendments

In January 2026, information was added in Section 3, Examples of Adoption Support to highlight that the DfE has extended the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund initially until March 2027, with a new fair access limit of £3000.

This chapter was updated in July 2025 with a link to DBS guidance leaflets - GOV.UK in Section 4.4 Concluding the Investigation. 

This chapter was updated in July 2025 to include a link to the Disclosure and Barring Service Guidance Leaflets - GOV.UK in the Related Guidance Section.

In January 2025, information with details on how to request information about an applicant from Ofsted was added into Section 2, Check and References.

Section 4.2, Procedural Fairness was updated in January 2025 in line with case-law.

This chapter was added in July 2024.

This chapter was updated in July 2024.