New South Wales Consolidated Acts

ADOPTION ACT 2000 - SECT 91

91 Report required before order made for adoption of child

(1) The Court may not make an order for the adoption of a child under 18 years of age unless a report in writing concerning the proposed adoption has been provided to the Court by the applicant.

(2) The report is to be accepted by the Court only if it has been prepared by the Secretary or an authorised person.

(2A) In this section, an
"authorised person" means any of the following--

(a) an approved assessor,

(b) the principal officer of an accredited adoption service provider (or delegate),

(c) the principal officer of a designated agency (or delegate),

(d) a suitably qualified person employed or nominated by an approved organisation to prepare reports in accordance with this section.

(3) This section does not prevent the Secretary from making a report to the Court in relation to the adoption of a child before the Court if the Secretary considers it appropriate to do so.

(4) The Court may require the Secretary to make a report in relation to an application for an adoption order made by a person other than the Secretary, but only if the child is under 18 years of age.

(5) However, the Court is not to require the Secretary to make a report unless the Court considers that the Secretary should report on the case because of--

(a) particular concerns about the safety, welfare or well-being of the child concerned, or

(b) serious concerns about the reliability or independence of a report made by an authorised person concerning the case, or

(c) other exceptional circumstances.

(6) The Court may require the Secretary to make such a report within a period of 6 months after the date of the making of the application or such other period as the Court may, having regard to the circumstances of the case, specify.

(6A) A principal officer of an accredited adoption service provider may delegate his or her function under subsection (2) to one or more employees of the accredited adoption service provider or of an affiliated foster care service, whom the principal officer considers to be appropriately qualified to exercise the function.

(6B) A principal officer of a designated agency may delegate his or her function under subsection (2) to one or more employees of the agency, whom the principal officer considers to be appropriately qualified to exercise the function.

(7) In this section--

"approved assessor" means a person, or a person of a class, approved by the Secretary from time to time, by order in writing, to provide a report to the Court for the purposes of this section.

"approved organisation" means an organisation approved by the Secretary from time to time, by order in writing, to provide a report to the Court for the purposes of this section.

"designated agency" has the same meaning as in the Children's Guardian Act 2019 .