his is necessary to promote the child’s welfare. It is important to make sure that arrangements are settled; loose ends should not be 139 left to be resolved after the adoption order has been made, see the case of Re X and Y v Warwickshire County Council and B [2009] EWHC 47 (Fam). 8.43. If no section 8 contact order is made at the time of the adoption order, a birth parent or relative who wishes to apply for contact will need first to obtain the leave of the court (see chapter 7). The application for leave, and the application itself if leave is granted, will be governed by the provisions of the 1989 Act. Non-agency adoptions 8.44. The majority of this guidance deals with duties of adoption agencies, but local authorities additionally have duties in respect of adoption applications where the child has not been placed with the prospective adopter by an adoption agency. Although section 92 of the Act prohibits ‘private’ adoptions, a child may be the subject of an application to adopt even though they were not placed for adoption by an adoption agency. These are called non-agency adoptions. When this occurs, the local authority has a responsibility to provide a report to the court to assist it in reaching a decision on the application. These reports must be completed quickly to avoid delaying the court hearing the adoption application. The local authority with responsibility for investigating and preparing the report to the court may arrange for another local authority or VAA to carry out the investigation and prepare the report to the court, but the local authority remains responsible for the quality of the work and that the report is filed with the court without delay. See chapter 1 for guidance on who can prepare the report to the court. 8.45. The principal categories 