ments with VAAs and other local authorities. Guidance on the temporary approval of a prospective adopter as foster parent for a named child can be found in the Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations: Volume 2: Care Planning, Placement and Case Review. Considering adoption for a child 2.14. Where the first or second review (or any subsequent review) decides that adoption is the preferred option for permanence, an adoption plan must be commenced and the information on the care plan be transferred to the adoption plan. It is at this point that regulation 11 of the Adoption Agencies Regulations 2005 (AAR) provides that AAR 12 to 17 apply, as the agency is clearly considering adoption for the child. 2.15. Because adoption, unlike any other permanence option, involves the ending of a child’s legal relationship with their parents and family and the creation of a lifelong relationship with new parents, the Act and the AAR lay down particular procedures to be followed. Not only does the Act require the court to finalise the adoption process through the making of an adoption order (if that is the right decision for the child), but AAR 19 also requires the local authority’s decision-maker to decide whether the child should be placed for adoption after the procedures set out in AAR 12-18 have been complied with. A decision at the child’s statutory review that adoption should be the plan for the child is therefore only the first of many steps in 36 the adoption process, which will lead – subject to the scrutiny of the plan in accordance with the AAR – to a formal ratification of the plan for adoption under AAR 19. 2.16. These procedures constitute a safeguard for both the child and the parents, but it is important that compliance with them does not lead to unnecessary delay in s