# The Adoption Support Services (Adoption Support Agencies) (Wales) Regulations 2026, Regulation 2: Interpretation


In these Regulations—
“the 2002 Act” (“Deddf 2002”) means the Adoption and Children Act 2002;
“adoptive child” (“plentyn mabwysiadol”) means a child who is an agency adoptive child or a non-agency adoptive child;
“adoptive parent” (“rhiant mabwysiadol”) means a person—
(a) who an adoption agency has decided in accordance with regulation 34(1) of the Adoption Agencies (Wales) Regulations 2005 is a suitable prospective adopter for a particular child,
(b) with whom an adoption agency has placed a child for adoption,
(c) who has given notice under section 44 of the 2002 Act of their intention to apply for an adoption order for a child,
(d) who has adopted a child, or
(e) who has adopted a child who has subsequently attained the age of 18,
but does not include a person who is a step-parent or birth parent of the child or was the step-parent of the child before they adopted the child;
“agency adoptive child” (“plentyn mabwysiadol drwy asiantaeth”) means a child—
(a) an adoption agency has decided, in accordance with regulation 19(1) of the Adoption Agencies (Wales) Regulations 2005, should be placed for adoption,
(b) who has been placed for adoption by an adoption agency, or
(c) who has been adopted after having been placed for adoption by an adoption agency;
“birth parent” (“rhiant geni”) has the same meaning as natural parent in the context of the 2002 Act;
“guardian” (“gwarcheidwad”) has the meaning given by section 144(1) of the 2002 Act;
“non-agency adoptive child” (“plentyn mabwysiadol heb fod drwy asiantaeth”) means a child—
(a) in respect of whom a person, who is not the birth parent or step-parent of the child, has given notice under section 44 of the 2002 Act of their intention to apply for an adoption order, or
(b) who has been adopted by a person who—
(i) is not the birth parent of the child, and
(ii) was not the step-parent of the child before they adopted the child,
but does not include an agency adoptive child;
“related person” (“person perthynol”) means a person—
(a) within the meaning of relative in section 144(1) of the 2002 Act, or
(b) with whom the adoptive child has a relationship which appears to the local authority to be beneficial to the welfare of the child having regard to the matters referred to in sub-paragraphs (i) to (iii) of section 1(4)(f) of the 2002 Act.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/wsi/2026/12/regulation/2 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/adoption-support-services-adoption-support-agencies-wales-regulations-2026/regulation-2
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.