I am wanting my partner to have parental rights for my daughter and to adopt her, I don't know where her father is and he has had no contact with her for over 2 years and back then only ever came to see her three times a year,

Interesting wording. Adoption bestows parental rights on the adoptive parent. That is the purpose of adoption. When I first saw the subject my answer was going to be to file for adoption, but then I saw you included adoption as an AND. You could have just said. I want my partner to adopt my child!.

Anyway, just hire an attorney. You will need an attorney to prepare the adoption petition regardless. The attorney will tell you the requirements for your partner to adopt (in many areas, a marriage of at least a year is required for a step-parent adoption). They will tell you what you have to do to show the court that you have made a good faith effort to contact the father to get him to agree to the adoption. You have to get his agreement or show that you tried. The attorney will prepare the paperwork to make sure the adoption is legal and no subject to challenge.

You say partner, and not boyfriend, girlfriend, fiancé, whatever.

Is this a homosexual relationship?

You also do not say where you are, or whether you are married.

ALL of these will make a difference in whether you can have your partner adopt.