Adoption – Is Wholesale Reform Needed?

Although almost every European country has a mechanism to allow children to be adopted without parental consent England and Wales is the jurisdiction which most frequently resorts to such Orders.

Once an Adoption Order is made the legal relationship between the child and his / her birth parents ends and currently in the vast majority of cases the only contact between an adopted child and his / her birth family is through indirect Letterbox Contact often at a frequency of once a year. There is provision under existing legislation for direct contact between a child and his / her birth family after an Adoption Order is made but this is rare with the argument being that ongoing contact would put off prospective adopters such that the pool of potential adopters for a child would be significantly reduced. It is for this reason that it is regularly said that Adoption Orders are the most draconian Orders the Family Court can make.

The Public Law Working Group reported on 7 November 2024 and in its Report: “Recommendations for best practice in respect of adoption ” stated that change was needed to make adoption effective including “… making use of digital tools for both training information and contact”.

The Report has four main recommendations:

1. There needs to be a change in face to face contact between adopted children and birth families, with training and greater support and counselling for birth parents.
2. There should be a national protocol for a standard procedure for access to records applications.
3. In order to simplify the extremely complex system of adoptions with an international element, the statutory framework should be rewritten so that it is contained in one single Act of Parliament. In the meantime , there is an urgent need for written guidance.
4. A national strategy for adoption by consent cases needs to be developed, including training for all, better access to legal advice for parent(s) before birth, and that local authorities bring proceedings straight away, and that they are listed urgently.

The President of the Family Division Sir Andrew McFarlane said: ” The recommendations concerning contact with a child’s birth family are especially important, but the particular arrangements in each case must be determined by the needs of the individual child.”

Will things change?- watch this space.