This year state Adoption had its 100th birthday.
Well to be exact it is 100 years since the first Adoption Act was passed in England and Wales. In Scotland, the Scottish Act came into law in 1930.
Maybe it is time to assess the adoption is currently. This doesn’t ignore the journey and the good and bad that has occurred in those 100 years, but for the sake of what I am writing today I am going to look at where we are today from personal experience
In a second blog I will add what I think that we need to do to improve the lives of everyone in families surrounding care experienced children and young people.
Not everyone will agree with my view and that also is fair enough. I am also aware that I am not focusing on the forced adoptions that have occurred in the past as well.
I have to say that when this idea crept into my mind, it was going to be quite a short script, as I’ve typed it is much longer, in 2 parts.
‘Substitute parenting’-
The concept of becoming the parent for other people’s children isn’t new. I’m sure that it’s been around informally for millennia, but with Acts of Parliament it becomes part of the state apparatus.
I believe that the state that enacts those really serious and last resort regulations should take responsibility for the way that all of the people most closely impacted are served, supported and also for the outcomes of the legislation.
This isn’t about individuals working or volunteering in the field. The vast majority are working their hardest to ensure the most positive of outcomes and yet too often despite all of the effort’s things fall short of that mark. So, it must be about systems and what is happening to reduce the achievements in adoption.
I want to particularly recognise that parenting any child isn’t the easiest thing that we do as adults. It can be complicated and tiring in every family. In stepping up to care about and for other people’s children there are many added dimensions that often make it even harder. Systems, policy and practice shouldn’t gang up to make this type of parenting even harder, but that is exactly what happens.
In an ideal world services and systems should recognise the pitfalls and issues and mitigate against them so that everyone no matter what have the equal chance of reaching their full potential. That can’t mean that everyone gets the same because everyone starts at such a different point and the information, advice, guidance and support will need to be different.
I’m also going to say at this stage that we can’t ignore the emotions tied up for everyone in all of this. Being emotional isn’t a weakness, but too often it is seen as something that is undesirable when advocating for real flesh and blood children and young people. Emotions are part of the human dynamic and essential for development, attachment and bonding and this too needs full recognition not seen as something that automatically diminishes parenting capability and rings alarm bells.
I acknowledge that too often the successes aren’t trumpeted from the highest towers, people are just getting on with their lives and growing with no official recording of their achievements to link back to their own adoption journeys. Like everyone, I know of many adoptions where there have been the best possible outcomes and where the young people have thrived and achieved brilliant things. That is how it should be, how we all want it to be. So how can we make that happen?
Over the century there have been changes and developments which have had their impact on where we find ourselves today and where we might be going. Finding permeance for children deemed to not be able to live with their birth parents has changed.
To a greater extent adoption in the 1920’s and 30’s was driven by unmarried mothers, poverty, religious ideas and the social stigma that was prevalent at the time. As well as, with orphans and family disruption that, in many cases could be linked to the upheavals caused by World War 1 and increasing numbers of childless couples wanting to start a family.
Sadly, children are still orphaned, and they always will be. There is still poverty and family disruption, but the pathways that lead to children living away from their birth parents have changed.
Alongside Adoption and long-term Fostering, there are now legal Special Guardianship and Child Arrangement Orders. Private Fostering arrangements also can come into play as well in some cases. All are slightly different; all have positive facets and also aspects that aren’t as desirable. Getting it right is absolutely key for the individual children and young people who often don’t really have a say. But are we getting it right?
Where we are today-
Things have changed and where once fostering or adoption were the solutions, now there is an increasing role played by friends and relatives who are asked to step in and obtain Special Guardianship Orders.
It is clear that the numbers of adoptions are falling. Certainly, fewer adoption orders are sort and its said that fewer people come forward to adopt.
Having worked with and provided training to support vulnerable children for decades, the raw data provided by Local Authorities to the Office of National Statistics for the annual numbers adopted has plummeted. In some cases, over the course of 12 months not a single adoption is made. In all cases where I have looked at the figures, they are reduced by around a factor of 10 over a decade.
It is often said that is because not as many people are coming forward to adopt. That may well be the case, but that isn’t the whole story. I provide training for regional adoption agencies and on the pre-registration trading that I run there are often more prospective adopters than the Local Authorities that make up the Regional Adoption Agencies actually complete adoptions for in the course of a year.
With increased numbers of children being formally taken into state care and even more having social work interventions then the need for support and a permanent solution hasn’t gone away, it’s increased. It’s really not simple mathematics.
As the numbers of adoptions have reduced the numbers of children in Kinship and Special Guardianship arrangements has increased. It’s always a debate whether this is now the preferred pathway, but it seems to be.
In the main Kinship Carers and /or Special Guardians are relatives, family friends or people who know the children concerned who step in to take on all or some of the parental role. In some cases, like ourselves, they are the former foster carers, who reduce the stresses on the children by stepping away from the mechanics of fostering, but this is not as common.
This year SGO’s have reached the milestone age of 21, and I will look directly at the personal journey that we have been on as special guardians for 4 young people in a future blog.
The key question for these children and the families that they live with is – Were the children ever legally in the care system for one day or more? The answer to that question changes the advice and the potential access to support and guidance.
Fundamentally, I believe that this uneven playing field is a huge stumbling block. Resources need to acknowledge the impact of the childhood experiences and be marshalled to meet the individual needs of the young people and not be rationed by the decisions made years previously. The huge emotions that swirl also shouldn’t be used to disadvantage the children involved. Services that are involved need to accept that naturally there will be consequences in any decision that they make and that a legal document in itself isn’t going to solve anything. There needs to be real supports in place for those implications that have led to state intervention.
For those making the decisions I believe that no one should formally propose any solution that they know is going to lessen the life chances of the young person, make them or the family that supports them even more vulnerable by threatening financial stability and even the relationships of all involved. Sadly, I know from personal experience that even when the best endeavours are made, years later this can still negatively impact everyone.
If you suspect that it’s likely that harm will be caused, then it’s really hard to see how plans should proceed for any form of permeance without transparency, integrity and a very robust support plan.
So, there will always be a need for people to step up to care for and about children that aren’t their birth children. The decisions that are made need to reflect what will be in the best interests for the young person in the moment as well as into their adulthood.
The 100-year anniversary is just an opportunity to take stock and plan the next 100 years and at the moment I don’t feel that there is a focus on the much-needed national plan.
This is the first part of a two-part look at adoption and permanence. The second part looks at what I personally feel needs to be considered as we move to the next century of state adoption, Guardianship and kinship.
Brian Roberts
Nov 2026
