The White Paper, Adoption: A New Approach: A ‘Curate's Egg’?

Abstract

The Government published its proposals for the partial reform of adoption law in the White Paper, Adoption: A new approach in December 2000. In this article Caroline Ball provides a critique of the proposals in the context of the needs of the adoptive population at the beginning of the 21st Century and the wide-ranging though as yet unrealised reform process of the past decade. The article acknowledges the extent to which the Government's proposals recognise and partially address identified problems in childcare and court procedures for children in the public care who cannot return to their birth families and for whom adoption is the preferred outcome. It also identifies the extent to which the proposals are fundamentally flawed by significant omissions in regard to the identification of problems and the consequential range of necessary reforms.

Barriers to Adoption?: Variations in the Use of Adoption by Local Authorities

“…However, central government interventions actively helped to undermine adoption services during this period, contributing to this variable and underresourced pattern of provision. The causes of decline mentioned by Triseliotis above included the admitted failure to bring forward planned changes in adoption legislation in the 1990s (Ball, 2001) and also central government pressure on social services to 're-focus' their efforts on prevention (Department of Health, 1995) rather than adoption. Our research suggests that the central government interventions in local government may not only have contributed to the general decline in adoption rates, but also contributed to their variability.…”

Adoption Reform: Managing Diversity and Delay

“…The publication of the National Adoption Standards in 2001 further emphasised governmental commitment to reform. Although broadly welcome (Collier, 2001), concerns have been expressed that some of the proposals for reforming the current system are either simplistic or problematic (Ball, 2001), while other key issues are not sufficiently addressed (Triseliotis, 2002). Our intention here is to contribute to the debate, arguing that some of the proposals in the Bill, which are buttressed by the targets in the Standards, set out potentially unrealistic timescales which deny the complexity of the exercise, while others do not go far enough in requiring authorities to respond to the needs of the social diversity in contemporary society.…”

Changes in Birth Father Involvement in Stepfamily Adoption in the Republic of Ireland

“…The need for changes in adoption law for stepfamilies often leads to discussion of alternatives to adoption in these cases. There is some evidence to suggest that despite the availability of legal alternatives such as residence orders in the UK, which allow parental rights and responsibilities to all parents and do not sever connections with birth parents, stepfamilies continue to choose the adoption order (Ball, 2001). This pattern is likely to be repeated if similar alternatives to adoption are introduced in the Irish Republic stepfamily situation, as the 1999 research figures show that in 46.3 per cent of cases there has been no contact at all between birth fathers and children.…”