Chapter Two – Setting the context
2.5 Rise and fall of adoption
to be at risk. However, there was an absence of concern, about adopted children and the Curtis report (1946) remained positive about the benefit of adoption for children and their adoptive parents.
In his review of the Adoption of Children Act 1949, Lawton (1950) noted two significant amendments, firstly that prospective adopters could now adopt a child who was not a British subject providing that the single adopter, or if a couple, the prospective adoptive father was British.
Secondly, the new legislation reversed the clause in the 1926 Act to ensure that from that time on prospective adopters must treat an adopted child as if they were a biological child in relation to property (Lawton, 1950). In addition, the 1949 Act made several minor amendments to the 1926 Act, which altered who could become a prospective adopter and when. Although the age restrictions on who could become an adoptive parent remained in place, these were notably not imposed on an adult who already had a genetic or familial relationship with the child (Lawton, 1950). Furthermore, all prospective adopters had to have had the child in their care for three consecutive months before the court would finalise the Order. By virtue of the 1949 Act, we also saw the emergence of readopted children. Thus, prospective adopters could adopt a child who had experienced a failed adoptive placement. However, the issue of what constituted adoption continued to be a matter of inquiry; a further review commenced in 1953, and the continual process of reviewing legislation continues to the present day.
2.5 Rise and fall of adoption
The adoption of children continued to rise, and by 1949, more than 17,000 children provided an abundant supply of babies for childless couples who sought to adopt (Keating, 2001; O’Halloran, 2009; Rossini, 2014). Research around this time reflects the pronatalism view that a woman’s life is unsatisfying if she does not become a mother, demonstrated in Kiser’s (1939, p.68) exploration of the topic.
30
“I firmly believe that most childless women are physically unable to have children and to [sic] poor to go through treatments. For life without children is a very dreary dissatisfied [sic] life, judging by myself and my friends.” (Kiser, 1939, p.68)
The above narrative supports the emergence of pronatalism discourses that suggest infertility is a loss to be endured. Kiser’s (1939) research focused on white married women, and it is important to note at that time society expected women to be homemakers rather than pursue careers. In Britain, there was also an emerging National Health Service and a discussion about educating young people about contraception.
Throughout the 1950’s, British society continued to change, and the rate of adoptions began to drop to 13,000 per annum, which equates to about a third to a quarter of all children who were then born outside of marriage.
Although, it is important to note that this adoption figure remained twice that of 1939, and adoption figures rose again at the end of that decade (Rossini, 2014). Also, change is seen within emerging discourses that differentiate between a good and an unfit prospective adoptive mother and further expectations of the adoption process become defined (Rossini, 2014). Furthermore, narratives that support the adopted baby as legitimate become intertwined with those of the good prospective adopter, one who waits patiently for legal processes and approvals to be undertaken, rather than a desire to adopt by private means (Rossini, 2014).
We gain insights about research into adoption from an article published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine by the Hon.
Mrs Geoffrey Edwards (1954, p.1044), who highlights how deliberations on adoption were occurring in the absence of ‘comprehensive scientific study’.
Edwards (1954, p.1044) expressed concern at the rise in the number of adoptions and the role of social workers in the adoption process. In doing so, she sought to position the needs of the child as central to the debate:
“Many adopters want a perfect child: female, of course beautiful, clever, a social success, who will pass examinations with ease and marry young into the aristocracy. The ideal adopters are those who
31 take the child as they have taken each other, for
better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health; and who will devote themselves to the child’s wellbeing just as they would have done had he been born to them.” (Edwards, 1954, p.1044)
Arguably, for the first time, the principle that a child’s needs are central to the adoption process arose in the 1954 Hurst Committee; this remains relevant today. This centrality of the child’s needs in adoption as higher than those of biological parents and prospective adoptive parents echoed in research at that time. In 1955, Miriam Elson, a clinical social worker, wrote eloquently about the complicated separation and attachment tasks facing the adopted child. She distinguished biological parents as ‘natural’ and adoptive parents as ‘real’. In her view, Elson suggests the adopted child:
“Must be able to establish his own family, secure in his acceptance of the worthiness of the ancestral stream that produced him, little is known of how the child gains integration within family, society and self.”
(Elson, 1955, p.137)
This focus on the importance of a child achieving an integrated self is fascinating and precedes Bowlby’s (1969) publication of ‘Attachment and Loss’. The above statement suggests Elson, (1955) understood the importance of a relational self, although at that time there was little understanding of how a child developed their understanding of themselves and the world in which they lived. Indeed, this is also reflected in the Kirk and Mass (1959) study of 1500 Canadian and American adoptive couples and their attitudes and experiences of integrating their adopted child into their family. Kirk and Mass (1959) suggest that greater effort is required to protect the integrity of the adoptive family structure and that concealing the truth of their adoptive relationships is a means to achieving this. This suggestion supports Elson’s (1955) previous assertion of the importance of an integrated social self, but this conflicted with legislation and social expectations at that time. As such, it prevented adopted children from developing a full understanding of self, which integrated their ancestral stream and adoption identity.
32 In 1967, the UK saw the introduction of the Abortion Act and that year records report 22,322 terminated pregnancies took place.
Subsequently, in England and Wales, there was a decline in the number of adoptions with the following decade adoption figures halved from 25,000 in 1968 to 12,748 in 1977 (Table 2.1). Although the demand for prospective adopters fell because of the impact of the Abortion Act, there remained a need for the state to intervene in private family life; which was amplified by the horrific assault and murder of 7-year-old Maria Colwell in 1973. The Children Act 1975 followed, and this saw the creation of a comprehensive adoption service and the first general agreement that the needs of children should be paramount to the needs of parents. Thus, ending the presumption that parents are best placed to advocate for their children’s needs (Hendrick, 2003). As the 20th Century ended, we saw the introduction of the Children Act 1989 enacted by a British Conservative government which encouraged a turn away from risk assessment towards working in partnership with families. This legislative change contributed to a continuing decline in the number of children adopted. Table 2.1 represents data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) archives recording 7,044 children adoptions in 1989, which reduced to an annual figure of 4,323 a decade later. However, tracing reliable data on adoption figures is difficult as the four countries of the UK collate and publish their data at different times of the year. Presented in Table 2.2 are the CoramBAAF collated figures for England and Wales between 2011 and 2016. It is notable that the 2011 adoption figures differ in each table with (ONS) figures reported as 4,777, and CoramBAAF has a notably lower number of 3,354.
33 Table 2.1 Adoption orders by date of entry in the Adopted
Children’s Register 1974–2011 in England and Wales (ONS)
Year Total Male Female
34 Table 2.2 Looked after children adoption figures year ending 31st March 2011-2016 (CoramBAAF)
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 England 3100 3470 4010 5050 5330 4690
Wales 254 246 329 345 383 340
Following the enactment of the Children Act 1989, there was a reduction in the number of ‘Looked After’ children which correlate with the reduced number of adoptions (Rowlands & Statham, 2009). Table 2.1 reflects that in a decade the number of adoptions reduced from 7,390 in 1988 to 4,382 in 1998. Following his election in 1997, Prime Minister Tony Blair returned adoption to the foreground of public policy as a positive outcome for children who were ‘looked after’ by the state. Although the 1989 Act remains the substantive piece of legislation regulating social work with children and families, the then Labour government and subsequent governments introduced new adoption legislation. The following section will examine the development of adoption in Britain in the 21st Century.