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Lord Elton: My Lords, the Minister has said that all local authorities are able to provide satisfactory out-of-school education for excluded children. Can she assure us that that does not include home study with two or three hours only of tuition?
Baroness Ashton of Upholland: My Lords, the key to the education being satisfactory is that it is full time. It is important that students receive full-time education. As regards excluded children, a period of time may elapse before alternative full-time education commences as obviously negotiations have to take place with the family to consider what is best for those children. In many cases a move to another school can resolve the issue for a particular child. We need to be
clear that that is one of the options. However, in some cases behavioural issues may result in a need to consider a pupil referral unit for the young person.Employee Share Schemes Bill
Read a third time, and passed.
Adoption and Children Bill
3.14 p.m.
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: My Lords, I beg to move that the Bill be now further considered on Report. Moved, That the Bill be now further considered on Report.—(Lord Hunt of Kings Heath.)
On Question, Motion agreed to.
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath had given notice of his intention to move Amendment No. 43:
- Page 25, line 8, leave out "step-parent who" and insert "partner of a parent and the partner"
The noble Lord said: My Lords, I do not propose to move Amendment No. 43 and the other amendments in the group as I believe that the House would find it helpful to consider the issue of principle in relation to unmarried couples. Depending on the outcome of today's debate, I may bring back some further consequential amendments on Third Reading. I shall not move the amendment.
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath moved Amendment No. 45:
- Page 25, line 38, after "section" insert "31(4),"
On Question, amendment agreed to.
Clause 42 [Child to live with adopters before application]:
[Amendments Nos. 46 to 48 not moved.]
Earl Howe moved Amendment No. 49:
- Page 27, line 16, leave out from "them" to end of line 17 and insert "at all times during the period of six months preceding the application"
The noble Earl said: My Lords, Amendment No. 49 brings us to an important issue relating to intercountry adoption. When intercountry adopters return to the UK with their adopted child they have to make a subsequent adoption application to a UK court unless the state of origin is a designated country whose adoption orders are recognised in the UK.
At present, where an application is made to a UK court, an adoption order cannot be made unless the child has had his or her home with the applicant for 12 months, or 13 weeks with relatives, as defined by the Adoption Act 1976. When implemented, the Adoption (Intercountry Aspects) Act 1999 will provide for an
adoption application to be made in convention adoptions after the child has had his or her home with the applicants for six months.The Adoption and Children Bill, however, seeks to change that position. I have to say that I regret greatly that the Bill will not consider intercountry adoptions as agency adoptions even though they will be conducted to the same standard and with the same level of official oversight as domestic adoptions. Indeed, I argue that that is inconsistent with our international obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Hague Convention,
- "to ensure that safeguards and standards equivalent to those which apply in domestic adoption should be applied in intercountry adoption to protect the welfare of the child".
One result of intercountry adoptions being treated as non-agency placements is the impact of the time-scales within which an adoption order can be made. Where an adoption application to a UK court is required, unless the application is a convention adoption, the child will have to have had his or her home with the applicant for three years out of a five-year period before an application can be made. That is how I read Clause 42(5). There is provision for the application to be made sooner but only if the court gives leave. This introduces an additional and unnecessary hurdle, in my opinion, which will be a further drain on court time and resources.
This change is of concern. To begin with it cannot be considered to be in any child's best interests to wait for over three years for its legal position within its adopted family to be secured. In domestic adoption the thrust is towards shortening the period for the adoption process to be concluded. So it is totally unacceptable that the adoption process for many children adopted from abroad will be prolonged by at least two years. Besides that, states of origin, perfectly understandably, wish to see the future of the children they place settled in a timely fashion. Many countries will find these new provisions unacceptable because the child's adoption status will remain undetermined for more than three years after placement and, as a result, the child will have to wait until then to acquire the same nationality as the adoptive parents.
I have a further concern. My understanding is that when a child is brought into the UK for adoption and notification of intention to adopt has been given, regulations may impose functions relating to the child's placement on the local authority to which the notice was given. I refer to Clause 83(6)(b). Because these placements are not to be considered agency placements there are real concerns that the supervision of the child may be given low priority in the light of competing demands for social work resources. I hope that the Minister can confirm that the regulations will place local authorities under a strengthened duty to supervise and review these placements as if they were agency placements until the adoption order is granted. The ideal solution, of course, would be for
intercountry adoptions to fall within the definition of agency adoptions. However, I understand that that is something that the Government are not prepared to contemplate. If that is true, it would be helpful if the Minister could say why.Therefore, my amendment seeks to specify the same six-month period before which an adoption order may be granted in respect of all intercountry adoptions, whether they are convention designated or non-convention, non-designated adoptions. I hope that the Minister will be able to look sympathetically at the amendment. I beg to move.
Baroness Barker: My Lords, I rise to support the amendment moved by the noble Earl, Lord Howe. I also take the opportunity to remind the House of the debate that we held in Grand Committee. In relation to people who bring children to this country from abroad, we discussed whether they should undergo the same level of assessment as do those involved in domestic adoptions. We received from all the organisations that are active in this field evidence that obtaining an assessment from social services departments was nigh-on impossible. That led to a great deal of distress and unnecessary uncertainty for those concerned and for their families.
We also discussed at some length in Grand Committee the need for there to be confidence in the system of registration of intercountry adoptions. Therefore, I want to follow up the question posed by the noble Earl, Lord Howe, and to ask the Minister to respond to suggestions that the reason for the Government's stance is resources. If that is the case, can the Minister explain it to the House in some detail?
Baroness Andrews: My Lords, the noble Earl knows that I am always sympathetic to his amendments. We have approached the Bill in very much the same spirit throughout its entire proceedings. Because his amendment has implications for both domestic and intercountry adoptions, I shall, if I may, set out the background and deal with the matter of intercountry adoptions as soon as I can.
The amendment is concerned with the minimum period that a child must have had his home with prospective adopters before an application to adopt may be made in cases where an adoption agency has not arranged the adoption placement. As the noble Earl explained, by implication, in this country the subsection would include adoption by a grandparent, an aunt or an uncle and so on. But that involves a very small number of cases—fewer than 100. Nevertheless, each one is extremely important because of the situation of the child.
The amendment suggests that the time period involved is reduced from three years to six months. We have difficulty in supporting the amendment in that sense. Throughout the progress of the Bill, the noble Earl has emphasised the finality of adoption, its seriousness and the need to be careful about how we approach it. That is why I believe it to be firmly in the interests of the child that we ensure that in this situation, in particular, there is a proper and genuine
opportunity for the child and the family involved to establish a relationship which would justify the making of an application to adopt.In non-agency cases, none of the safeguards relating to placement through an adoption agency applies. That is obviously the first reason for our concern. The differences are, for example, that, when an agency is involved, the adoption panel will have approved adoption as being in the child's best interests after thoroughly examining the issue. The assessment will be rigorous; the birth parents and the adoptive parents will be checked; and the match will be assessed and considered.
In a non-agency case, the prospective adopters have the opportunity to inform the local authority that none of that extra scrutiny is in place. We believe that the law needs to provide sufficient time to be able to test that what has emerged is a very loving and lasting relationship. We need proof of that.
We intend to bring the Bill into line with the Children Act, which introduced very useful changes. At present, in the case of relatives, adoption orders may be made once the child has been with the adoptive applicants for 13 weeks and, in the case of non-relative, non-agency cases, 12 months.
The change from 12 months to three years may seem rather significant but there are good reasons for it. The 1976 Act pre-dates the Children Act. At the time of that Act, alternative means for facilitating placements—residence orders, for example—were simply not in place. Now, relatives and non-relatives can automatically apply for residence orders for children who have been living with them for three out of five years.
Finally, we are particularly concerned about the issues raised when a member of the family adopts a child because the implication is that all the relationships within that family change. If a grandparent adopts, for example, the changes can spread over two generations. Therefore, again, we want to be careful that we are allowing sufficient time for those changes to be worked out. That is why we set out in the Bill other alternatives for families in relation to adoption. Those include not only residence orders but special guardianship orders and also the ability of a step-parent to acquire parental responsibility. Therefore, the Bill deals with the safety and security of the child; it ensures consistency with the existing law; and it provides a range of alternatives to adoption.
Perhaps I may offer the noble Earl one final assurance. While we hold firmly to the general provisions, given the complexity of family circumstances, we have not completely closed the door. We have made provision in Clause 42(6) for any exceptional cases so that prospective adopters may, within a three-year time period and if the circumstances justify it, apply to the court for leave to make an application. That is the background and the domestic context in which the specific questions raised by the noble Earl apply in terms of intercountry adoptions.
In the interests of brevity, Clause 83 enables us to modify arrangements for intercountry adoptions. There may well be a case for a different time period to apply in respect of intercountry relative adoptions when the alternatives in UK legislation are not available.
In general, the intercountry provision currently allows modification of residence periods set out in Chapter 3. I take the point raised by the noble Baroness about confidence in resources. Perhaps I may write to her about that. We had a very important debate in Committee on the question of the confidence that must obtain between countries where we are dealing with such delicate matters. It is our intention to use those powers to provide that, where the proper procedures are followed, an application can be made in the UK to adopt a child brought from overseas after the child has lived with the applicants for six months. But where the proper procedures are not followed, we intend to extend the period to 12 months.
As the Bill is drafted at present, those modifications would not apply to intercountry adoptions by relatives. However, we have gone through a consultative process on the new draft intercountry adoption regulations which are needed to implement the Hague convention. We have also received correspondence from intercountry stakeholders, and we have treated that seriously. We are currently considering how relative intercountry adoptions should be dealt with.
I am willing to include in those considerations the issue of the appropriate residence period for intercountry relative adoptions. I hope to be in a position to respond at Third Reading to the time-scales and to the other issues raised by the noble Earl.
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