Adoption: Post-Legislative Scrutiny
Chapter 1: Introduction
1. On 21 May 2012 the House of Lords agreed to
establish a committee to 'consider the statute law on adoption
and to make recommendations', with a deadline to report by the
end of February 2013.[1]
This is the first instance of a House of Lords select committee
being established specifically to undertake post-legislative scrutiny.
The main pieces of legislation affecting adoption are the Adoption
and Children Act 2002 and the Children and Adoption Act 2006.
2. Over the course of our inquiry we received
85 pieces of written evidence and took oral evidence from 52 individual
witnesses over 14 sessions. We also held a private meeting with
children, young people and parents with experience of adoption,
and separately with young people currently in care. These private
meetings were organised by the Office of the Children's Rights
Director. We are grateful to everyone who took part.
3. We focused our inquiry principally on England.
Although we sought and have received evidence regarding adoption
in Wales, adoption is a devolved matter under the Government of
Wales Act 2006, and the Welsh Assembly Government intends to legislate
on adoption services in the Social Services (Wales) Bill.[2]
Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate systems and are not
considered in this report.
Government policy on adoption
4. As well as considering the existing legislation
underlying the adoption process we have taken considerable evidence
on the Government's recent announcements in this policy area.
Adoption has received increased public attention over the last
18 months, with much of the renewed focus being driven by the
Government's commitment to improving adoption services, both in
terms of numbers of children being adopted, and the speed with
which new families are to be found for children for whom adoption
is the plan. It is useful to set out Government action over the
last 18 months.
5. The Government appointed Sir Martin Narey
as Ministerial Adviser on Adoption in July 2011, and this was
followed by the appointment of an expert working group on adoption
in December 2011. The group included, amongst others, representatives
of the Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies (CVAA), the British
Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), the voluntary adoption
agencies Coram and Adoption Matters North West, the National Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), the Association
of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS), and Professor Julie
Selwyn, all of whom are represented in our list of witnesses.
6. Following the report of the expert working
group in February 2012, the Government published An Action
Plan for Adoption: Tackling Delay in March 2012, in which
they made clear their commitment to tackling delay in the adoption
system "so that more children benefit from adoption and more
rapidly."[3] The Action
Plan set out the Government's intention to legislate to reduce
the number of adoptions delayed by the search for a perfect or
near-perfect ethnic match between an adoptive child and prospective
adopters; to require swifter use of the Adoption Register; to
encourage all local authorities to place children with their potential
adopters in anticipation of the court's placement order; to speed
up the adopter assessment process and to introduce a fast-track
process for second-time adopters and foster carers seeking to
adopt a child already in their care; to develop a national gateway
to adoption as a source of advice and information for those considering
adoption; and to measure improvements in tackling delay across
the system through the new adoption performance scorecard.
7. Over the course of our inquiry the Government
launched consultations on a wide range of issues relating to adoption,
including the placement of siblings, arrangements for contact
with birth family members post-adoption, and the faster approval
processes for prospective adopters.
8. In May 2012 the Government published the first
set of data from the adoption scorecards, which provided three-year
rolling averages for all local authorities across three key performance
indicators, each focusing on timeliness in the adoption system.[4]
In September 2012 the Government announced an additional £8
million for local authorities in the current financial year to
speed up adoptions. In December 2012 plans were published to provide
greater support to adoptive parents, and to give prospective adopters
a greater say in the matching process. In January 2013 the Government
published a package of reforms designed radically to improve adopter
recruitment; in order to help secure adoption reform an Adoption
Reform Grant worth £150 million will be given to local authorities
in the next financial year.
9. The Government published draft legislation
relating to adoption in November 2012. The two draft clauses were
designed to remove delays caused by the search for a perfect or
near-perfect ethnic match, and to create a new duty on local authorities
to consider a 'fostering for adoption' placement where appropriate.[5]
The draft legislation was the subject of our first report, Adoption:
Pre-legislative Scrutiny[6],
published on 19 December 2012. On 4 February the Government introduced
into Parliament the Children and Families Bill which contains
provisions on ethnic matching; fostering for adoption, adopter
recruitment; adoption support services; the adoption register,
and post-adoption contact.
The wider policy context
10. In addition to the Government-led activity
there have been two very significant reviews with considerable
impact on the focus of our report. The first was the Family Justice
Review, established in March 2010 and jointly sponsored by the
Ministry of Justice, the Department for Education and the Government
of Wales. The review was chaired by David Norgrove and was set
up in response to increasing concerns about delay in the family
court system. The review published its final report in March 2011.
The Government accepted the majority of the recommendations in
full, one of which—to remove from adoption panels the responsibility
for making a recommendation about whether adoption was in a child's
best interests—led to the publication of the Adoption Agencies
(Panels and Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2012. The Regulations
were laid before Parliament under the negative procedure and our
Chairman secured a debate on them in the House of Lords on 25
July.[7] They came into
force on 1 September. In addition to the Government's response
to the Family Justice Review, the judiciary has published proposals
for the modernisation of family justice, under the guidance of
Mr Justice Ryder.[8]
11. The second significant report was the review
of child protection in England by Professor Eileen Munro,
which reported in May 2011.[9]
This review was set up at the request of the Secretary of State
for Education with a view to establishing how professionals can
make the best judgments to protect vulnerable children. The findings
regarding social work culture and practice have been welcomed
by the Government in their response in July 2011. The proposed
reforms of the social work profession following the review by
Professor Munro formed part of the background to our inquiry.
Post-Legislative scrutiny—a
note on the process
12. In light of the succession of Government
proposals since March 2012 and the introduction of the Children
and Families Bill on 4 February 2013, we have not restricted ourselves
to the scrutiny of the current statute law on adoption; we have
extended our consideration to the issues raised by witnesses in
relation to the Government's proposals. We have also found that
other statutes, which are not concerned with adoption, such as
the Children Act 1989, have a very significant bearing on delays
in adoption, and we have considered them, where appropriate. We
hope our contribution is more valuable as a result.
13. We have been struck by the number of submissions
which suggested that the current legislative framework is largely
adequate. None of our witnesses called for wide-ranging changes
to the legislation, although one significant exception is discussed
in detail in our chapter on post-adoption support (Chapter 7).
Instead, there was overwhelming evidence that the big issues of
concern—delay in the adoption system, and the shortage of
adopters—were the result of failures in practice. Our consideration
of these issues has focused on how to achieve better outcomes
for the children and families affected; where relevant we have
commented on the legislation, but more frequently we have made
recommendations concerning practice. One conclusion we draw from
this is that legislation is only part of the picture in achieving
better outcomes for children; and there should be more emphasis
on practice.
- We welcome being able to make a contribution
on a matter that is of concern to many, and high on the political
agenda. We hope that our report will feed into the on-going work
of reforming the adoption system.
1 HL Deb 21 May 2012 col 636 & HL Deb 29 May 2012
col 1082 Back
2
We have taken note of the report on adoption by the Children and
Young People Committee in the National Assembly for Wales:
Inquiry into Adoption, published November 2013. The
report can be found at: http://www.senedd.assemblywales.org/documents/s11356/Adoption%20Report%20-20November%202012.pdf Back
3
An Action Plan for Adoption: Tackling Delay, Department
for Education, March 2012, ministerial foreword Back
4
The three indicators are: the average time taken from entering
care to being placed with an adoptive family; the average time
taken to match a child to an adoptive family, once a court has
formally decided that a child should be placed for adoption; and
the proportion of children in each local authority waiting longer
than 21 months for adoption. The scorecards are considered in
more detail in Chapter 6. Back
5
Fostering for adoption, as proposed by the Government in draft
legislation published on 7 November 2012, refers to the practice
of placing a child with foster carers who are dually approved
as prospective adopters and have been matched with that child,
before the Court has made a placement order in respect of that
child, but after the local authority has decided that adoption
is in the child's best interests. Back
6
1st Report of Session 2012-13, HL Paper 94. The report
can be found at: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201213/ldselect/ldadopt/94/94.pdf Back
7
HL Deb 25 July 2012 GC col 343-358 Back
8
Judicial Proposals for the Modernisation of Family Justice, Mr
Justice Ryder, July 2012. The report can be found at: http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Reports/ryderj_recommendations_final.pdf Back
9
The Munro Review of Child Protection: Final report A child-centred
system, CM 8062, May 2011. The report can be found at: http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/m/8875_dfe_munro_report_tagged.pdf Back
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