This year marks the centenary of the Adoption of Children Act 1926, which created a formal legal framework for adoption in England and Wales and became the foundation for modern adoption legislation.
After the establishment of The Foundling Hospital by Thomas Coram in 1739, it was not until the nineteenth century that the focus on child welfare grew and charities such as Barnardos and the NSPCC were formed. There followed growing pressure on Parliament to regulate adoption and to create a legal framework, but it required conferences held by the National Child Adoption Association (NCAA) and the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child (NCUMC), two Parliamentary reports in, namely the 1921 Child Adoption Committee report by Sir Alfred Hopkinson followed by and 1925 committee report presided over by Lord Tomlin, and several failed Bills before the Adoption of Children Act 1926 was passed.
To some extent the Act was driven by the needs of the thousands of children left orphans by 1918–20 Spanish flu pandemic on the back of the Great War., and some MPs were prepared to support the Bill in the expectation that it would only be needed as a temporary measure.
1926 – legal permanence recognised in law for the first time
The 1926 Adoption Act was considered necessary as existing arrangements did not create legal permanence and offering to care for a child had not always been purely altruistic. Children were seen as useful to help out in family businesses, or on farms, and in the absence of a welfare state, children were expected to care for their parents in sickness and old age. Without legal adoption, carers could risk the child that they had cared forraised, brought up and educated being reclaimed by a parent once that child became a useful and economically productive member of society. This was seen as a deterrent to couples looking to create a family through adoption.
There were also private informal adoptions, either within families or a more commercial arrangement. in which a parent would hand over their child for a fee in exchange for the promise that they would be cared for. Sometimes this promise was kept, sometimes the child was cared for until money ran out and sometimes an insurance policy was taken out on the child’s life and the child allowed to die.
The 1926 Act was pioneering in a number of other ways. For the first time, a court could make an order for an ‘infant’ (a person under the age of 21) to be adopted. Adopters had to be over 25 and 21 years older than the child they were adopting. They could be single or married, with a restriction on single men adopting girls and parents could adopt their own children to remove ‘stain’ of illegitimacy (a provision which has been retained in the most recent Act, although used so little that it does not appear in the statistics)
Birth parent consent
Parents had to consent to their child being adopted, although such consent could be dispensed with if the parent was incapable of consenting or had abandoned or neglected their child. (as this could include failing to pay maintenance, this was not necessarily a high bar). The court also had a general power to dispense with consent if they thought it necessary. The court had to be satisfied that the order would be for the welfare of the child and that no payments had been made or promised by or to the adopter or birth parent. The child’s interests were protected by an independent guardian ad litem, which could be a local authority. Where children had been cared for in ‘de facto’ adoption arrangements for at least two years before the Act came into force, adoption orders could be made without the parents’ consent.
The making of an adoption order was recorded on the new Adoption Register, and certified copies of the Register were provided to serve the same purpose as a child’s birth certificate. In January 1927, 10 children were registered on the new Adoption Register, with over 4,000 orders being made by the end of the year. The effect of an adoption order would be to treat the child as though they had been born ‘in lawful wedlock’ to the adopters and all rights and duties of the birth parents were extinguished., as was the liability of the child to maintain the birth parents. There were exceptions for inheritances and for peerages, which passed along bloodlines. Special provision was made for life insurance policies on a child.
1939 – a forerunner of modern adoption regulation
The Adoption of Children (Regulation) Act 1939 introduced a structure of regulation and registration of adoption agencies that is recognisable to social workers today. The only organisations that were permitted to arrange adoptions were local authorities or registered adoption agencies. An agency could only be registered if it was a charitable association, a principle which is maintained to this day., in contrast to fostering agencies. Agencies had committees to consider the suitability of adopters and regulations required reports, medicals and visits to the adopter’s home before a child could be placed for adoption. Parents relinquishing their child to an adoption agency had to be given specific information about the legal process and effect of adoption and to sign a document to say that they understood.
The prohibition on arranging adoptions in the 1939 Act applied only to ‘bodies of persons’ and not to individuals, so a nursing home could not arrange an adoption, but the matron of that home was able to do so in her personal capacity. World War II delayed the implementation of the 1939 Act and resulted in another cohort of children needing families. Thousands of children were brought to the UK as refugees from the Spanish Civil War, from Nazi Germany and occupied countries and then from Soviet occupied Europe. Under the 1926 and 1939 Acts only British children could be adopted, and the 1949 Adoption of Children Act extended adoption to any children resident in England and Wales and granted them citizenship if adopted by a British adopter.
The 1949 Act regulated ‘consent’ and if the parent consenting to adoption did not attend court, they could provide a signed consent witnessed by a JP. A a mother’s consent was not valid unless given after the child was six weeks old. Confidentiality was introduced into adoption proceedings and court rules allowed adopters to issue their application under a serial number. Until then birth parents would have received the application for adoption which included the adopters’ names and addresses. Adoption orders could not be made until the child had lived with the prospective adopters for at least three months and notice of intention to apply had been given to the welfare authorities. In 1950 the earlier Acts were all repealed and the Adoption Acts 1950 & 1958 consolidated their provisions without making any significant changes but gradually increased the role of local authorities’ adoption services.
1976 – the beginning of adoption from the care system
By 1976, adoption was becoming an t option for children in local authority care. More support, and less societal stigma, enabled more single women to keep their babies even without support of their families rather than relinquishing them.
Adoption arrangements became the preserve of agencies and privately arranged adoptions were prohibited. ‘Freeing orders’ were introduced in the Adoption Act 1976 removing parents’ rights and legal relationship with their child. These were seen to leave children in a legal limbo, and the provision was repealed in 2002.
A growing understanding of a child’s need to know their origins, previously left to the discretion of individual agencies, led to the right of all adopted adults to obtain a copy of their original birth certificate. (introduced in the Children Act 1975 and incorporated into the 1976 Act).
2002 – child welfare becomes an overarching principle
The paramountcy of the child’s welfare throughout their life, and avoidance of undue delay for children were overarching principles of the Adoption and Children Act 2002. Another key tenet of the legislation was the ‘no order principle’, which stipulates that a court should not make an adoption-related order unless it positively improves the child’s welfare.
The 2002 Act introduced the possibility of unmarried couples adopting jointly and for the first time began to recognise the lifelong impacts of adoption on all those involved and allowed birth parents to access intermediary services to seek information about their adopted children.
Special guardianship was introduced by the 2002 Act as an amendment to the Children Act 1989,. There was seen to be a need for an order that allowinged children for whom adoption was not appropriate to be cared for permanently outside the care system without total severance of the legal birth parent/child relationship.
2014 – duties on local authorities and better support for families
The Children and Families Act 2014 introduced a duty on local authorities to consider fostering for adoption to enable children to be placed early with carers who would be able to adopt them if they could not return to their birth family. It made stronger provision for adoption support services, made specific rules about post-adoption contact and extended access to information across the adoption confidentiality barrier to a wider pool of relatives affected.
2026 – what next for adoption?
Currently there is an acute need for updates to both the regulations and statutory guidance. The 2002 regulations are over 20 years old and neither they, nor the most recent version of the guidance (2013) reflect current structure and practice. The establishment of the Regional Adoption Agencies (RAAs) in 2017 post-dates this earlier guidance and statutory framework and as a result RAAs are not recognised. The Public Law Working Group report of 2024, which underlined the lack of recognition of expectations around staying in touch with birth family that are part of modern adoption, makes wide-ranging recommendations for reform of the existing adoption regime and shows that, one hundred years on from the first Act, adoption law must continue to develop to meet the needs of children and families. There remains a cohort of children who are unable to remain in the care of their families, and for whom adoption is the best option to provide them with the care, love and stability they need throughout their childhood. Long term foster care is not an appropriate alternative for these children.
To mark the centenary of the Adoption of Children Act 1926, Coram is running a programme of activities including the publication of adoption stories spanning the century, capturing the diverse experiences of adopted people, adoptive parents, birth families and others touched by adoption. There is a special edition of the Adoption and Fostering Journal considering modern practice issues, conferences on adoptee voice and longitudinal research as well as opportunity for debate and engagement around the future of adoption, and how we ensure that all involved in adoption can access the support they may need. To find out more please visit: https://www.coramstory.org.uk/adoptionstory
A version of this article also appears on CPY now: https://www.cypnow.co.uk/content/in-depth/a-century-of-adoption-the-pivotal-legislation-that-has-shaped-practice-today