The Centenary of The Adoption of Children Act
The Adoption of Children Act (1926) introduced for the first time a legal process by which the rights and responsibilities for a child could be transferred from birth parents to adoptive parents. It provided a legal framework for adoption and is a significant historical development in child welfare legislation.
Our programme of work aims to enable the sector to recognise, review and reflect on the importance of the legislation and the evolution of adoption and to build greater understanding of adoption today and the part it continues to play in the continuum of care for children who cannot remain safely in their birth families.
Q&A for Coram’s adoption centenary programme
Why is Coram marking the centenary of adoption?
In 2026 Coram is convening a programme of work to enable the sector to recognise, review and reflect on the importance of the passing of the Adoption Act 1926 and the evolution of adoption. We also aim to build greater understanding of adoption today and the part it continues to play in the continuum of care for children who cannot remain safely in their birth families.
The programme begins with a review of the legislative framework and launch of adoptionstory.org.uk as a platform to explore the different experiences of those touched by adoption.
It features the publication of new longitudinal research on attachment in adoption, public discussion on the past, present and future, and publication of a special edition of the Journal of Adoption and Fostering and is centred on the voice of children and young people.
This is also an important opportunity to ask about the future of adoption and the part it continues to play in providing security and a lifetime of difference for children who would otherwise remain in care. And there is a need for lifetime support in accessing records with the relaunch of Adoption Search and Reunion planned for National Adoption Week 2026.
What is Coram’s role in the history of adoption?
Coram has a long history of providing care to children who cannot grow up within their birth families. We were established as the Foundling Hospital in 1739, the first home for children who couldn’t be cared for by their families, and we have over 50 years’ experience as an adoption agency.
Upon the closure of the Foundling Hospital residential school in 1954, Coram established an adoption agency in 1972 as a service for children in the care system.
The majority of these children had been taken into care for their own protection due to neglect or abuse and needed to be placed in safe and loving adoptive families.
Our work in adoption has always been about putting children first and foremost and recognising their needs.
Over the years we have championed early permanence to give babies and young children stability, LGBTQ+ adoption, and finding families from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds to meet the needs of children waiting, as well as national matching services to ensure every child can have the best possible chance.
This includes the delivery of adoption activity days to find matches across regional boundaries for children waiting and the pioneering of Sibling Time so that those who are adopted can meet with their siblings in foster care.
What have been the positive differences adoption has made over the last century?
Adoption has provided stability and security for children who were unable to be cared for by their birth families. During the first half of the 20th century, most adoptions were the infants of single mothers forced by social and financial pressures to relinquish them. Society at that time was deeply prejudiced against unmarried mothers and their children and they faced huge stigma.
Adoption provided a positive alternative to institutional care for these children and addressed the lack of accountability inherent in informal arrangements.
Research shows that adoption continues to be the most effective form of permanent alternative care for children with a low breakdown rate and positive outcomes for most children.
What have been the negative aspects of adoption?
In the first half of the 20th century, adoption was shrouded in secrecy reflecting the issues of social stigma which meant many children did not know they were adopted and found it difficult to discover their origins.
The term “forced adoption” refers the period from 1948 to 1976, when thousands of unmarried mothers in the UK gave up their babies for adoption because of social and family pressure. This has created lifelong trauma and suffering for many mothers and their children.
We call for apology for the lack of support and protection by the state which denied many women a real and meaningful choice and which led to them relinquishing their babies when they could have cared for them.
Even at this time, some children were removed from abusive parents, or the adoption was an informed choice made by families who were not in a position to care for another child, or for a child with a disability, or by women who simply weren’t ready for a child at a time when abortion was illegal and there was a lack of access to contraception.
Social attitudes have gradually changed and in 1976 adoption became a service for children removed from their families for their own protection. Only a small number of children today are relinquished for adoption. The vast majority of adoptions are of children who have been taken into care for their safety and where the plan for adoption is agreed by the court to provide lifelong security for the child.
Any apology for the lack of support of the past must include action to make sure that the situation has really changed today – ensuring that a teenager won’t have to hide a pregnancy from her family or community for fear of being ostracised or subject to honour-based violence, that a pregnancy won’t get classed as ‘unwanted’ because a family can’t afford their care or a mother is trapped in an abusive relationship or has mental health needs that she can’t access help for. Reparative work should include funding to allow birth parents and adopted adults to take advantage of their rights to support, search and trace set out in current adoption legislation.
How is adoption different today?
Since 1926, legislation, practice, social attitudes and welfare support have changed immeasurably. Today adoption is a service for children in care, with an emphasis placed on connections, life story and therapeutic support. We have a much greater understanding of children’s emotional needs and the significance of early attachments between young children and their carers.
There is greater emphasis now on identity and continuing relationships between adoptive children and their birth families, where that is safe, with greater transparency and potential opportunities for post-adoption contact.
There is also more known on the importance of placing children with adoptive parents who reflect their ethnicity and culture, so that the child’s heritage and identity can be promoted as they grow up.
Research over many decades shows that adoption provides a firm foundation for children with a forever family with positive outcomes. For the vast majority of adopted children this is the case and they and their families should be supported as part of the continuum of care society provides – including fostering, kinship and residential care – for our most vulnerable children.
What changes do Coram want to see in the adoption system for the future?
With increased numbers of children waiting to be adopted and a decrease in the numbers of available adoptive families, it’s extremely important that the message continues to be conveyed that our most vulnerable children need adopters to come forward, and that that is a priority for society that they do so.
With children waiting longer to be matched, we need to look at all options to speed up the adoption process to give children stability as early as possible. We call on the Government to re-establish the National Adoption Register for England – this was a national register (closed by the government in 2019) with details of children and approved adopters, and was successful in boosting matches, particularly for children waiting longest including those with additional needs and in sibling groups.
Lifelong support for adoptive families is also crucial, and that is why we have joined with organisations across the sector to urge the government to commit to the ongoing funding of the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund to ensure all families can access support whenever they need it.
Too many children with complex needs are not receiving the support they need – whether from local authorities, social workers or agencies, while they have also experienced cuts to the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund. The SEND review is an opportunity to address that and recognise that adoptive children should have an entitlement to assessment for an Education Health and Care Plan in recognition of the issues they may face.
2026 will also mark the fifth anniversary of the 2021 National Adoption Strategy, setting out the then government’s vision for adoption services across England. This year represents an opportunity to take stock and consider how effective that Strategy has been and also make policy recommendations for change moving forward.
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