Iadopted my daughter when she was six years old. She had been in the care of a local authority pretty much since birth. Now 18, she and I both worry about the current predicament for many children in the UK who grow up with a local authority as their corporate parent, a situation exacerbated by the pandemic as lockdown puts families under pressure. “How can we change things?” my daughter asked me as we completed my book about adopting, The Wild Track, together. “Who will really listen?”

Government statistics show that, in England as of 31 March 2020, there were 80,080 children in care. In that same period only 3,440 children were adopted. But in 2015 the number of adoptions in England had risen to 5,360. Why this rise? And why the subsequent fall?

In 2005, a review of the adoption system introduced amendments, including support for adopters and – reflecting changing attitudes – broadening the field of prospective adopters to include single parents and the LGBTQ+ community. In 2011, a significant adoption reform programme followed on from a report by Martin Narey, a government adviser on children’s social care, initiated by Tim Loughton, then parliamentary undersecretary for children and families, and Edward Timpson, who took over that post in 2012 – and supported by Michael Gove, then education secretary. The latter two had a personal investment: Timpson, the son of John (of the shoe repair chain), grew up with children fostered by his parents; Gove and his sister were adopted as babies.

The plan was to make faster decisions on release for adoption, to speed up court procedure, to find more prospective adoptive parents, and to relax strictures on matching and the search for “perfect” homes. As Gove put it at the time: “We can’t afford to ration love.”

But then came some important legal rulings. In one case from 2013 the judges declared that adoption was only appropriate “where nothing else will do”. Also that year, a survey of case law concluded that “the severance of family ties inherent in an adoption without parental consent is an extremely draconian step and one that requires the highest level of evidence”. Social workers, while eager to place children at risk, felt constrained and cautious.

A woman adopted from Southport in 1953 was brought to tears when she found out her birth mother was still alive.

Margaret, who grew up in Warwickshire, was adopted from Southport when she was just six months old.

Born in 1953, the woman always believed her birth mother was one of the many Irish women who came over in the 1950's for the sake of adoption.

Margaret went on BBC2 's DNA Family Secrets in order to search for her birth mother.

Going into the show, the only thing Margaret knew about her biological mother is the name written on her birth certificate, although she wasn't convinced that it was a real name.

I’ve always known that I’m adopted, it’s a conversation that my parents and I have had since I was two and we all flew back on a plane from China. In many ways, I think that the candor on the distinctions between myself and the rest of my family, and indeed, the world around me, encouraged me to always have a strong voice. I felt like I needed to say things louder, in order to be equally recognised.

Things that should have been easy for me became more challenging as I came to terms with issues surrounding race and identity.

The Girl With Many Faces | Jinling Wu

Allie was adopted from China when she was two years old.

As I was growing into this world, there were so many foundations that I was missing, and I had to create those roots myself

I’ve always known that I’m adopted, it’s a conversation that my parents and I have had since I was two and we all flew back on a plane from China. In many ways, I think that the candor on the distinctions between myself and the rest of my family, and indeed, the world around me, encouraged me to always have a strong voice. I felt like I needed to say things louder, in order to be equally recognised.

Things that should have been easy for me became more challenging as I came to terms with issues surrounding race and identity.

The Girl With Many Faces | Jinling Wu

Allie was adopted from China when she was two years old.

As I was growing into this world, there were so many foundations that I was missing, and I had to create those roots myself

After a devastating report on abuses, the Netherlands immediately suspended international adoption. Nova-Lilly (33) also had to deal with this. She was adopted from Sri Lanka, but had a terrible childhood.

'All my childhood I was punished. Sometimes I had just 'looked wrong', sometimes my room was not properly tidy. Then my mother would empty my desk drawers on the floor. "Start over," she shouted. I was seven. If I was "not nice" she would take me to her sister. After a week, sometimes longer, I was allowed to return. My brother and sister were just at home. According to her, they were 'nice'. '

'I was adopted. My adoptive parents, Peter and Marja, were invited by the adoption agency to pick up 'their' child in Sri Lanka. They preferred a girl. Once arrived there were only boys. Marja and Peter suddenly only wanted a girl on the spot. I was six days old and literally moved somewhere when I lay in their arms. In the Netherlands I had a brother of one, their biological child. When I was four, another girl came from Sri Lanka. '

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Emily (36) about the cot death of her son: 'He just should have been here'

Two parents in a Småland municipality received an adopted child from abroad.

One and a half years later, they "repented" and returned the child, who was of preschool age, to the country of origin. It reports the news agency Siren.

Now a social secretary wants the health and care inspectorate, Ivo, to answer how the municipality should act.

The Social Welfare Board must have been in contact with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA), which must have issued directives on the care of the child.

As the child is already abroad, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must have told the municipality that the "implementation of the decision" should go through them, through a so-called "request for enforcement".

The notion of Finnishness as whiteness challenges internationally adopted people to negotiate their identity, The Doctoral Research reveals. The Doctoral Research to be examined at the University of Jyväskylä examines the family of birth, the adoption family and the normative conception of Finnishness in the identity negotiations of internationally adopted people.

In her dissertation, Maarit Koskinen, M.Sc., examined the identity work of internationally adopted people. The research focused especially on the meanings of the family of birth, the adopted family and the normative conception of Finnishness in the negotiations on the identity of the adoptees.

Since 1985, almost 5,000 children have been adopted internationally in Finland. International adoptions are often closed adoptions, where the child has no contact with his or her family of birth as he or she grows up. Internationally adopted Finns also often differ from the native Finnish population in their physical characteristics, which exposes them to various experiences of racization, among other things. According to Koskinen's dissertation research, the identity negotiations of internationally adopted people often show both the unknown origin of birth and a different appearance from the native Finns.

Finding a family of birth builds an identity

Research interviews revealed that adulthood in particular, adopted parents ’own parenting, and encountering the family of birth were significant transitions in adopted lives. In this case, the negotiation of one's own identity was also activated.

Two parents in Jönköping County adopted a child of preschool age from another country, but after a year and a half with the child, the parents regretted it and wanted to return the adopted child.

The child is now back in his home country, but the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has issued a directive that the child must be taken care of in accordance with the Care of Young People Act.

A social secretary has now written to the Swedish Health and Care Inspectorate for the authority to sort out the question of what should be done and by whom.

.

- So awful.

- How can anyone make themselves do that to a small child?

Fy for the devil

This is how Anette S. writes in one of the comments written on SVT's Jönköbing's Facebook profile about a local couple who, after a year and a half with an adopted child, have handed it back to the country the child originally came from. And Anette S is not the only one who is shaken by the case, which has led the municipality to ask the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to help:

- Damn it.

(New York) – Panama’s National Assembly passed a bill on March 3, 2021, that includes a discriminatory prohibition on adoption by same-sex couples, Human Rights Watch said today.

Bill No.120, which aims to protect children and adolescents from unnecessary separation from their biological family, allows for adoption by both single persons and married couples. However, not only are same-sex marriages not yet legal in Panama, but the bill defines eligible married couples as those composed of partners of “different sex.”

President Laurentino Cortizo should veto articles 22 and 26 of the bill, which violate international human rights standards on non-discrimination, respect for private and family life, and the rights of the child, and perpetuate prejudices about lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people.

“Excluding same-sex couples as adoptive parents is not only stigmatizing but in Panama compounds the violation of not having their relationships acknowledged or protected in the first place,” said Cristian González Cabrera, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Categorically barring children from being adopted into loving and supportive families is also inconsistent with the principle of the best interest of the child.”

After passing the National Assembly, the bill is now ready for signature by President Cortizo, who has the legal authority to veto all or part of it.