The Adoption and Children Act 2002 came into force on 30 December 2005. Provisions of the Act included: aligning adoption law with the relevant provisions of the Children Act 1989, to ensure that the child s welfare was the paramount consideration in all decisions relating to adoption; placing a duty on local authorities to maintain an adoption service, including arrangements for the provision of adoption support services and an inter-country adoption service; and providing for adoption orders to be made in favour of single people, married or unmarried couples and civil partners or partners who had not entered into a civil partnership.
Source: Adoption and Children Act 2002, Department for Education and Skills, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Act
Date: 2005-Dec
The government responded to a report by a joint committee of MPs and peers on the draft Children (Contact) and Adoption Bill.
Source: The Government Reply to the Report from the Joint Committee on the Draft Children (Contact) and Adoption Bill, Session 2004-05, Hl Paper 100-I/Hc400-I: The draft Children (Contact) and Adoption Bill, Cm 6583, Department for Education and Skills, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Summary | MPs report | Hansard
Date: 2005-Aug
The government responded to a report by a joint committee of MPs and peers on the Draft Children (Contact) and Adoption Bill.
Source: The Government Reply to the Report from the Joint Committee on the Draft Children (Contact) and Adoption Bill, Cm 6583, Department for Education and Skills, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Summary | Joint report
Date: 2005-Jul
The Children and Adoption Bill was published. The Bill would strengthen court powers to enforce child contact orders, but also emphasized that in making contact orders, the welfare of the child concerned was to be the court s paramount consideration.
Source: Children and Adoption Bill [HL], Department for Education and Skills, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Jun
A report said that, for the majority, contact and reunion between adopted adults and birth relatives was rewarding and beneficial for the adopted person, birth relatives and adoptive parents.
Source: John Triseliotis, Julia Feast and Fiona Kyle, The Adoption Triangle Revisited: A study of adoption, search and reunion experiences, BAAF Adoption and Fostering (020 7593 2000)
Links: Summary | BAAF press release | Observer report
Date: 2005-Jun
The government announced plans (in the Queen's speech) for a Child Contact and Inter-country Adoption Bill. The Bill would give the courts more powers to facilitate contact or enforce contact orders, and provide a statutory framework for the suspension of inter-country adoptions.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Debate 17 May 2005, columns 29-31, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Hansard
Date: 2005-May
The government published a draft Children (Contact) and Adoption Bill. The draft Bill proposed new and more flexible powers for judges to facilitate contact and enforce contact orders, and set out the process by which inter-country adoptions from individual countries might be suspended where there were concerns about child welfare. The draft Bill was published for pre-legislative scrutiny.
Source: Draft Children (Contact) and Adoption Bill, Cm 6462, Department for Education and Skills, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 2 February 2005, columns 55WS, TSO
Links: Text of Draft Bill (pdf) | Hansard | DfES press release
Date: 2005-Feb
An article reported the findings from a sample of adoptive kinship networks - involving adoptive parents, children and birth relatives from the same kinship networks who were sharing direct, face-to-face contact. It explored the development of relationships between adults, and the ways in which their interaction affected the experience of contact as reported by the children.
Source: Janette Logan, 'Face-to-face contact post adoption: Views from the triangles', British Journal of Social Work, Volume 35 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Jan