A report summarized a mapping survey of services supporting birth relatives and contact provided by adoption agencies, together with their costing, commissioning, and accessibility.
Source: Supporting the Birth Relatives of Adopted Children and Supporting Post-Adoption Contact in Complex Cases: Executive summary, Research Report RW99, Department for Education and Skills (0845 602 2260)
Links: Report
Date: 2007-Mar
The Northern Ireland Executive announced (following consultation) a series of initiatives to improve adoption in Northern Ireland. Patchy and inconsistent support services would be tackled by placing a clear duty on trusts, for the first time, to ensure the provision of adoption support services, including financial support. A new legal order of ?special guardianship? would enable children to have a permanent family life with a carer but maintain a basic link with their birth family.
Source: Press release 25 January 2007, Northern Ireland Executive (028 9052 0500)
Links: NIE press release | Consultation responses | CiNI report | Community Care report
Date: 2007-Jan
The Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 was given Royal assent. The Act was designed to reform and extend the adoption system in Scotland. It placed a legal duty on each local authority to provide an adoption service.
Source: Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007, Scottish Parliament, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Act
Date: 2007-Jan
The Prime Minister said that there would be no exemptions for faith-based adoption agencies offering publicly-funded services (in particular, those run by the Catholic Church) from regulations which prevented discrimination against same-sex couples. There would be a transition period before the regulations came fully into force at the end of 2008 for existing adoption agencies.
Source: Press release 29 January 2007, 10 Downing Street (020 7270 1234)
Links: Downing St press release | Catholic Church press release | Stonewall press release | Barnardos press release | Christian Institute press release | BAAF press release | TUC press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Times report
Date: 2007-Jan