A History of Adoption in England and Wales 1850- 1961 by Gill Rossini

Author:Gill Rossini
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain
ISBN: 9781473846449
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2014-11-29T16:00:00+00:00

The 1926 Adoption of Children Act

As a result of the growing support among adoption societies, politicians and other agencies concerned with child welfare, several attempts were made to guide adoption bills through Parliament in the early 1920s. The Hopkinson Committee set up in 1920 concluded that legal adoption would be a positive step forward, and the Tomlin Committee of 1924 also endorsed the perceived positive effects legalised adoption would have, however, it raised questions over some issues, for instance over the merits of breaking all ties with the birth family, although in effect the subsequent act set the precedent for the cutting of all ties and only rarely did the birth family maintain a link with their now adopted child after 1926.

By the mid-1920s, a bill had been introduced to Parliament to legalise and regulate the adoption of children. It was the tenth bill to be introduced on this subject since 1922. Based on the recommendations of the Tomlin Committee, it still must have been extremely challenging for those who had to draft the bill to be mindful of the many points of view and agendas of those involved, and the Committee interviewed dozens of witnesses in its attempts to take a broad view.

Although in general the bill was favourably received in Parliament, both as a pragmatic way of improving the lives of many children, and as a patriotic way of mending some of the problems caused by the Great War, the bill was not welcomed by all members of parliament. Lieutenant Commander Kenworthy, the Labour MP for Hull Central, declared in a debate on 3 April 1925, that such a bill would ‘encourage the breaking up of families and the shirking of the duties of parenthood’ and he believed that it was part of a trend towards the breakdown of family if birth parents, for reasons of poverty, lack of feeling for a child, or sheer selfishness used the courts to transfer their legal parenthood to adoptive parents.

He went on to say that the bill would also enable parents who had been too selfish to have children themselves and who later in life had a gap in their lives, to go to poor people with large families and induce them to part with one of their children. In opposition to this view were many people who simply wanted to safeguard the new families created by an adoption, by putting it in a legal framework and formally transferring parental rights.

Finally, the long awaited and debated act to legalise adoption became law on 1 January 1927. No one seems to have thought it perfect – in fact, on 11 May 1925 The Times declared the report on which the bill was based to be ‘cautious and limited’ in character. Rather it was seen as a good starting point, and indeed it did cover most of the important points that had been agonised over and it provided important reassurances for adoptive parents, not least the peace of mind that came with knowing that the fear of birth parents materialising and demanding their child back had been lifted.

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