[LegalZone]

If you are in the UK please lobby your MP about, The Access to Information (Pre-Commencement Adoptions) Regulations 2004 which have been published in draft form for further consultation.

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations...ltationId=1248

If you live outside of the UK but are affected by this legislation by virtue of having been involved in an adoption that took place in England or Wales then please write directly to The Minster for Children and Families, the Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP at the address on the Consultation document or via your local British Embassy or Consular Office or High Commission.

Do you want a social worker to be able decide whether it is appropriate for your birth relative to be able to search for you? Surely only you should have that decision to make? If a social worker feels that an applicant may have a harmful intent then surely she should refer the matter to the High Court as is the present procedure when there is such concern about an adoptee applying for access to birth records.

Do you want a civil servant to be able decide whether it is appropriate for your birth relative to be able to search for you?

Do you want to be charged hundreds of pounds for a search for your birth relative that should cost no more than few pounds? There seems to be no firm regulation on fees, or on what means of test will be made in deciding who may be excused those fees.

When Section 9, 98, and 144(2) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 was being debated in 2002 many people and organisations expressed concern that so much was being left to "secondary legislation", that is, rules and regulations made up by Civil Servants and passed without proper full parliamentary debate. Ms Jacqui Smith the minister in charge at that time told us all that there would be full public debate on these regulations.

For the Adoption and Children Act 2002 see

http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts2002/20020038.htm

And its Explanatory Notes

http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/en2002/2002en38.htm

Responsibility has now shifted to the Department for Education and Skills and to the Minster for Children, Ms Margaret Hodge. Many of you will remember Ms Hodge, but just in case here is a little of her history.

From the Guardian.

http://society.guardian.co.uk/child...1087250,00.html

Do you want to let this woman to get away with depriving you of a democratic right.

I do think numbers are going to be important here, so I hope everyone will use the Feedback Form at

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations...ltationId=1248

to make their own comments as well.

Some people have contacted me to say that they have had difficulty downloading the documents from the DoH/DfES websites so I have put the full package of documents as a Zip file at

http://homepage.mac.com/harritt/consultation.zip

I also hope that everyone will write to their own MP to ask him or her to ask Ms Hodge the Minister in charge of this consultation why it does not meet the the guidelines set out in the 'Code of Practice on written consultation'?

It is important that you do it that way as your MP is obliged by rules of parliamentary procedure to answer a constituents letter. And a Government Minister is obliged to answer any questions put to him/her by a member of parliament.

Specifically the guidelines state:

1/ Consultation widely throughout the process, allowing a minimum of 12 weeks for written consultation at least once during the development of policy

It is now about half way through this consultation, few of the general public or the majority of people who might want to respond have been made aware of this consultation.

2/ Be clear about what your proposals are, who may be affected, what questions are being asked and the timescale for responses

There are a number of instances where they have not been at all clear about what the proposals are and who will be affected.

3/ Ensure that your consultation is clear, concise and widely accessible.

It is very poorly accessible, the website keeps moving is difficult to find and does not work properly.

None of the meetings that have been convened on this consultation are open to the public at large, nor even to the majority of those who will be affected by this legislation, very few if any of the individuals who have contributed to previous rounds of consultation seem to have been invited to consultation meetings. The DfES seems to have assumed we are all happy to let a few organisations that represent less than 1% of us speak for us all.

Here is part of the e-mail from the DfES again, please don['t shoot the messenger here. We want a response from Margaret Hodge the Minister for
Children and Families.

<quote>

”... I am sorry that I was unable to give you advance notification of the publication of the consultation documents. In the lead-up to publication, the date of publication changed several times in order that we could generate media interest. Margaret Hodge was also keen to publicise the consultation through TV and radio so we had to delay publication to accommodate her availability for interviews etc. The week in which we published the consultation document was particularly frenetic.

The consultation document is available on-line at www.children.doh.gov.uk/adoption. It is also available on the DfES' e-consultation system. This allows users to view the document on screen and to provide written comments/feedback on-line. This site can be accessed at www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations

Turning to the consultation process, I hope you will understand that we do not have the capacity to convene consultation events for the public and service-users as well as practitioners. As you know, this consultation exercise is part of a much wider work programme to implement the 2002 Act and we have therefore had to limit the number of consultation events so that all the consultation packages could be accommodated. We have invited a range of stakeholder representatives, including those representing birth relatives, adoptive parents and adopted persons and we believe that these organisations will effectively communicate the views of those people whom they represent. Finally, I should point out that the consultation workshops are primarily technical, designed to help refine the secondary legislation and supporting guidance in collaboration with those practitioners who will be using the documents on a daily basis. Of course we value the view of service users too but I think it is right that practitioners are given priority for the consultation events. Of course, as the consultation document makes clear, we welcome the written comments of any person with an interest in adoption and guarantee that all written responses will be carefully considered before the regulations and guidance are finalised. We are also looking at developing more detailed good practice guidance before the regulations come into force in September 2005 and this may present further opportunities for service users to contribute....“

<end quote>

As you can see from the e-mail quoted above the government is not at all interested in hearing the views of those affected by this legislation, only those of the social worker and organisations that will administer it.

I hope everyone will understand how important this is and do their bit by answering the Consultation by using the Feedback Form and by writing to their MP in the terms outlined above.

Address your letter to.

Your MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

Do it before it's too late

Or If you live outside of the UK but are affected by this legislation by virtue of having been involved in an adoption that took place in England or Wales then please write directly to The Minster for Children and Families Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP at the address on the Consultation document or via your local British Embassy or Consular Office or High Commission.

Robin Harritt

http://harritt.net

[Rowan]

Robin

Can I have your permission to send a copy of your post to the manager at a large UK Adoption MSN group called 'Birthparents and Adoptees'?

I think that you may get some support there.

Rowan

[LegalZone]

Hi Rowan

I don't mind anyone copying any of this anywhere that they think it will do any good.

I have managed to find all my siblings on my mothers side despite the social workers, five of them had been adopted to different families. The only times that things nearly went very seriously wrong it was because almost of moronic action by social workers who had no idea on earth of how to act in such a situation.

I have siblings on my father's side. should they wish to find me they would have no way except through the adoption agency, of proving a relationship. My birth father's name is not on my OBC.

It really frightens me to think the same bunch of idiots at Barnardos who took twelve years of fighting with to give me my own medical records, can decide whether a brother or sister's search for me is appropriate.

I am particularly disappointed with theses regulation as I was instrumental in getting the primary legislation that makes them possible passed. I wanted the power to decide on who could search for who, taken away from adoption agencies, not to add to their powers in that respect. The only way a social worker should be able to discontinue a search if she has gone to court to obtain an injunction.

I'm sure many birthmothers who feel that they were forced to relinquish a child against their will, will be appalled that a social worker, perhaps in some cases even the very same, then very junior but now very senior. social worker will be deciding if their search is "appropriate" or not.

Giving the history of agencies such as Barnardos, giving them that power is simply wrong. Barnardos has shown over and over again that it far more concerned with its own backside covering exersize, than it is with telling its past charges the truth. I'm sure many of the other long established agencies from the closed era would also be far more concerned about the legal repercussions of unnecessarily splitting up a sibbling group than they would about reuniting that group. These regulations were written for the conveinience of the agencies, and the DfES wants to make pretty **** sure you and I as individuals don't have our say.

Sorry to ramble on so, and in a somewhat personal way but I don't think in the adoption comunity realise how important this is.

Robin Harritt

http://harritt.net

[Rowan]

Hi Robin


Thanks for your reply :-)

I do understand what you are trying to do as I have experienced it first hand already in Scotland. When I contacted the authorities to try and make contact with my child to let him know that I would always welcome him if he ever wanted to find me or know anything about it all. A social worker decided on behalf of my child (adult child over 21) that he will not get to know that I am searching for him right now - because they feel he should not make that decision right now.

Rowan

[Uncle Albert]

You've only three weeks to (until July 31st 2004) to do your part in making sure that we have sensible laws about finding birth relatives.
If not we may find ourselves with a law that places us back with 1975 attitudes.

Some adoption organisations would like birth family never to be able to find the adopted person no matter what the consequences of that.

Some would like contact only to be possible if it is made through the adoptive parents if still alive, even if the adoptee is in his 40s or 50s+
and the adoptive parents in their 80s+. Some agencies work like that now. NORCAP works like that now because of dubious legal advice that it has received via BAAF and the government department concerned.

NORCAP, the only entity that the government sees as our representative organisation, seems to be doing very little to get our views across at the moment. It has failed to organise a singe members meeting on this stage of the legislation. As far as I know it has produced no questionnaires to poll our views. Yet the DfES the government department responsible tells me it is hearing all our views because it is consulting NORCAP. Don't rely on it. NORCAP needs to decide whether it is an organisation that represents all those involved in adoption or whether it is more interested in achieving the compromises necessary to become an ASA. It needs to stop and think if there are any conflicts of interest between those two functions.

The only way the views of adult adopted people are going to be heard is if we all make them known directly.

The consultation document can be read online at

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations...ltationId=1248

Please do something about this folks.

>

[penny]

I dont understand it cost me nothing to find my birthfamily, i didnt realise some ppl have had to pay to find their bfam. In my case im glad that my bfam couldnt contact me untill i was ready. But i do understand that this can be frustrating for b-mams and dads. My social worker was great and give me all the information that i needed and informed me that i had been searched for, but they couldnt tell me at first because i needed to contact them first, which i think is fair enough.I did ask why i wasnt told, and they said they are not allowed to contact me just incase it wasnt what i wanted.So i do feel that some adoptees do not want to be found and they have every right not to be found by bfam, it can cause problems for the adoptee depending on there feelings.Also i had no problem with obtaining my records, i must have be one of the lunky ones maybe.

Thanks penny xxxxxx

[Robin Harritt]

Hi Penny

The current changes apply only to England & Wales you do not say which country you are in. Scotland and N Ireland are both still reviewing their adoption laws.

This thread is about the changes in the law in England & Wales that are going to happen next September (2005). The government has just had a consultation period which has now closed. It has absolutely nothing to do with the way thing are at this moment.

At the moment your adoption agency or local authority is not allowed to charge you as an adoptee for the work that it does as a part of Section 51 counselling.

Very few people ever get to see all of their adoption records, but social workers very rarely tell people that some of their information is being withheld.

Very often in the past brothers and sisters were taken away from their birth families simply because they were unable to afford to keep them, they were then adopted by completely different families and lost touch. Because of the way the law is at the moment and has been for many years, they were unable to find each other again. This is not just about people who were given up as babies and birth mothers. Nothing in the new laws will enable a birth mother to find an adoptee who does not want to be contacted. It will make it more difficult for that to happen. The new law gives social workers excessive powers, how would you have felt about it if the social worker had taken one lookm at you and told you that she thought your search was inappropriate and she wouldn't help you? Fortunately that's not going to happen with adoptees who are searching for their birth family, if social worker has any doubts about an adoptee's motives then they have to go to court to stop them from having any information. Not the same for someone who is trying to find their brother or sister who has been adopted. After September 2005 it is likely to cost about £300 pounds to get an ASA to do that kind of search. My mother had seven children including me adopted it would cost a fortune if had to rely on an ASA to find them all. Luckily I have already found them.

Your social worker is not correct when she says that they could not tell you that your birth family had been searching for you. Providing you were over 18 there is nothing in the current law to have prevented them from telling you so. Some agencies and local authorities have an internal policy of not contacting adoptees under 25 others 21 or 22. Some will only make contact through the adoptive parents even if the adoptee is 40 or 50 years old and the parents are 70 or 80 years old, which I think is very wrong.

I hope that explains is it for you. Everyone's adoption is different and everyone's reunion (or wish not to reunite) is different, I'm glad to hear things worked out well for you, but it's not always that simple, which is why we need better laws and policy. We won't get that unless people involved in adoption tell our government what is needed.



Robin