CoramBAAF welcomes the Government apology for historical adoption practices
The Government has today announced an apology for historical forced adoption practices in England. CoramBAAF welcomes today's announcement. This is a long overdue apology which recognises the role of the state and public institutions in these practices in England, and the lifelong impacts on those affected. Practices, mainly between 1949 and 1976, but not exclusively, saw many thousands of mothers being separated from their babies through coercive practices, a denial of choice and a culture of shame.
The apology follows extensive campaigning by people with lived experience and recognises the profound and lifelong impact these practices have had on mothers, adoptees, fathers, birth families and others. The Joint Committee on Human Rights in 2021 launched an inquiry into historic forced adoption which recommended that Government should make an apology for past practices. This was followed recently by the House of Commons Education Select Committee inquiry on historic forced adoption which also made recommendations for a state apology.
All who have been impacted by these historic adoption practices should have access to support including specialist mental health support and improved access to their records. CoramBAAF is working with the Archives and Records Association to develop a new platform that will be freely available, to detail the location of adoption and care records in the UK and signpost to organisations who can support those wishing to access their records. This work builds on work of the UCL MIRRA (Memory – Identity – Rights in Records – Access) project which worked with care experienced and adopted people to understand how records are created and accessed by the people who use them.
The development of the new platform will be designed and co-created throughout by a group of adopted and care experienced people and is based on models already developed in New Zealand and Australia. We know that accessing and understanding records can be a critical part of understanding why decisions were made. In addition, records contribute to identity development for those affected by adoption or care experiences. There are currently insufficient support services for those wishing to access their records and information held by agencies.
We are planning to launch this platform later this year for use by those who want to locate their records and we will be sharing more information about this project as it evolves.
Experiences of adoption are never uniform and it is important to acknowledge the range and individuality of experiences people have had in the context of this apology.
While today's apology concerns historic policies and practices, it is also important to recognise that adoption operates within a very different legal and policy framework today. Children who are adopted today are unable to remain safely within the care of their families because of significant concerns about abuse or neglect. This relatively small cohort of mostly very young babies and children require safe, stable, lifelong and unconditional love and support. Where a parent decides that they are unable to care for their child, adoption with genuine, informed, parental consent is a positive way to meet the child's need for a secure alternative family. Staying in touch with those important to them in their birth families is very much a part of modern adoption practice and supported wherever it is safe to do so. Adoptive families play a vital role in meeting the long-term needs of these children.
Some of the social and economic pressures that affected families in the past undoubtedly remain relevant and significant. Families frequently still face circumstances that make parenting extremely difficult, including poverty, homelessness, poor housing, mental ill-health, domestic abuse and wider social pressures. These challenges reinforce the importance of ensuring that families receive the support they need at the earliest opportunity.
The apology today follows similar made by the Welsh and Scottish Governments in 2023. The Head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales apologised for its role in historic adoption practices in 2016, and just last week the Church of England apologised for its role, particularly in mother and baby homes. An apology is an important step, but it cannot stand alone. It must be accompanied by meaningful support, improved access to records and information, and recognition of the lifelong impact these experiences have. CoramBAAF looks forward to working with adopted people, birth relatives, adoptive families, care experienced people, partners and Government to ensure that those affected receive the support they need and that the lessons from this history continue to inform policy, practice and support services in the future.
Critical service links
Support for adopted adults and birth relatives who have questions about adoption, and those who are seeking information about their past or looking to connect with birth relatives:
Gov.uk - information about adoption records and how to access them (in England and Wales) includes how to obtain a copy of your original birth certificate from the General Register Office, or if you don’t know your birth details, how to make a ‘birth information before adoption’ (BIBA) application. Also information about how to add your details to Adoption Contact Register if you are an adopted adult or birth relative hoping to reconnect (or to register a wish for no contact).
PAC-UK - (part of Family Action) is an adoption support agency that supports people dealing with the realities of adoption and special guardianship, and provides advice, counselling, training, intermediary services and signposting to other relevant services.
FamilyConnect - (part of Family Action/PAC-UK) helps adults who have been adopted, adults who have been in care, birth parents and relatives who have lost someone to adoption and professionals working in these areas. FamilyConnect can help you find answers to questions about your origins and how to go about accessing a service to reconnect.
Adoption Search Reunion – this website is now old and cannot be updated, however it contains the ‘locating adoption records’ database, currently the best source for identifying the current location, where known, of historic adoption records from mother and baby homes, adoption societies and adoption agencies that have closed, relocated or merged over time. CoramBAAF and the Archives and Records Association are working in partnership to develop a new free, easy to navigate online resource that will detail the location of adoption and care records in the UK.
Barnardo’s - offers therapeutic services to anyone affected by adoption primarily in London, the South East, East Anglia, and South West England. For those adopted through Barnardo’s it provides assistance with accessing records, enquiring as a relative of an adopted person, finding information about deceased relatives and about child migration.
Your local council - every local authority’s adoption support service must offer advice and information services to adopted people and to birth parents and relatives who live within their area. Search your council’s website for adoption support or contact your local council and ask for the adoption support service.
Further resources and a timeline of events
1926 Adoption Act.
2011 Public Records Scotland Act and 2025 Care Reform Act (Scotland) mean care records in Scotland have official protection.
2016 onwards University College London’s MIRRA (Memory-Identity-Rights in Records-Access) project working with care experienced and adopted people as co-researchers, creates a starting point for much of the subsequent work on records of care and adopted people. Seed funding in 2016 provides for the grounding for two significant AHRC funded projects commencing in 2017 and continuing to 2021 with additional projects thereafter.
2021 Joint Committee on Human Rights launched an inquiry into historic forced adoption which recommended that Government should make an apology for past practices.
2022 Final report of Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).
2023 Apologies are issued by the Scottish and Welsh Governments.
2023-24 the Chief Archivists in Local Government Group (CALGG) developed guidance for record-keepers on the records of care- and adoption-experienced people building on the work of the MIRRA project. Phase 1 saw the publication of the guidance in March 2024 and Phase 2 published retention schedules to help record-keepers in this aim.
2026 a new phase of the CALGG work has started looking at how records held in Line of Business applications can be successfully transferred for long term digital preservation.
2026 (March) CoramBAAF and the Archives and Records Association (ARA) announced a partnership to make it easier for adopted and care-experienced people to find and access records relating to their adoption and time in care. The initiative will develop a free, easy to navigate online resource and will be launched later in 2026. The platform will detail the location of adoption and care records in the UK and signpost to organisations who can support those wishing to access their records.
2026 (March) Education Select Committee on Historic Forced Adoption – the project above was mentioned by Sally Ells, one of the witnesses and Co-Founder of the Adult Adoptee Movement:
“…there are two essential and very practical steps that we think would make a huge difference. One is to mandate a single online database listing where all the records are held. We recognise that it might be impractical to bring them all together, but the UK and Ireland Archives and Records Association have done a fabulous piece of work on this, and they have actually already developed the database. It is there; they just need some help getting it off the ground, and then all that information is online. That would make a huge difference to us.”