Adoption

There has never been a law preventing lesbian, gay or bisexual individuals from adopting children.

The Adoption and Children Act 2002 now allows same-sex couples to apply for adoption jointly in England and Wales.

The Scottish Executive supports a change in the law to allow same-sex couples to be considered for adoption and a bill is currently making it’s way through the Scottish Parliament.

On this page:

• Adoption in England and Wales
• Adoption in Scotland

Adoption in England and Wales

Adoption Laws
In November 2002, the Adoption and Children Act passed into law and for the first time allowed unmarried couples, including same-sex couples, to apply for joint adoption.

Any unmarried couple, including a same-sex couple, wishing to adopt will need to be able to demonstrate that their partnership is an ‘enduring family relationship’.

The Adoption and Children Act came into effect on 30 December 2005.

Adoption process in England and Wales

• Applications for adoption must be made to an adoption agency – the local authority or an approved adoption agency. It is not necessary to live in the area of the local authority to which the adoption application is made.
  
• The adoption assessment is lengthy and very thorough. If you are a couple applying to adopt you will both be assessed and will need to demonstrate the stable and enduring nature of your relationship. Even if you are applying to adopt as a single parent, your partner will also be included in the assessment process.
  
• If the initial assessment is favourable the application is referred to the Adoption Panel. If you are approved by the Adoption Panel a child or young person may be placed with you and depending on the success of the placement an application can be made to the court for an adoption order, when further reports will be placed before the court.

We are not aware of any local authorities who refuse to consider applications from lesbians and gay men although adoption agencies are able to do so (for example, if they are a religious agency which may have a policy of only placing children with married couples). It remains to be seen whether local authorities and other adoption agencies will actively welcome lesbian and gay couples as adoptive parents.

In practice the majority of children placed with lesbian and gay couples are ‘hard to place’ children.

Adoption in Scotland

Adoption laws

All adoptions in Scotland are governed by the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 and the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007. One core principle underpins adoption in Scotland, namely:

The child's welfare throughout life is paramount in all decisions made by   adoption agencies and courts.

In the process of adoption, courts and adoption agencies must also have particular regard, where possible, to:

  - The value of a stable family unit in the child's development

  - The child's views

  - The child's religious persuasion, racial origin, and cultural and linguistic background, and

  - The likely effect on the child throughout their life of the making of an adoption order.

Lesbian, gay and bisexual people have always been able to adopt children in Scotland, provided they are deemed suitable and meet the best interests of the child. However, previously, if a same-sex couple wanted to adopt a child, only one of the individuals could apply to be the full legal guardian with the other applying for residence rights.

After intense lobbying from Stonewall and other gay rights organisations, the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 was passed by the Scottish Parliament in December 2006. It enables same-sex couples to adopt jointly, giving them the same parenting rights as straight couples and thereby offering their children better legal protection and security.

If you want to adopt as a couple in Scotland you must be either:

- married

- civil partners

- living together as if husband and wife in an enduring family relationship, or

- living together as if civil partners in an enduring family relationship.
 
The adoption process requires a lot of commitment and prospective adopters must be prepared to be assessed as to their suitability to adopt.

Adoption agencies in Scotland

There are two types of adoption agencies in Scotland - those within local authorities; and voluntary organisations approved by the Scottish Executive, known as 'registered adoption services'.  Both of these services are covered by the above legislation.

The UK government has also confirmed recently that all local authority adoption services as well as all registered adoption services will be covered by forthcoming equality legislation, expected to come into force in Scotland in April 2007, which will prevent discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation in the provision of public goods, facilities and services (GFS).

The new GFS legislation will prevent adoption services from refusing a potential adoptive couple on the basis of their sexual orientation. Faith-based adoption agencies with particular views in relation to lesbian, gay and bisexual people will also have to comply with the new equality legislation following a transition period ending in December 2008, and will then not be able to refuse to assess same-sex couples or lesbian and gay individuals.

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