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Adoption in England: The end of placements dictated by race, culture, religion and language (£)
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JOHN HAYES QC Zenith Chambers Leeds
Dr PETER HAYES Senior Lecturer in Politics University of Sunderland
The Government has declared same race placement policies in adoption 'not child-centred and unacceptable’ and Parliament has confronted the issue head on. Section 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014 has repealed the 'due consideration' requirement in s 1(5) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002.
The authors explain how s 1(5) has been used to legitimise a race matching ideology held by many social workers and other professionals involved in adoption. This has led to foster carers and prospective adopters being rejected on the grounds of lack of an ethnic match. It has also allowed other ideological viewpoints to take hold in some adoption agencies.
For example prospective adopters who have expressed a ‘colour... Read the full article here.