Historic forced adoption - scoping study: final report

Executive summary

Introduction

Historic forced adoption refers to practices in the 1950s-1970s “which resulted in newborn babies being unnecessarily taken away from unmarried mothers and placed for adoption, without regard for the mothers' and children's needs or wishes”^[1].

In January 2023, as part of a range of work on this theme, the Scottish Government commissioned The Lines Between (TLB) to conduct a scoping study to explore support services for people affected by historic forced adoption.

This summary outlines the study findings, based on fieldwork with people affected by historic forced adoption including mothers, adoptees^[2] and other family members, and stakeholders such as local authority representatives (the majority of whom were social work practitioners), post-adoption support services, academics and campaigners. A review of key literature was undertaken in the foundation stages of the research.

It is important to note that adoption policy and practice has changed since the 1950s-1970s, with more support and safeguards now in place for adoptees, parents whose children have been adopted, and adoptive parents.

Support needs among people affected by historic forced adoption

This executive summary focuses on the findings about the support needs of people affected by historic forced adoption; specifically search and reunion, accessing records and the emotional and psychological impact of historic forced adoption. The full report covers wider findings about the lived experience of historic forced adoption.

Search and reunion

People affected by historic forced adoption described the importance of searching for and reuniting with family members separated by forced adoption. This includes practical support to access the records required to trace family members, to make initial contact and support reunions; and emotional support throughout the process.

In addition to the positive feedback about existing public, private and third sector services that provide search and reunion support, some areas for improvement were identified. These included ensuring that there is clear guidance about searching for family members and the support services available, and that people can access emotional support throughout the process.

Access to records

Some interviewees explained that another motivation for accessing documents, besides search and reunion activity, is to help them understand the circumstances and events that led to the adoption. These include written records about the adoption, such as social work, NHS and court documents containing case notes and descriptions of meetings from the time of the adoption.

Research participants identified gaps and improvements needed, including: practical help and guidance to find and understand records; enhanced emotional support to help individuals process any upsetting information they find, and to deal with disappointment when records are unavailable or lacking detail; more time to consult records; and ensuring people can photograph or photocopy records which contain information about them.

Emotional and psychological support

The severe emotional and psychological impact of historic forced adoption was emphasised by research participants. In some cases, individuals said their mental health had suffered with examples of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Participants emphasised the importance of emotional support, advice and guidance, talking therapies (including psychotherapy and counselling), peer support and creative and alternative therapies.

Some public, private and third sector services are available, but participants noted that the quality of support depends on the understanding of historic forced adoption among GPs, psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists and counsellors. The consensus was that, in general, these professionals would benefit from greater awareness of the impact of historic forced adoption. Crucially, we found no awareness among interviewees of any training or guidelines for these professionals related to supporting people affected by historic forced adoption.

Barriers and challenges

Barriers and challenges to supporting people affected by historic forced adoption include:

• Ensuring services have the capacity and funding to support people affected by historic forced adoption.
• Costs associated with certain activities and services, such as fees related to accessing some documents required to trace family members and charges for private counselling and therapy services, which can be prohibitive.
• Reservations among some people about accessing support delivered by post-adoption support services, some of whom were involved in historic forced adoption.

Next steps

The next steps for the Scottish Government are to consider how to ensure the support needs of people affected by historic forced adoption are met. Key issues include:

• Ensuring that people have adequate support during search and reunion activities, especially emotional support.
• Supporting people to access and understand their records, again including emotional support.
• Enhancing the services available to help people with the emotional, psychological and mental health impact of historic forced adoption.
• Developing training for key professionals such as GPs and mental health workers to raise their understanding of the impact of historic forced adoption so they can support and signpost people more effectively.

When considering next steps, the findings suggest it may be beneficial to engage with people who have lived experience of historic forced adoption to identify priorities and formulate action plans.