PROGRESS ON ADOPTION 

Published on 23 July, 2024 | Katie Welton-Dillon

Every few months, statisticians at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) publish figures detailing the volume and types of work passing through family courts across the country.

They provide the kind of broad context and evidence of important individual patterns which can sometimes even escape family law firms concentrating on their respective caseloads.

The latest tranche of MoJ data underlines one continuing trend; namely, the continued decline in adoption (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2024).

In the decade to last year, the number of applications made by would-be adopters in England and Wales fell by 35 per per cent.

That drop includes fewer applications by individuals and step-parents but is most pronounced among heterosexual couples, with applicants down from 4,656 in 2013 to 2,372 in 2023.

However, despite that overall picture of decline, the number of adoption applications made by same-sex couples has increased by more than 50 per cent to 675 in the course of the last 10 years.

When it comes to adoption orders, the pattern is repeated, with those granted to same-sex parents up 71 per cent during the decade.

As I’ve been telling James Beal, the Times’ Social Affairs Editor, the data bears out the eagerness of same sex couples to have families of their own (https://www.thetimes.com/article/12b1bec1-bb50-41f7-8177-b864ef451ed9?shareToken=f3960ef1f25611acd398d9780b4a9f3b).

Same-sex couples have been able to adopt since the Adoption and Children Act came into force in December 2005 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/38/contents).

Even so, it is only arguably since the passing of legislation allowing same-sex marriage in 2013 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/30/contents) that we have really seen a rise in the number of such couples keen to explore all options to start their own families.

Again, while heterosexual marriage has generally been in decline, the number of same-sex couples choosing to wed has increased since the first ceremonies in late March 2014.

The latest figures issued by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that some 7,800 same-sex marriages took place in 2022 – up just over 60 per cent on the number in 2014 (https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/marriagecohabitationandcivilpartnerships/bulletins/marriagesinenglandandwalesprovisional/2021and2022).

Some of those couples have chosen to start their own families either by relying on surrogacy, capitalising on advances in medical science or adopting from abroad.

The increase in the number of adoptions involving same-sex couples has coincided with renewed efforts on the part of various organisations in the UK to encourage more people to consider it.

Such campaigns have been championed by the likes of the former Cabinet minister Michael Gove, who has described how his own adoption as a baby “transformed” his life (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2057850/Michael-Gove-describes-adoption-transformed-life.html).

The MoJ data contains one other notable positive: a rise in the number of adoptions last year which involved older children.

Although many commentators regard young children as being especially vulnerable, there is common consensus that teenagers also undoubtedly derive considerable benefit from parental support as they prepare for adulthood.