NATIONAL INSTITUTE SOCIAL SERVICES LIBRARY
Volume 30
ADOPTION OF NON-WHITE CHILDREN
First published in 1970 by George Allen & Unwin Ltd
This edition first published in 2022
by Routledge
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1970 George Allen & Unwin Ltd
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-03-203381-5 (Set)
ISBN: 978-1-00-321681-0 (Set) (ebk)
ISBN: 978-1-03-206557-1 (Volume 30) (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-03-206563-2 (Volume 30) (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-00-320281-3 (Volume 30) (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003202813
Publishers Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.
This book is a re-issue originally published in 1970. The language used, and assumptions made, are a reflection of its era and no offence is meant by the Publishers to any reader by this re-publication.
Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.
FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1970
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, 1956, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be addressed to the Publishers.
George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1970
ISBN 0 04 362018 3
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
in 11 pt Fournier type
BY UNWIN BROTHERS LIMITED
WOKING AND LONDON
TO THE MEMORY OF KATE LEWIS TEBBUTT
FOREWORD
by
Sir Frederic Seebohm
I have no hesitation in saying that the British Adoption Project is quite an exceptional piece of work. The base for study and action was a ready-made registered adoption society thus ensuring practical experience in the field. Furthermore the Project was located at Bedford College, University of London, where it enjoyed the advantages of consultation with members of the University staff on the research aspects of its work. Very wisely, provision for a co-ordinating service was built in from the start and this led in due course to the formation of the Adoption Resource Exchange which has every indication of becoming a permanent feature in adoption work in Britain, growing into an organization covering an even wider field than the original object of finding placements for the children of coloured parents.
The book is a fascinating human story and although the author modestly remarks like so many human studies this one raised as many questions as it answered, it nevertheless succeeds in dispersing whole banks of fog that have so long blurred the adoption picture. For anyone interested in any aspect of adoption, dipping into the book is not enough it is compulsory and compulsive reading.
The Projects chief conclusion is that children who are of minority race in Britain today can find adoptive parents who will love and cherish them. Before the project started many social workers doubted whether adoptions could be arranged across racial barriers and many agencies did not feel equipped for what seemed a particularly emotive and risky enterprise. Although the actual numbers of immigrant children needing adoption may not have been large when the Project was first conceived, there is now a growing need with the increased proportion of coloured children in our midst. The probability that there may be changes in the law as a result of the Houghton Departmental Committee on Adoption makes this study especially valuable and timely. The authors criticism of the way some aspects of the law hamper good practice is particularly valuable.
The author, Miss Lois Raynor, as an American social worker with experience in child welfare and adoption, surveys the British scene with a friendly but penetrating eye; she understands both the stresses and the strengths of the British provision. Miss Raynor searches for the basic principles which apply in any setting and she demonstrates that there is a body of useful knowledge about adoption, even though it is not yet possible to establish measurable criteria for predicting success.
Social workers in the local authority social services departments and in voluntary organizations will find much help in Miss Raynors clear analysis of the basic issues in adoption, the principles which should underlie the work and the way in which knowledge and skill can be applied to this aspect of the welfare of children and families. She highlights the deficiencies which arise from the present fragmentation of provision for unmarried mothers, children available for adoption and prospective adopters; she emphasizes the importance of better co-ordination and of ways of pooling resources to meet the needs of children from minority groups.
The Project was initiated by the concern of Miss K. Luce and the British Branch of International Social Service. The book is dedicated to the memory of Mrs Tebbutt, first Chairman of the Project. Mrs Tebbutt was also one of the first members of the staff of the National Institute for Social Work Training and I am glad to join in paying tribute to the generous contributions she made to many new endeavours.
Much credit is due to those who had the foresight to initiate this Project, to those who have carried it out so ably and to the Foundations which made it financially possible.
THE COMMITTEE
Mrs Kate Lewis Tebbutt, Chairman
Louis J. Blom-Cooper, QC, Vice-Chairman
Miss Doris Hillier
Professor Margot Jefferys
Miss Kathleen M. Luce, OBE
Miss Evelyn Magness
Professor O. R. McGregor
Dr A. P. Norman, MBE
H. H. C. Prestige, CBE
Miss F. Riddell-Blount
Miss Jane Rowe
Lady Wheeler
Ex-officio:
Miss W. I. Rouse, Director, ISS of Great Britain
HONORARY MEDICAL STAFF
Dr A. P. Norman, Chief
Dr Alina Piesowicz
Dr Lionel Hersov
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Project described in this book involved the co-operation of many people, and we are grateful to all of them though only a few can be mentioned here individually.
It was Miss Kathleen Luce who first saw the need for the Project while she was Director of International Social Service of Great Britain, and it was she who had the initiative and determination to achieve it. Her idea became a reality through the generous and continued support of five charitable trusts, many local authorities, and several individual donors.
