NOT WANTING CONTACT?
Information about Provision of Intermediary Services
Section 98 Adoption and Children Act 2002 Information for people concerned about the effect of Section 98 Adoption and Children Act 2002 who may wish to register a ‘no contact’ request. The press and television have implied that “Natural parents will be able to trace their children who have been adopted.” This is not correct. What is true is that the Adoption and Children Act 2002 makes provision for birth relatives to request an intermediary service that would locate and contact an adopted adult to find out if he/ she would wish to communicate with the birth relative. Adopted people too will have the statutory right to access an intermediary service to initiate contact with birth relatives. Whilst we know many thousands of people will be overjoyed by the new proposals we are mindful that some adopted people and adoptive parents may be anxious or disturbed by what this will mean for them just as some birth relatives, particularly birth mothers have been fearful of the impact of being contacted by an adopted person since access to birth records was granted in 1975.
No adopted person need be afraid that they will have to face unwelcome contact with any member of their birth family. Information will only be released with the adopted persons consent and if consent is not forthcoming the birth relative will not be given any information. On the other hand the right of the adopted person to access his or her birth record that will include the name and address of the birth mother remains unrestricted. Birth relatives however are entitled to ask not to be contacted. Much of this work will be done by adoption support agencies. These organisations will not actually hold any information about adoptions but will be able to acquire it from specified sources when needed. The sources of information will be: -
- The Registrar General
- The Court that made the adoption order
- The adoption agency that made the placement for adoption
- The local authority involved (often the local authority will also have been the adoption agency).
If the request is from a birth relative the adoption support agency will be required to locate the adopted person who would then be contacted and asked if they would consent to identifying information about themselves being shared with an enquiring birth relative. This will not happen until December 2005. However if an adopted person would like to deal with this 'in principle' rather than in relation to a specific enquiry and to make their position clear in advance there are several options available.
Adopted people can:-
- Register with NORCAP. Although called the NORCAP CONTACT REGISTER this facility will enable us to check the details of the adopted person against all those previously registered with us and all those subsequently received. We can make a clear note of the views of any adopted person and make this fact known to any individual or organisation that enquires with a matching entry. NORCAP will not disclose information about any person registered to any other person or organisation without consent other than to advise that a person with a matching entry has registered a wish for no contact with us on a specific date. When accepting such registrations we do ask that those registering a request for no contact get in touch with NORCAP at not less than five yearly intervals so that there is an opportunity to address any specific issue that may have arisen in that interval and to ensure no one could claim the request is so out of date that it could be presumed to no longer apply.
- There will be new provisions when the Act is implemented, probably in December 2005, for ‘no contact requests’ to be included on the Adoption Contact Register operated by the Registrar General.
- Check which court made the adoption order. This information and the date of the order is included in the full copy of the adoption certificate - the certificate adopted people use for all purposes for which other people use a full birth certificate. An adopted person can write to that court, (check the phone book or Internet for up to date address,) and ask the court to note views on their file. It would be helpful to include a copy of the adoption certificate.
- Identify the adoption agency or local authority that was involved in the adoption process. Adopted people may recall their parents saying something like "we fetched you from National Children's Home". Once identified an adopted person can write to that agency/local authority and ask them to note their views on their file. By taking these steps adopted people may substantially reduce the chance that they are not unexpectedly approached by an intermediary service that is acting on the request of a birth relative. However everyone needs to be aware that many birth parents, particularly those whose sons/daughters were adopted before 1949, know the surname of the adoptive family and can therefore make their own direct enquiries. The steps indicated above cannot therefore guarantee an adopted person will not be approached but will ensure that any enquiry made as a result of the new statutory provisions does respect expressed views. The majority of birth relatives able to search independently do consult the organisations listed. It is our experience that a substantial majority of birth relatives are very willing to respect the views of an adopted person and only wish to achieve direct contact if that is welcomed by the adopted person.
Options for birth relatives
Birth relatives who would prefer not to be contacted should follow the same steps. They must however recognise that making a no contact request does not prevent the adopted person obtaining access to birth records. However adopted people, like birth relatives, are very concerned not to cause distress or embarrassment to anyone and most will respect a request not to make direct contact.
Important considerations
In all circumstances a ‘no contact request’ is easier to accept if the person making the request leaves a letter or explanation containing some basic information with NORCAP or any other agency along with the ‘no contact request’. People intending to make a no contact request should first ask themselves if there are any circumstances in which they would wish to have or learn of a request for contact. It may be that whilst enquiries from one relative or group of relatives may not be welcome, the person registering would want to consider enquiries from another person or branch of the family. Not all enquiries come from birth parents, many are from brothers and sisters of the adopted person, and sometimes from a brother or sister who was adopted by another family. Many adopted people who would not want personal contact do want to know if any significant genetically important medical information becomes available or to learn of a bequest from a will. Likewise birth relatives may wish to know if the adopted person is suffering a life limiting or life threatening illness. Registration with NORCAP provides the opportunity for the person registering to be very specific about what would, and what would not be welcome.
We hope this will be helpful and reassuring. NORCAP is delighted that many people will benefit from these new provisions but equally we uphold the right of adopted people to opt out and would wish to support and facilitate them in doing so as well as continuing to provide the facility for birth relatives too to register their wish to not be contacted if this is their preference.
