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Bill
Proposes Better Support For Adopted children And Their Families.
Access to a stable family upbringing should be a basic
right for all of our children.
 Vulnerable
children in North Ayrshire will have increased access to a stable home life
and security if new proposals to modernise the adoption laws get the go
ahead – says local Labour MSP Allan Wilson
The Cunninghame North MSP was speaking following the publication of the
Adoption (Scotland) Bill, which proposes better support for adopted children
and their families and increased rights and security.
The bill also recommends for the first time allowing both partners in an
unmarried relationship, who are a stable family unit, to adopt as a couple.
Under current laws one partner must apply to adopt the child and the other
must apply for residency to live in the same home as the child.
Speaking about the bill, Allan Wilson MSP said:
“Access to a stable family upbringing should be a basic right for all of our
children.
Unfortunately reality is all too different and too many children are brought
up in households where their parent’s lifestyle has a detrimental effect on
their future opportunities.
“The Adoption (Scotland) Bill aims to modernise out-dated laws, putting the
interests and security of adopted children first and ensuring they are
placed into a stable family home where they will experience constancy and
life-long commitment.
“It is time that our laws were modernised to reflect Scottish society as it
is today, and to do so for the benefit of our children.”
Notes:
1. 393 children were adopted across Scotland in 2004.
2. The Bill aims to:
· Modernise and improve the legal framework for adoption and permanence.
· Create greater long-term stability and permanence (the sense of belonging
to a family) for children who cannot live with their original families.
· Improve procedures, services and support for adoptive and foster parents
and everyone else involved in adoption and permanence.
· Ensure that the most vulnerable children have the protection and security
they need.
· Create a modern, child-centred adoption and permanence service that
responds to the changing needs of individual children.
3. The key provisions in the Bill are:
· Replacing existing freeing orders and parental responsibilities orders
with a single order called a permanence order, which will increase stability
for children who cannot live with their original families but which will be
flexible enough to cater for the needs of individual children.
· Allowing joint adoption by unmarried couples (including same-sex couples)
- currently one person in an unmarried couple can adopt (and their partner
may apply separately for an order to gain parental responsibilities and
parental rights) and the child is treated in law as the child of the adopter
and no-one else.
· Better adoption support services for people affected by adoption.
· Giving Ministers the power to charge for processing inter-country adoption
applications.
4. The Bill will repeal and replace the Adoption (Scotland) Act 1978 and
will amend the Children (Scotland) Act 1995.
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