Reviewing the history of domestic adoption for racially minoritised children in the United Kingdom: Over half a century of controversy

This article outlines, explores and reflects upon the history of adoption for racially minoritised children in the UK. This has been, especially in recent decades, one of the most controversial aspects of adoption, due both to low adoption rates for some groups of children and debate over the merits of ethnic matching and transracial adoption respectively. Deploying a desk-based review and commentary, the article provides an historical overview and identifies phases within these broader contours, from the so-called ‘brown babies’ born during and after the Second World War and the effects of post-war Commonwealth migration, to the establishment and consolidation of transracial adoption and subsequent challenges to it. It analyses the evolution of legal frameworks, policy, practice and research that casts light on these areas and their interconnections. This includes the policy situation pertaining since the late 1980s of an ‘uneasy compromise’ between endorsing preference for ethnic matching and concerns regarding its over-emphasis and potential consequences for racially minoritised children. These debates are contextualised with reference to adoption’s place within permanence options and to demographic (e.g. migration and the rise in racially mixed relationships) and wider social and political change with respect to culture, race and racism.