Government considering apology for state’s role in historic forced adoption

An apology for the state’s role in historic forced adoption is being “actively considered” by the Government, a minister has said.

Children and families minister Josh MacAlister said he recognised the urgency with which the issue needs to be addressed but did not commit to a timescale for when a formal apology might be issued.

An estimated 185,000 children were taken from unmarried mothers and adopted between 1949 and 1976 in England and Wales.

Administrations in Cardiff and Holyrood have previously said sorry to people affected but campaigners have long called for an apology from the Westminster Government.

A report by the UK Government’s Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) in 2022 recommended ministers apologise to unmarried women who were “railroaded” into unwanted adoptions.

In 2023, responding to the report, the then-Conservative government said while it was sorry “on behalf of society” for the way the women had been treated, it did not think a formal apology appropriate “since the state did not actively support these practices”.

The JCHR at the time said the lack of apology was “disappointing”.

Mr MacAlister told the Education Committee on Tuesday: “The case for an apology is powerful, and it is something that the Government is actively considering”.

He said he accepted “the state had a role” in “a practice that went on for decades, forcibly removing children from these women in homes that were sometimes run by the state, enabled and overseen by social workers employed by the state, and social attitudes that were reinforced by practices that carried on for many years”.

He said he understood campaigners’ calls for a formal, official Government apology, adding: “And that is something that is being actively considered, as of now, by the Government.”

He said it would need to be delivered “by someone senior in Government to reflect the gravity of what happened”.

The committee also heard from women whose children were taken from them as well as adoptees who told of their lifelong trauma as a result of what happened to them.

Former Labour health minister Ann Lloyd Keen, who is a trustee for the Movement for an Adoption Apology (MAA) campaign group, said an apology would “mean the world, because I still blame myself”.

The former MP said she still felt shame over being forced to give up her son for adoption in the late 1960s, recounting the harrowing experience she had endured as a teenager.

She said: “A Government apology would help to set the record straight. It would help me to stop blaming myself. It would help me to heal because I haven’t. I still feel shame.”

Sally Ells said she is a “survivor of historic forced adoption and I live with its lifelong consequences”.

In an emotional testimony of her own experience, the co-founder of the Adult Adoptee Movement, told MPs: “It’s not a historic harm. It continues across my life and across the lives of many, many adult adoptees.”

She said a “meaningful apology would correct that harmful narrative” that “adoption saved children like me and that we should be grateful”.

She said a Government apology “would acknowledge that our adoptions were forced and that they caused harm, and that adult adoptees and mothers deserve redress, and that recognition matters to us hugely”.

Mr McAlister said there was a balance to be sought “between doing things right and engaging people fully, and the desire people have, rightly, to move quickly”.

He committed to work with campaign groups on the content of any apology but said Government will “want to move quickly because of the age of many of the people who have been affected” by an issue which he said had done “huge damage” to “tens of thousands of lives”.

MPs were told by campaigners that alongside an apology more support was needed for mothers and adoptees, including fast-tracking them for trauma-informed support as well as better access to their records.

The Department for Education said that, following concerns raised by the MAA about difficulties obtaining adoption records, the Government is boosting funding by £200,000 to help support those trying to locate records and reconnect with their birth families.