Information on adoption applications and freeing orders :

Scotland, 31^st December 1996, 1997 and 1998

1. Introduction

Adoption procedures

Adoption applications are made to Sheriff Courts and can have several outcomes. The application may be withdrawn before the court hearing; it may be granted; it may be refused or the court may make a provisional or alternative order.

In over 95% of the cases the court grants the application and this is normally in 3-4 months after the petition is lodged. Where an application is opposed by a birth parent, or is required to go to proof for other reasons, it can take considerably longer.

The number of cases where orders are refused each year is in single figures and so is the number of cases where provisional orders are made. The proportion of cases each year where the application is withdrawn, prior to the court hearing, is typically around 3 in a hundred.

The data

Information relating to 1993, 1994 and 1995 has previously been published in the statistical bulletin SWK/AD/1997/2. A processing error relating to the age of the children on whom adoption applications were made was detected for some of this data and figures for 1994 and 1995 have been revised as a result. These revised figures are included in this information note.

The Sheriff Courts directly supply to The Scottish Office the data on adoption applications. In some cases courts have been able to provide only partial data and where this is the case numbers have been estimated. The national figures given in the Information Note include these estimates.

The court areas largely, but not completely, approximate to local authority areas. Annex 1 contains an estimated breakdown of the number of adoption applications by local authority. Where court boundaries overlap local authority boundaries the applications dealt with by the court have been allocated on a population basis to the relevant authorities.

The full data set is not freely available. This is to ensure that individuals cannot be identified. However, the numbers of applications and freeing orders by court are available as an electronic file on The Scottish Office Statistics WEB site or on disc by contacting the address below.

Figure 1

2. Adoption applications for boys and girls

The number of adoption applications has fallen steadily over the last ten years (Table 1). In 1998 there were only slightly more than half the number of adoption applications that there were in 1988. In any year the number of adoption applications is small and there is considerable variation from one year to the next in the percentage of applications which relate to boys and the percentage which relate to girls. In general, over the last ten years, there have been just slightly more adoption applications for boys than for girls.

Table 1: Numbers of adoption applications for boys and girls 1996-1998

Note: 1996 and 1998 data each include one case where gender is unknown

3. Age of children

The average age of children for whom applications were made was just under 7 years and the largest group of children for whom adoption applications are made are in the 5 to 11 age group. This group represents around half those who are the subject of adoption applications although the percentages do vary from year to year. (Table 2).

Around 2% of applications relate to young people aged 16 or over and less than 10 in a hundred to children aged less than 1 year.

Table 2: Age of children subject to adoption applications

Note The 1994 figure includes 9 cases where full details are unavailable; the 1996 data includes 4 cases and the 1998 data 2 cases

4. Step Parent applications and type of agency used

In most years slightly over half of the adoption applications are by a birth parent and a step parent of the child. In the last three years in around 90% to 95% of these cases it has been the birth mother and a step father seeking to adopt.

The children, for whom adoption applications are made by step parent/ birth parents, tend to be older than those children where the application does not involve step parents. On average these children are slightly more than eight years old whereas, for applications which do not involve step parents, the children are on average slightly less than five years old.

Table 3: Type of agency used by average age of children

Note The 1994 figure includes 9 cases where full details are unavailable; the 1996 data includes 4 cases, the 1997 data 9 cases and the 1998 data 13 cases

5. Freeing for adoption

Freeing for adoption was first introduced in the Children Act 1975 to enable parents, who wish their child to be adopted, to end their involvement in the adoption process at an early stage. This reduces unnecessary strain caused by the gap between the decision to relinquish the child and the separate step of the child’s adoption. When a child is freed, birth parents lose their responsibilities for the child and are not involved in any subsequent adoption proceedings. Freeing also allows local authorities to have the question of parental involvement in subsequent adoption proceedings addressed at an early stage.

Table 4: Number of freeing orders granted and number of applications relating to children with freeing orders

Correspondence and enquires

Carol Calvert - Statistician

Social Work Services Group
The Scottish Office
Room 52b
James Craig Walk
Edinburgh
EH1 3BA

Tel: 0131-244-5366 Fax: 0131-244-5315

e-mail carol.calvert@scotland.gov.uk

Annex I

Authorities marked * are at least partially served by a court which also serves another authority. The number of adoption applications in these authorities is not therefore directly available and has been estimated on a population basis.

Note:

Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire adoptions may be dealt with in Aberdeen Sheriff court.

East Ayrshire and North Ayrshire share Kilmarnock court and East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire share Ayr.

East Dunbartonshire and Glasgow share Glasgow court. East Dunbartonshire and West Dunbartonshire share Dumbarton court.

East Renfrewshire and Renfrewshire share Paisley.

Edinburgh and Midlothian share the Edinburgh court.

North and South Lanarkshire share Hamilton sheriff court.

See also Press Release 0569/99