For those so grievously affected by forced adoption between the 1950s and 1970s, nothing can turn the clock back. But the Government’s hint at an apology today is a step forward, and a long time coming for many campaigners. ITV News Social Affairs Correspondent Sarah Corker reports.
An apology for the state’s role in historic forced adoption is being considered by the Government, a minister said while making a significant admission.
Successive governments previously insisted that the state had no role in forced adoptions. An ITV investigation found evidence that they were funding over 100 homes for unmarried mothers across England.
On Tuesday, Children and Families Minister Josh MacAlister said: “I do accept the state had a role; it’s important we are honest about that. The case for an apology is powerful, and it is something the Government is considering.”
He did not provide a timescale for when a formal apology might be issued.
In 1996, Ann Keen was 17 when her son was taken from her.
The Former Labour MP, who is now a trustee for the Movement for an Adoption Apology (MAA) campaign group, told ITV News about her experience.
“We were so degraded and always told we were bad people, and that we weren’t worthy of having the baby. If we loved the baby, we would let it go and give it up for adoption.”
An estimated 185,000 children were taken from unmarried mothers and adopted between 1949 and 1976 in England and Wales.
The Welsh and Scottish governments have previously said sorry to those affected, and campaigners have long called for an apology from the Westminster Government.
Diana Defries, who was forced to give up her child at the age of 16 in 1974, told ITV News that the admission and a formal apology are crucial.
“It’s very significant, and it feels like progress.
“A public and heartfelt apology will change how people feel about themselves and how society views them.”
The committee heard from women whose children were taken from them, as well as adoptees who shared their lifelong trauma as a result of what happened to them.
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”.
A report by the UK Government’s Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) in 2022 recommended ministers apologise to unmarried women who were forced into unwanted adoptions.
The then-Conservative government responded, saying that while it was sorry “on behalf of society” for the way 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”.
MacAlister said the practice “went on for decades”.
He said an apology would need to be delivered “by someone senior in Government to reflect the gravity of what happened”, adding that 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 the 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”.
Campaigners told MPs 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 the Government is boosting funding by £200,000 to help support those trying to locate records and reconnect with their birth families.
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