Getting 'a grip': New Labour and the reform of the law on child adoption

Child adoption featured prominently in a range of discourses throughout the 1990s. Conservative administrations failed to introduce changes to the law in England and Wales, yet used adoption to attack 'political correctness'. The character of adoption has radically altered since the 1950s and 1960s and any 'reforms' introduced in the early 21st century need to take account of such changes. New Labour's initial preoccupation centred on 'race' and adoption, but the more recent Prime Minister's Review and the hyperbole surrounding its initiation has had a wider focus. The outcome of the Review and a subsequent White Paper hints at a hankering for a return to an anachronistic conceptualization of adoption and needs to be understood in terms of New Labour's more encompassing orientation to welfare services and the family. In this context, the impact of US influences may also be significant.