Adoption cases reviewed: an indicative study of process and practice
Researchers reconstructed twelve closed, contested adoption cases from local-authority and court files across five authorities and three court areas in England. Children waited 13–49 months from entry to care to adoption placement. The analysis described variations in decision-making, evidence preparation and oversight along these journeys.
Limitations: Twelve purposively selected historical contested cases are not representative of all adoption decisions. File interpretation is not adoptee testimony and cannot establish the frequency of delay or whether adoption was appropriate across the wider system. The authors’ evaluative judgements are not independent causal tests. Commissioned and published by the Department for Education, which has responsibility for the adoption system evaluated. Readers may take that institutional relationship into account.
- Research type
- Qualitative case-file study
- Source reviewed
- Full text
- Peer reviewed
- No
- Age group
- Children / Adolescents
Study context and review
Age group as recorded: Children / adolescents
Adoption context: Mixed adoption pathways
Programme: Luckock–Broadhurst adoption case review
Institutional context: Government / government-commissioned research
Commissioned and published by the Department for Education, which has responsibility for the adoption system evaluated. Readers may take that institutional relationship into account.
Relationship identified. Bibliographic relationships are not a bias or safety rating.
Topics: administrative data, Adoption matching, adoption system, research methodology
Review scope: Source checked: Full text. This does not imply full-text or independent human verification.
Country as recorded: England
- Funding
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Commissioner
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Funder role
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Declared conflicts
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Recruitment
- Not yet checked for this entry
- Adoptee involvement
- Not yet checked for this entry
Entry: study_57462b38a368ead4