What are the Key Contemporary Issues Surrounding Transethnic Adoption in England? (2015)
The literature review explores the key contemporary issues surrounding transethnic adoption in England, as part of a political, and media discourse that arose from changes to legislation in the Children and Families Act (HM Government, 2014). Changes to legislation removed local authorities’ statutory duty to consider a child’s ethnicity, racial, cultural and linguistic background when making decisions with regards to children in adoption processes. These changes were set in order to change the perceived culture surrounding the adoption of children from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. A culture that saw children from those backgrounds waiting too long in the adoption process, due to social workers overemphasising the importance of attaining ‘perfect ethnic matches’ when considering adopters. Contemporary issues were identified, investigated, and discussed through the analysis of pre-existing literature, with regards to the implications on social work practice. University of Birmingham