A forgotten chapter in British adoption law, 1958-1976
For eighteen years, British law allowed British children being placed for adoption to be taken out of Great Britain under a Provisional Adoption Order (PAO). The order was intended for prospective adopters who were not domiciled in Great Britain, allowing them to take a British child overseas on the promise that a full adoption would later take place in their country of residence.
Already before the Adoption Act 1958 was given Royal Assent, there were concerns about the addition of the Provisional Adoption Order. During the House of Commons Third Reading of the Adoption Bill, Marcus Lipton MP (Labour, Brixton) explicitly criticised the absence of any effective means of knowing what happened to children after they left Britain. He said:
In Clause 24 we are taking a gamble. The Under-Secretary knows that she is taking a gamble…I do not mind taking risks at my own expense, but I object to taking risks and gambling with the lives of children…The Government are taking a gamble on the future of these children and, what is worse, we shall never know whether this gamble has come off.
Marcus Lipton MP, HC Deb 25 July 1958, vol 592, cols 913-14
Once a Provisional Adoption Order had been granted and the child had left Britain, there was no effective mechanism for the British authorities to verify that the promised adoption had subsequently taken place. Nor is it clear how many children left Britain under these orders. In the first four years following the introduction of the PAO, 807 orders were granted. If that rate continued throughout its eighteen-year existence, more than 3,600 children may have been affected.
What happened to these children?
The Provisional Adoption Order depended upon something happening after the child had left Britain: a full adoption was expected to take place overseas. Yet the concern raised in Parliament in 1958 remains remarkably difficult to answer. Were these children subsequently adopted? Where did they go? What records survive, and what happened when the promised adoption did not take place?
Why this project exists
This project is for those affected by the Provisional Adoption Order and for anyone trying to understand this little-known part of British adoption history. For some of us, the words “Provisional Adoption Order” appear in our records, yet what happened afterwards is far less clear.
It began with one person’s attempt to understand his own records. It has become a wider investigation into how the system operated, what happened to children who left Britain under these orders, and what the consequences may still be today.
Research and evidence
This project brings together legislation, parliamentary debates, archival records and evidence from Britain and overseas to reconstruct how the Provisional Adoption Order operated in practice. Particular attention is being given to what happened after children left Britain, especially where the adoption that was expected to follow overseas cannot be shown to have taken place.
Were you affected by a Provisional Adoption Order?
If you left Britain under a Provisional Adoption Order, or have records or information relating to one, I would be very interested to hear from you.
Provisional Adoption Order (UK 1958) 