Adoption Social Work Law - Essay Example

he National Minimum Standards for Voluntary Adoption Agencies and Local Authority Adoption Service Act of 2003 and the National Minimum Standards for Adoption Support Agencies Act of 2005 in England. Ball (2005) reflects that the series of legislation is indicative of the growing interest and concern for adoption. She points out that adoption is not anymore a last recourse for families who are unable to conceive children but has become a matter of personal choice, if not an expression of social opinion.

The 2002 Adoption and Children Act follows closely the provisions set forth by the Children Act 1989 particularly in its emphasis on welfare protection. One of the most critical provisions is the requirement for local authorities to establish a local adoption service pursuant to primarily to the Minimum Standards for Voluntary Adoption Agencies and Local Authority Adoption Service Act of 2003 as well as to national regulatory statutes. The local adoption agencies will be tasked to accomplish assessment of adopting parties, develop and institute support services and implement regulatory measures as needed.

For adoption support agencies and other services, national standards for operations and performance were established. In effect, independent adoption agencies were required to subscribe to a uniform system of accessing information, delivering services and developing a database of information for retrieval for minors who were adopted when they reach maturity. The Act also provides for the regulation of inter-country adoption which has significantly increased to the due to international advocacies for the placement of displaced children due to war or wide-scale poverty (Parker & Bradley, 2007) In the 2002 provisions, there is greater sensitivity to changes in social constructions of “family”.

The provisions provided opportunities for adoption for single individuals as well as unmarried couples. The legislation also responded to concerns regarding