1. The Children Act 1989 provides for the Registrar General to operate an Adoption Contact Register. This page describes the way the contact register works. You may care to look at the National Statistical Office web site for more information. The following text is an extract from their leaflet " The Adoption Contact Register" Leaflet No. ACR110.
2. Since 1975 adopted adults have been able to apply for access to their original birth record. This does not change. The information on a birth certificate includes the name of the birth mother and her address at that time: it may have her maiden name, if any, and possibly the name, address and occupation of the birth father. Using this information, some adopted people have been able to trace and make contact with their birth parents or other relatives. But until now there have been few ways of learning whether contact would be welcome. A register provides a safe and confidential way for birth parents and other relatives to assure an adopted person that contact would be welcome and to give a current address.
3. The Register is in two parts. Part I is a list of adopted people and Part II is a list of birth parents and other relatives of an adopted person. The Registrar General will send to an adopted person on the Register the name of any relatives who have also registered, together with the address supplied by the relative, and tell the relative that this has been done. No information about the adopted person can be given to a birth parent or other relative. A registration fee is payable for entry in the Adoption Contact Register.
4. The purpose of the Adoption Contact Register is to put adopted people and their birth parents or other relatives in touch with each other where this is what they both want. Birth parents and other relatives who have decided that they would prefer not to have contact with an adopted person need have no fear that the introduction of the Register will put them at greater risk of an unwanted approach. The Register cannot help an adopted person to learn of the whereabouts of a birth parent or other relative unless that person has chosen to be entered on the Register. The Registrar General can only pass on a name and address if and when that name and address are supplied to him.
5. The introduction of the Register cannot, of course, prevent an adopted person from trying to find a birth parent, just as an adopted person can do at present, even though that birth parent has not applied for entry on the Register. If you are worried that an approach from a son or daughter or other relative who was adopted could cause you difficulties it may be helpful and reassuring to discuss your anxieties with an experienced counsellor.
6. ‘Contact’ may have different meanings for different people using the Register. Contact may be assumed by one person to be an open invitation to visit. Another person may see contact as an exchange of information, possibly through a third party and not including any meetings. Between these two extremes there can be many variations. You should be prepared for the possibility that the expectations of the adopted person and the relative may differ.
7. The Registrar General cannot pass letters or any information between adopted people and their relatives, beyond a name and address. However, some relatives may prefer initial contact to be limited to exchanges of letters or information. If this applies to you, you may ask the Registrar General to register you under the address of an organisation which will act as an intermediary between you and the adopted person. There is further information and advice about this in paragraphs 17 - 20.
ADOPTED PEOPLE
8. An adopted person must be at least eighteen years old to use the Register. The Registrar General must hold a record of his or her birth. If the birth took place outside England and Wales, the Adoption Court Order must state the birth particulars.
If, however, the adoption took place in Scotland a separate voluntary service is provided. Information can be obtained from Birth Link, Family Care, 21 Castle Street, Edinburgh EH2 3DN.
9. To be able to complete an application form you will need to have some information about your birth including:
• the name in which your birth was registered before you were adopted
• your date and place (town, village or district) of birth
• your birth mother’s name and surname
• your birth mother’s maiden name and birth father’s name if these were included in your original birth entry
10. If you do not have this information your adoptive parents may be able to tell you. Otherwise you can apply for access to your birth record. The leaflet Access to Birth Records: Information for People Adopted in England or Wales’ (ACR 100) explains the procedure and can be obtained from the Registrar General at the address given in paragraph 16. A separate leaflet ACR 101 is available for people living outside the UK who would like to have access to their birth records in their own country. Any adopted adult can be given information about their birth record. This does not depend upon a relative being included on the Adoption Contact Register and no fee is charged.
11. When you are entered on the Register, it may be discovered that a relative has already registered. If this happens you will be sent the name and address supplied by the relative and a note of his or her relationship to you. If no relative has registered you will only receive an acknowledgement of your registration. However, you will be sent details of any relative who subsequently registers. This may happen quite soon or it could be many years later, or may not happen at all.
It is therefore most important that you keep the Registrar General informed of any change of name or address.
BIRTH PARENTS AND OTHER RELATIVES
12. A relative who wishes to be included in Part II (relatives) of the register must provide evidence of his or her relationship to the adopted person. For instance, a birth mother may easily prove her relationship by providing a copy of her birth certificate, her child's birth certificate, and if she was married after the birth of her child, a copy of her marriage certificate(s). Other relatives may have to provide additional certificates in order to prove their relationship. If certificates are not available, and the birth or marriage occurred in England or Wales, it will be sufficient to provide full details with the application.
13. A birth father who was not married to the baby's mother may not have been included in the original birth record and may have difficulty in proving his relationship to the adopted person. An affiliation or other court order declaring paternity would be acceptable evidence but the absence of such orders need not necessarily prevent entry in Part II of the Register. The Registrar General will be pleased to advise in individual cases.
14. In circumstances where a relative is now using a name different from that in use at the date of birth of the adopted person, other than as a consequence of their marriage(s), the Registrar General will need to examine evidence of the change of name e.g. deed poll or statutory declaration. If no such evidence is available relatives are asked to notify the Registrar General accordingly and await his advice.
15. To be able to complete an application form and so that the Registrar General may identify your relative who was adopted, you must provide full details of his or her birth. You will need to know:
the name in which his or her birth was registered before being adopted
the date and place (town, village or district) of birth
• the birth mother’s name
• the birth mother’s maiden name and birth father’s name if these were included in the original birth entry.
The Registrar General will acknowledge your registration when he has established your relationship to the adopted person and has been able to locate the birth record from the information you supplied.
16. Just as an adopted person cannot receive information from the Register unless a relative has provided information, so the information which a relative has provided cannot be sent to the adopted person unless he or she chooses to register. This could happen quite soon or it could happen after many years or it may not happen at all. Although this may be very disappointing there is no other action which the Registrar General can take. You may find it helpful to discuss all the implications with a counsellor.
17. Application forms for adopted people and for relatives can be obtained by writing to the Registrar General at:
Office for National Statistics
The General Register Office
Adoption Section, Contact Register
Smedley Hydro
Trafalgar Road, Birkdale
Southport PR8 2HH
18. The Adoption Contact Register has been setup to help adopted people and their birth parents and other relatives make contact. Some relatives of adopted people may want to register an address other than their own because they may not want to be contacted direct. That is why the Registrar General is able to register an address ‘through which contact can be made’ as an alternative to a relative’s home address. An alternative address supplied should be that of an organisation or individual such as a social worker or counsellor who has agreed to act as an intermediary. Any relative who would prefer to learn of a Register link through a third person, with support available if needed, can consider using the address of such an intermediary. If you are happy to register your own address, the adopted person can choose to approach you direct.
If you change your mind about registration, you should write to the Registrar General asking him to remove your name and address from the Register. Twenty eight days notice is required.
19. An adopted person will receive the name and address supplied by the relative which may be either the relatives own address or that of an intermediary. A relative will be advised that information about him/her has been sent to the adopted person. It will then be up to the adopted person to act on the information. However, deciding at this stage to take no action, even through a third party, may cause disappointment and is not the purpose of the Register.
20. An adopted person who received a relatives home address should act sensitively and with care. It may be tempting to telephone a relative or just turn up at his or her home. This may not be a good idea as the adopted person will have no knowledge of the relative’s circumstances. Discussion with a counsellor can help as he or she will be able to suggest helpful ways of proceeding.
21. There may be disappointment at first if a relative has supplied an address which is not his or her own. It should not be assumed that this has been done to avoid anyone. He or she may feel a need for support in establishing contact. Using an intermediary is a way of ensuring that help is at hand. An intermediary will try to help obtain the information which is most important and his or her experience in acting as a 'go-between’ in these circumstances can be very useful.
After receiving the notification of the link, you may wish to consider consulting an experienced counsellor who will be able to advise you how to go about contacting your relative. In such circumstances we would advise you to contact Adoption UK on 01327 - 260295.
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