Adoption experts appear before Lords committee
20 November 2012
On Tuesday 20 November, the Lords Select Committee on Adoption Legislation will hear from academics and District Judge Nicholas Crichton from the Family Drug and Alcohol Court as part of their ongoing inquiry into the UK’s adoption process.
Witnesses
Tuesday 20 November 2012, Committee Room 1, Palace of Westminster
At 10.15am
- District Judge Nicholas Crichton, Family Drug and Alcohol Court
At 10.45am
- Professor June Thoburn, University of East Anglia
- Professor Nina Biehal, University of York
- Professor Julie Selwyn, University of Bristol
In the first session, at 10.15am, the Committee will quiz District Judge Nicholas Crichton. District Judge Crichton set up the Family, Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC The purpose of the court is to support families with drug and alcohol problems in working through their addictions with counselling and structured, detailed interventions. The scheme is a pilot modelled on an approach that is widely used in the USA and showing promising results in terms of enabling families to stay together safely.
At 10.45am the Committee will be asking the academics questions on the research evidence that exists on the outcomes for children who are adopted compared to those who are returned to their birth families; and whether the draft legislation recently published by the Government on ‘fostering for adoption’ and ethnicity will have their intended effects.