Adoption of Non-White Children : The Experience of a British Adoption Project

Can adoptive homes be found for non-white children? Will the children and their new families be happy together though of different race? Will they feel like a family? Originally published in 1970, this book is an account of a four-year project in which International Social Service of Great Britain joined with Bedford College, London University, to provide a first-class adoption service for babies born in Britain of diverse racial origins, and to study the outcome of the adoptions. In addition, a survey sought to determine the number of these children needing adoption homes, and a nationwide Adoption Resource Exchange was established to co-ordinate the efforts of the numerous agencies seeking parents for them.

The author examines the project’s experience of interracial adoption and relates it to all good adoption practice. This title was a welcome addition to the literature on adoption at the time. It would have been indispensable to social work practitioners and to students and lecturers on social work courses, but it was more than a handbook for those professionally involved. The book is well-informed and written with style and compassion: many readers will be fascinated by the way in which children of Asian, African, West-Indian and mixed parentage became integrated into English families in spite of racial differences. It is a success story. Today it can be read in its historical context.

This book is a re-issue originally published in 1970. The language used is a reflection of its era and no offence is meant by the Publishers to any reader by this re-publication.