In the mid-1960s a Standing Committee of the Council of Social Service NSW (NCOSS) was formed to advise the NSW Government on the drafting and implementation of the NSW Adoption of Children Act 1965. Chaired by Mary McLelland, a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Sydney, this committee comprised representatives of major agencies, government and non-government, involved with adoption at the time in NSW. Following implementation of the Act in February 1967, its ongoing membership consisted of representatives of the Departmental Adoption Branch, the seven adoption agencies licensed under the Act and the Obstetric Social Workers Group.
In 1972, the Standing Committee in association with the Adoption Branch organised a seminar to assess the effectiveness of the Act in regard to improvements in adoption practice. Included in the organising committee for the seminar were two adopting parents. This involvement of a client group in the NSW Committee on Adoption and Permanent Care’s activities was seen then as a pioneering move. One outcome of the seminar was the decision to run Adoption Information Meetings throughout Sydney and in rural NSW. These meetings held regularly in following years played an important role in extending public knowledge and understanding of adoption issues during a period of rapid social change.
In 1976 the first Australian Adoption Conference was held in Sydney. It was organised by the Standing Committee in association with committees in other States and Territories. This conference and subsequent conferences in 1978 (Melbourne) and 1982 (Adelaide) resulted in the growth of adoption support and lobby groups. Subsequently the Standing Committee’s membership was gradually extended to include groups such as Adoptive Parents Association (APA), Adoption Triangle and the birth mother’s support group, Association of Relinquishing Mother’s (ARMS). The Conferences were important in opening up the NSW Committee on Adoption and Permanent Care to a wider world, first through creating relationships with colleagues in other States and Territories and New Zealand and then in giving direct access to overseas experts, including Jane Rowe (UK), Kay Donley (USA), Phillida Sawbridge (UK) and John Triseliotis (UK). The 1982 Conference brought to the fore the issues of birth mother rights and needs.
During the mid 1970’s there developed a naturally significant resistance to certain changes imposed by the the newly elected NSW Labor Government as the Adopted Persons Contact Register was established. Conflict between the Standing Committee and the Minister of Youth and Community Services over questions of access to the Register led to political pressure on NCOSS, which in turn led to the NSW Committee on Adoption and Permanent Care separating itself from its parent body. It thus became the independent NSW Committee on Adoption and many years later was incorporated under its present name.
The Committee meets quarterly, enabling professional workers and interest groups to share knowledge, experience and points of view. As an established and respected organisation, its views have been influential and have carried weight. The committee has thus been at the heart of major reforms of adoption legislation and practice.
Two brief illustrations:
- In 1975 the NSW Committee on Adoption and Permanent Care brought to the notice of the Health Department undesirable practices in relation to the rights in hospital of parents considering the adoption of their child, especially the denial of their right of access to their child. Detailed discussion between the Committee and the Department was to initially result in a firm policy being issued to all hospitals in NSW and eventually to become the practice in all states.
- In 1988 a senior member of the NSW Government recommended to the NSW Committee on Adoption and Permanent Care that a newly formed Legislative Council Social Issues Committee should undertake an inquiry into the issue of access to adoption information. The approach was made and resulted in the inquiry by an all-party Committee representing the full range of views from far left to extreme right. The NSW Committee on Adoption and Permanent Care reached a consensus, recommending that adopted adults be given equal rights to information about each other subject to certain safeguards to privacy. The NSW Committee on Adoption and Permanent Care issued its report in October 1989 and the Adoption Information Act was passed in October 1990. Many people and groups had contributed to this outcome but the NSW Committee on Adoption and Permanent Care is entitled to claim recognition for the role it played in the process.
In the past couple of decades there has been a shift in the role of the NSW Committee on Adoption and Permanent Care, especially as the changing face of adoption occurred. As a result, the Committee has produced books such as “Down the Track” in 1990 – a collection of personal experiences of adoption reunions and then “Further Down the Track” in 2000. In 2005 a small booklet was produced, “Exploring Adoption: Other Options”, which is a resource in hospitals and agencies throughout NSW. In 2007 “Releasing the Past: Mothers’ stories of their stolen babies” was published, a book about the struggle of mothers to tell their stories and their fight to gain an inquiry into the past practices of adoption, but most of all about their undying love for their children and their need for them to know that they did not willingly give them away – they were stolen.
Furthermore, in 2007 the NSW Committee on Adoption and Permanent Care was instrumental in organising the Australian Adoption Conference in Double Bay, Sydney and hosting the three-day 2011 National Adoption Meeting in Parramatta, Sydney.
To this day the NSW Committee on Adoption and Permanent Care continues to provide a voice of all parties to adoption, plus the practitioners involved in the field.