What information is usually included in an adoption file?

[Moonandstars90]

Hi,

It’s my first time posting on here and I’m hoping to get some advice before I go about applying to access my adoption file.

I was adopted in 1990 and received regular letterbox contact from my birth mother. I met her when I turned 18 and remained in contact until several years ago when the relationship broke down.

The reason I am wanting to access my adoption file now is that my husband and I want to start trying for a baby and I would like to be aware of any medical conditions that may run in my birth family. My birth mother was not in a relationship with my birth father so I don’t have much information about him or his family. There are also some unanswered questions surrounding my adoption that I would like to get to the bottom of, but due to the relationship breakdown, I am unable to find out this information.

I would be so grateful if anyone could tell me whether a family medical history is likely to have been included in an adoption file at that time and what other information would usually be gathered for the file?

TIA

Hello. As far as I know, your file would include records of visits to your birth family home by social workers / support workers / etc, while you were still living there, plus any support attempted, your medical info, and reports that social services or other agencies prepared for the courts.

The adults' medical history is only in there if they consented to sharing it. Sometimes there are fragments of info in the social worker's visit reports, for example "Mother said their asthma was bad..." so you can infer the adult had asthma (though you don't know for sure).

I hope you're able to get the right support while you access this information, as it's likely to be difficult in many ways. Unfortunately a charity that used to provide neutral counselling in this situation no longer exists. I hope that your adoption team will have a specialist to help you process the information and the questions it may bring up.

I know the paediatrician’s report for my DC included information about known genetic and hereditary conditions - I guess it’ll depend on how much she shared during the adoption process and how much she agreed to sharing that info but you might be lucky.

Thank you both so much for the info. I’m going to approach the local authority that carried out the adoption and see if I can start the process for accessing my file. Hopefully the information I want will be there!

Good luck - and best wishes for TTC, I hope it happens for you quickly and easily 😁

Hi OP

There were a lot of redactions in my file where anything related to BM health had been removed. It was disappointing as like you I was looking for health information prior TTC. We went for it anyway and have a healthy little girl.

Be prepared for it to take some time to access your records. It was over 12 months from making the request that I got to see mine. They’ll also give you a copy to take home with you.

Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions. Good luck and I hope you get the information that you’re looking for

Hi,

Thank you so much for your message. I contacted the local authority the adoption took place in but they have said I need to contact the local authority I live in now in order to access my file. I found this very strange but will go down that route next.

I have actually just found out that I am 6 weeks pregnant! Obviously very early still but really pleased it’s happened so quickly! It doesn’t sound like I will be able to find out any info in time but would be good to know for the future.

Do you know if birth parents are alerted to adoptees requesting to view their files?

Hi OP and congratulations!!!

No, BP’s won’t be notified that you’ve accessed your files. The reason that you have to go to your local authority is that they will bring you in to talk you through your file once they have it, I had to do the same for mine.