A father who lost his daughter through care proceedings has started a campaign to raise awareness of the problems around forced adoption. The campaign features small rocks with slogans about forced adoption, which have been placed outside local authority buildings, hospitals, and adoption and fostering agencies in Norfolk. Some stones include the names of children in Norfolk county council waiting to be adopted.

Forced adoption is a nationwide practice. The policy means that parental consent does not need to be asked for by local authorities when deciding to place a child up for adoption in the UK. The practice is in decline around the world, as emerging research begins to shed light on the damaging effects of forced adoption, on birth families, adoptive families, and the children being adopted through the policy.

The father, who asked to remain anonymous, wanted to use art as a platform to highlight failures by social workers to engage with birth families, who are often disregarded when decisions about a child is being made. As well as painting stones, the father has made hearts containing poems, which he has hung up in areas within Norfolk.

The campaign is an open one, which the father hopes will be extended across the country. He told Researching Reform, “It would be good to encourage people to join in, they don’t have to be in Norfolk to do this. It’s easy to do, peaceful and accessible”.

The father is hoping to launch a new campaign around forced adoption over Christmas.

If you believe that forced adoption should be banned in the UK, please consider signing Researching Reform’s petition.