Foreword by the Prime Minister
Rt Hon Tony Blair MP

When children cannot live with their birth parents, for whatever reason, we all share a responsibility to make sure that they have a chance of a fresh start, and an opportunity to enjoy the kind of loving family life which most of us take for granted.

That's why earlier this year I established a fundamental review of adoption policy and practice. While there are many options suitable to children's needs, adoption can work well. There is scope to increase the use of adoption. But there are clear problems with the way the system of adoption now operates.

Poor performance, widespread variations, unacceptable delays, agonisingly high hurdles for adopters to surmount ­ in far too many parts of the system, there is a lack of clarity, of consistency and of fairness. Most pressingly, children in an already vulnerable position are being badly let down.

We have to change this. We have to have a new approach to adoption.

This White Paper presents the Government's new approach. It sets out what we will do, including the new legislation we will introduce, to make adoption work more clearly, more consistently, and more fairly.

But in modernising adoption, in defining new roles and new ways of working for adopters, for councils, and for the courts, our new approach at all times makes it clear that it is the interests of the children which are and must remain paramount. We want to see more adopters, councils working better, courts performing more transparently. But above all, we want to see vulnerable children safe, in permanent families.

Adoption is an emotional issue. The circumstances surrounding adoptions are sometimes highly charged. But I am in no doubt about the responsibilities which rest with all of us, and I am determined to see those responsibilities dealt with fully. That is the heart of the Government's new approach. Children deserve nothing less.